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Social media and plastic surgery: quality over quantity

There is no shortage of stress factors in anyone’s daily life, but how does the stress of social media effect plastic surgeons who are required each day to bring their A game to every operative procedure they perform? As initially conceived, social media was intended to connect people globally. But now, it’s the cause of the third leading psychological disorder in the United States—social anxiety disorder.

Inherently, people do not like change and often like technology even less. Think back on any groundbreaking innovation and you will likely recall the initial pushback and dissent that happened just before these gadgets and inventions quickly became essential to daily life—and then disappeared for all eternity. If you’re not convinced, try to recall the last time you used a payphone or a VCR.

Social media has had two dramatic effects on the daily life of plastic surgeons: 1) We now communicate in “real time,” and many find it hard to “shut down” for more than just a few minutes each day. With products increasing the mobility of technology, such as the “shower case” that allows you to bring your cell phone into the shower, you never have to log off. 2) The expectation of 24/7 availability causes unavoidable stress. Think about a time before laptops when you left the office (and your computer) and couldn’t work (even if you wanted to) until you returned the next day. Have technology and social media—specifically Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—turned us all into burned-out workaholics?

Physician burnout is not a new phenomenon. An article by Prendergast and colleagues in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal defined burnout as a state of physical and mental exhaustion, the three main components of which are emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. The article references a litany of articles pointing to causes of physician burnout across all specialties. Especially among younger doctors—who check their phones dozens of times daily—maintaining social media profiles and responsiveness can certainly take a toll, reduce time for other, more physical activities, and contribute to added stress and feelings of burnout. In “When Love Is Not Enough”, I suggest this problem begins early and there is a need to address burnout in medical school, not only when surgeons graduate and begin to practice. Following strategies to avoid physician burnout and improve the work-life balance is critical, since 46% of doctors report struggling with burnout.

Have technology and social media—specifically Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—turned us all into burned-out workaholics?

The adoption of social media use by millennials has led to the need for guidelines surrounding ethical use. Recently, plastic surgery residency programs have begun to utilize social media, in particular Instagram, which has shown meteoric growth among residents. A recently accepted article in Aesthetic Surgery Journal by Chandawarkar and colleagues indicates that the use of social media among residents has many benefits and may increase a trainee’s influence. The need for creation and adoption of guidelines speaks to the broader responsibility and need for appropriate social media use in an era where technology is developing rapidly.

Add to this the natural predilections of doctors—a specialty that in some instances mandates how many consecutive hours they’re allowed to work—and you’ll recognize how easy it is to fall down the rabbit hole, and how hard it can often be to climb out. You might set out to spend just a few minutes catching up on Facebook or posting on Twitter, only to realize more than an hour has passed. You might also find yourself following hashtags and being heavily (and unduly) influenced by what you read.

I have observed how plastic surgeons engage social media as a marketing tool though some have refined their craft to provide more than just a “sales pitch”—they offer real value, research, and the occasional comic relief to followers. Patients now follow their doctors (or potential doctors) on social media as a mechanism by which to vet them. What do they post? What is their family like? Are they kind-hearted and skilled enough to perform a particular procedure? Are they ego-centric or condescending?

Every post tells a story. And there are many potential interpretations to each story. Someone is always watching and judging.

Finding the appropriate balance in life, as in work, shows the human side of a surgeon’s life and speaks (potentially) to his or her mental health. A negative byproduct of social media is the “compare and despair” factor that leaves some feeling “lesser than” because they don’t have the same capacity to post photos from Greece or Italy or be seen with key opinion leaders in the field. This may add stress or cause negative feelings. The Aesthetic Surgery Journal recently conducted an informal Twitter survey, asking for an opinion about whether technology/social media causes stress. A surprising 76% of respondents said “yes,” 19% said “no,” and 5% weren’t sure.” Just as academics experience pressure to “publish or perish,” plastic surgeons strive for perfection because that is every patient’s expectation. The perfect nose, the perfect augmentation, the perfectly contoured body—the list is long when it comes to surgical procedures. Could this preoccupation with perfection be adding stress to both surgeons and consumers?

On the bright side, social media allows us to share many success stories in the field of plastic surgery and to educate and mentor, which yields far-reaching positive effects. Social media also allows us to promote our specialty and engage with patients in a casual manner that was impossible ten years ago. Plastic surgeons are on social media to promote their practices and gain new patients, who may not have otherwise been interested in a surgical or non-surgical procedure if it were not for their social media profile and connections.

Does the use of social media translate to more plastic surgery patients—yielding a good return on investment (ROI)? According to Gould and Nazarian—yes—social media has a relatively high ROI. This is the first study we’ve seen to quantify the ROI of social media in plastic surgery.  In this study, the total revenue return for each month was divided by the invested amount for each source including Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, and RealSelf. The authors recommend social media and branding campaigns for start-up practices, and Instagram for direct-to-consumer marketing followed by Yelp, RealSelf, and Facebook to maintain the practice. They caution that any time or money investment should be closely tracked so ROI can be ascertained over time and to ensure the growth of the practice.

Social media is still in its infancy, and it remains to be seen how the positive and negative exposure will affect our lives in the long-term. If we remind ourselves regularly of the goal to add value to the community and help when we can vs out-posting our connections, the true reward will be found in personal engagements and meaningful contacts as opposed to inflating one’s own ego by outdoing others with quantity over quality.

Featured image credit: “Mobile Phone” by geralt. CC0 via Pixabay.

Recent Comments

  1. Gramgenius

    Great article and now a days this happens everyday however we really don’t know what would be the real effect and we don’t know what would happen for our upcoming engagements.

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