How Social Media Became the Go-To for Health Advice—and Why It’s a Problem

Just a generation or two ago, the answer to a medical question was simple: Ask your doctor. Today, that’s no longer the default. As trust in traditional medical authorities—including doctors and institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)—has declined, Americans are increasingly turning to their Instagram or TikTok feeds for health and wellness guidance.

According to a major new study from the Pew Research Center, 40% of Americans—and half of adults under 50—now get medical or wellness information from social media influencers. What they find is a highly unregulated ecosystem where MDs promoting evidence-based medicine share space with life coaches selling unproven peptides, and registered dietitians advocating whole foods are followed by self-proclaimed “nutritionists” pushing sea moss supplements for the same benefits. Mental health content ranges from nuanced discussions of conditions to posts that blend Jungian psychology with astrology.

While alternative medicine is nothing new—a century ago, newspapers peddled unproven and potentially dangerous elixirs—social media has supercharged its reach. The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst: months of isolation and endless scrolling created a hunger for health information, and when government experts were met with skepticism, influencers stepped in to fill the void.

“It’s not an information deficit problem; it’s a trust problem,” said Jessica Steier, a public health scientist and co-host of the Unbiased Science podcast. “There’s a holier-than-thou sort of attitude [in medicine], very paternalistic. I don’t think we’re doing [ourselves] any favors.”

This shift reflects broader changes in the wellness landscape: contradictory advice, broken trust, and overwhelming systems have left many Americans struggling to discern fact from fiction. For those seeking clarity, Vox’s senior correspondent Dylan Scott offers a weekly deep dive into health care policy, debunking myths and contextualizing complex issues. Sign up for his newsletter here.

Even as COVID-19 receded, distrust persisted—and was often amplified by figures like US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who leveraged social media to push political agendas and, in many cases, sell products. Today, Instagram Reels and TikTok trends hold as much sway in health discourse as prestigious medical journals.

The Pew Research Center’s study provides the first rigorous snapshot of this digital health landscape, which I’ve come to call the DIY era of health care. Its findings highlight not only how and why people engage with this content but also the formidable challenges facing the medical system in restoring trust in evidence-based care—challenges made even more daunting by the rise of influencer culture within federal institutions.