What does our future hold?

On our first day of class we went back in time, to the last 50 years of Health Communication as documented by the CDC. This film (although only about 10 minutes long) was an eye-opening experience for me. Not only did it open my eyes to how little I know about past health issues and methods of health communication, but it also made me stop and think about what topics would be documented in a film covering 2000-2050. Unfortunately, I don't think that many of the topics will change. Now, I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but most of the topics discussed in the CDC's film, are still of great concern to us today: healthy eating, STDs, child safety, breastfeeding...the list goes on. What does this mean? Well, I think we can learn two main lessons from this.

1. To some extent, humans will always struggle with some core health issues because these issues arise from human behavior.

2. It's going to take more than an advertisement on tv or a poster to make a difference. Instead, we have to change learn how to change social norms.

On a more positive note, I think we've done an excellent job changing the social norm of smoking. Many thanks to new laws, medical evidence, and the numerous campaigns urging people to change their views about smoking. Here's a link to one of my favorites: http://www.whudafxup.com/

And who could forget this woman?





















Despite all that we are up against, I think we have reason to believe that public health will continue to see monumental health behavior changes, greatly because of the creative ways in which we are learning to communicate health issues.