Whether you mark the beginning of social media with MySpace (2003) or Twitter (2006), the societal influence wielded by today’s powerful online communities has been around for less than two decades. We don’t write about social media on Health Tech Insider often, but when we do the focus is often negative, such as a post about social media’s contribution to sleep deprivation or a study that showed teens don’t use social media for health information.
The U.K.-based Tomo social community encourages healthy behaviors with the same power of suggestion and influence users exert on other sites when they post bathroom selfies and drunk pics. Tomo is currently an Apple-only app that requires iOS 8.2 or later. The app is free but paid courses on the app are available and encouraged.
The Tomo community is based on the principles of Behavioral Activation (OK, they spell it ‘Behavioural’), an element of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The app helps users determine priorities to help form and build healthy habits, drawing from a library of more than 50 such beneficial practices. The community does not allow comments or “likes” and users can post their wins anonymously or accompanied by a selfie if they choose. The app also focuses on life skills such as confidence, motivation, and self-care.
The Tomo app, which is up and running, recently won the AXA PPP healthcare Mobility and Accessibility Challenge. AXA recognized Tomo for its use of the power of online communities to keep people healthy by building healthy habits. And we can only hope that this is the beginning of a broad movement to use CBT and other powerful psychological tools to encourage wellness and other positive outcomes.
