I just left another great installment of Health Communication, the class for which I am keeping this blog. During the class, we stepped into our professor's office, which happens to be the sunny Mediterranean garden just off to the side of the building where class is held. As we basked in the tireless California sun, we engaged in an activity about audience segmentation, which is essentially the process of dividing the larger population into smaller groups--groups that are united by one or more characteristics. This is done in order to tailor message relevance, appeal, and in the end, effectiveness. Our professor illustrated this important health communication strategy by dividing the class by demographics, geographic characteristics, and various beliefs. A very informative exercise indeed! At one point, our professor segmented the class by asking the group whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statement:
"Health is my greatest priority in life."
At first, I struggled a bit, wondering which side of the leaf (the object being used to delineate the groups) I would stand on. After all, I love talking about health. Heck, I even have a blog centered around the topic. And of course I want to maintain my health, as well as the health of my family and friends. But suddenly, a sort of irreverence came over me, and I joined the dissenters on the north side of the leaf. When my group was asked why health wasn't our number one priority, many answered that family and love trumped health. But even those things didn't fully resonate with me. Nothing did until the word "fun" came to mind. Of course its not as simple as that but right now that does seem to be the thing that's missing from my life and the one that could be more highly prioritized. And then it dawned on me. Perhaps a lack of fun-spiritedness is also what leads our health messages to fail. It must mean somethin' that even I, someone who has dedicated the last eight years of her life to improving people's health, is sick of the proselytizing. Perhaps our messages would have more relevance and effectiveness if we, in the field of public health, stopped taking ourselves so darn seriously.
So, here's to fun! Time to add a dash of it to both my life and to the health messages I know--deep down--are truly important.
13 comments:
Very interesting thoughts miss kdh...i was actually thinking about this very question this morning. health ties into so much, by taking care of it, you can support your ability to have fun...but along those lines, someone said to me yesterday that they use humor to make their health better...humor, fun, very similar so maybe having fun can then improve health...
hear hear! doesn't it seem like people who are really health-obsessed lack a certain joie de vie? maybe it's because they have to forgo some of the most fun things in the entire world, e.g., chocolate, cream, sugar, cheese, and fried chicken.
true that ladies. it's tough to strike the balance, because i know health is important. but having fun (and laughing, as ms djd suggested) is good for your heart, too! on that note, i will be indulging in a very gluttonous dinner tonight, thanks to the husband, who is preparing a raincheck valentine's dinner. here's to champagne and good grub!
as for rose, like i suggested to jonathan about a month ago: i think he married you for your metabolism, you lucky thing. you're the only person i know who finds buttercream in their fridge and immediately decides to make fried chicken on a random weeknight.
Happy Valentimes Day V.2 KDH!
I'm ready for champagne and chocolate, too.
So could you have stood on the other side of the leaf and said, "yes, my health IS the most important thing to me, and to achieve good health, I must have loads of fun, friends, family, champagne and good grub"?
um, it's buttermilk. buttercream is a type of frosting--decidedly not delicious with fried chicken. but okay, point taken.
Re: buttercream. Oops. Duh. See? I am clearly not living right if I make that mistake. Bring on the fried chicken, please.
Eryn, I fully agree with you. It's the narrow definition of health that is getting me so down and why I am/we are so ineffective. Having fun, eating well, and living large ARE healthy behaviors, just as you said. But I am so bogged down in the narrow, text-book definition right now that I forget that sometimes. So, in summary: Here's to health (which involves chocolate, listening to good music, champagne, fried chicken, the occassional Pilates on demand, gabbing with friends, and generally enjoying life)! Yeehaw.
Fun? Whose got time for that when your kid is about to be expelled from middle school and the Spokane Department of Probation is threatening to send him to some kind of camp for delinquent youth? I know that "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" but sometimes life just keeps kicking you in the face and that's all there is to it.
I don't even think I know what fun is anymore...
oh farmer (mike?)--when will you ever learn? screw jake and come to the dark side!
Huh? I know this is only a blog, and not to be taken too seriously, but I find those words very hurtful.
Seeing as though I just drove up to Milwaukee this past weekend to see Parliament, I figured I would try to tie something in related to P-Funk. Maybe something about Sir Nose (D'voidoffunk), who represents hypocrisy, constriction, and repression of emotions and actions, and how his arch-nemesis Starchild, who represents life freedom, sex,positive energy, and fun, came down to earth on "the Mothership" equipped with the "bop gun", and "flashlight", and aided by the "clones of Dr. Funkenstein" with the purpose of helping people obtain "funkentelechy", (funkentelechy literally means the actualization of funk rather than it's potential) and thus get people to experience true, pure fun. But I think Vladimir Gutkoivich covered all of that (http://dspace.nitle.org/bitstream/10090/506/1/THESIS%20FINAL%20copy.pdf), so I'll just say that a really good way to have fun is to put your headphones on and listen to "Flashlight" as loud as you feel comfortable.
I'll also add that it is really nice when you can find fun in engaging in healthy activities like sports and cooking. Maybe even with your loved ones. It's great when you can kill two (or even three birds) with one stone.
Would you trade you funk for what's behind the third door?
neon light!
why didn't you mention you went to mtown this weekend? did we not talk like 4 times? all we talked about was the oscars and stuff. what's up with that?
ps. i will NEVER sell my funk for what's behind the door..NEVER. But you might be able to talk to farmer jack about that.
Wow...all I'm trying to do is be a good long distance father to my three boys. Be a good person is a difficult situation. And somehow this makes me the target of kdh's ridicule...I don't understand it but I'm not going to get involved in whatever kind of game kdh is playing. I've got too much going on in my life to get bogged down with a "health blog" that gets its kicks from attacking people when they're down.
I've got your back, farmer! Just giving a little tough love, that's all. :)
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