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N.C. A&T professor will study social media's impact on Black women's health

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A professor at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has received a grant to study the impact social media has on Black women’s health.

The research will focus specifically on younger generations who have grown up with social media sites such as Instagram and TikTok. The four-year grant will examine how social media messaging emphasizing physical appearance impacts the diet and fitness habits of Black women.

Grant recipient Kalynda Smith, an assistant professor of psychology at N.C. A&T, notes there has been little research that looks at how these messages influence the self-esteem and health habits of Generation Z, roughly between the ages of 16 and 25.

Smith says she believes the research can be used as a preventative measure to help combat chronic conditions such as diabetes, which disproportionately impacts the Black community.

"I hope that I will be able to discern what types of messages work to help Black women increase their fitness activities [and] increase healthy food consumption, especially young women who are likely to use social media the most," says Smith. 

The grant of nearly $546,000 was awarded by a division of the National Institutes of Health.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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