Who is watching user-generated alcohol posts on social media?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Public Health
• Sociology

Background:

• Social media platforms host vast amounts of user-generated content, including alcohol-related posts.
• Exposure to alcohol content on social media may influence perceptions and behaviors, particularly among young adults.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence of students' exposure to user-generated alcohol content on social media.
• To identify demographic, personality, alcohol use, cognitive, and social media factors associated with frequent exposure.

Main Methods:

• A web-survey was administered to 11,236 college/university students in Bergen, Norway.
• Data collected included social media alcohol content exposure, demographics, personality traits, alcohol use, cognitions, and social media usage patterns.
• Binary logistic regression analyses were performed to determine associated characteristics.

Main Results:

• 96.7% of students reported exposure to alcohol-related social media content, with positive valence content being more common.
• Frequent exposure (monthly or more) was associated with younger age, native Norwegian background, lower extroversion, higher agreeableness and self-monitoring, higher alcohol consumption, stronger online social norms for alcohol, and increased social media use.
• Positive valence alcohol content was reported more frequently than negative valence content.

Conclusions:

• Inflated alcohol norms among students may stem from social media exposure.
• Frequent exposure is linked to high alcohol use, specific demographic groups, heightened social attentiveness, and excessive social media engagement.
• Future research should account for these factors when examining the social media-alcohol use relationship.