Social Media Use and Alcohol Consumption: A 10-Year Systematic Review

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Sociology
• Media Studies

Background:

• Numerous studies have explored the connection between social media and alcohol consumption.
• A comprehensive synthesis of existing research is needed to systematically understand this relationship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and synthesize findings from global social media and alcohol use studies published between 2009 and 2019.
• To compare findings across different types of social media content and focus areas.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review of 206 studies (204 retained for analysis).
• Analysis of study types, methods (predominantly quantitative), theoretical frameworks, and testing of the social media-alcohol use relationship.
• Comparison of findings based on content focus: advertising/marketing, user-generated content (UGC), social media affordances, or mixed.

Main Results:

• Overwhelmingly, 93.10% of studies that tested the relationship found it to be positive.
• Quantitative methods were most common (77.94%), followed by qualitative (15.20%) and mixed methods (6.37%).
• Descriptive findings were provided, alongside comparisons across different content/focus categories.

Conclusions:

• The review provides a comprehensive understanding of past research on social media and alcohol consumption.
• Results highlight a strong, predominantly positive association between social media engagement and alcohol use.
• Identifies areas for future research to further elucidate this complex relationship.