Community‐consumerism: negotiating risk in online drug communities

Bilgrei, Ola Røed

doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12864

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The information available on online networks marks a general shift in perceived credibility away from traditional authority models, to reliability approaches with increased room for user participation (Lankes, 2008). Similar processes of devaluing the expertise of health authorities are identified in other studies exploring substance-oriented forum-cultures (Bilgrei, 2019;Boothroyd & Lewis, 2016;Soussan et al, 2018).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Bottom-up meets top-down: exploring vapers’ accounts of risk in a context of e-cigarette controversies

Tokle

2020

Health, Risk & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Framed both as a solution to and as an additional part of the tobacco problem, e-cigarettes have been the subject of risk controversies since they were launched in 2006, followed by massive divergence in media, public health approaches and regulations across the world. This study explores vapers' risk perceptions and accounts of the public risk communication and regulation of e-cigarettes in a Norwegian context were nicotine-containing e-liquids are prohibited from being sold by domestic retailers. Based on analyses of semistructured qualitative interviews (n = 30, 17 males) with adult vapers, I find that the participants emphasised three important dimensions related to risk. First, they perceived vaping as harm reduction by substituting for smoking. Second, they devalued much of the risk communication about e-cigarettes from Norwegian health authorities and media. Interlinked with their harm-reduction approach, they perceived the present regulation of nicotine e-liquid and vaporisers as increasing risk by decreasing their availability to smokers. Third, in general they preferred the lay expertise available online to the health authorities' information on e-cigarettes. The analysis displays a lack of trust among the participants in what can be labelled as top-down information. Based on these dimensions, I conclude that the dissonance between vapers risk perceptions and the regulation and mixed messages in risk communication of e-cigarettes has contributed to their preference for bottom-up expertise. From the vapers' point of view, e-cigarettes represent harm reduction, and the vaper community symbolises a bottom-up health movement where peer assistance compensates for a perceived lack of assistance from health authorities.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…In line with the bottom-up approach, online communities offer lay expertise in the form of alternative notions of health and risk based on assistance from peers. The community dimension within such online communities also forms a basis for personal and collective support (Bilgrei, 2019;Daniel et al, 2018).…”

Section: Risk Communication and Stigmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Bottom-up meets top-down: exploring vapers’ accounts of risk in a context of e-cigarette controversies

Tokle

2020

Health, Risk & Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Self-established drug-related Internet forums are widely used as an important resource for technical and pharmacological knowledges in the absence of evidence-based literature [ 39 ]. However, a clear distance between ‘expert’ and user assessments of risk was previously found, whereas online community members seem to abandon traditional methods of determining credibility that are based on authority and hierarchy, in favor of digital tools and new network approaches [ 17 ]. Thus, using digital platforms as both screening- and harm- reduction tools could be useful for advancing ecologically valid health policies [ 40 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The use of social networks allowed those who use drugs to discuss, share opinions, and provide advices, especially during the COVID-19 context [ 16 ]. However, Internet drug forums are found to express distrust of ‘experts’ and ‘authorities’ who provide official information, whom they perceive as lacking the specialist knowledge that they themselves possess [ 17 ]. The user community’s knowledge sharing practices can generate a shared perception of a sufficient or even superior drug use experience and knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in Alcohol Consumption among Users of an Internet Drug Forum during a COVID-19 Lockdown

Angerville

Moinas²,

Martinetti

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency and clinical correlates of users of an Internet drug forum who changed their alcohol use during the March–May 2020 COVID-19 lockdown in France. Methods: An anonymous Internet-based cross-sectional survey during the COVID-19 lockdown was used via messages on a French Internet drug forum. Participants reported any increase in their alcohol consumption during the lockdown. Alcohol craving and depressive/anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Obsessive and Compulsive Drinking scale (OCDS) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS). Results: Of 1310 respondents, 974 (79% of 1270) participants reported alcohol use before lockdown. During the lockdown, 405 participants (41.6%; IC95 (38.5–44.7)) reported an increase. Odds of an increase in alcohol consumption was higher for those with HADS scores higher than 7 (aOR: 2.19; p = 0.00002), OCDS scores greater than 7 (aOR: 3.50; p < 0.001), and daily psychostimulant use (aOR: 1.85; p = 0.002). Conclusions: Users of an Internet drug forum who reported high levels of depressive symptoms, high levels of alcohol craving, and the use of psychostimulants were more likely to increase alcohol consumption during a COVID-19 lockdown.

show abstract

“…5 Many of these forums have the aim to offer accurate information about substances, share experiences of both positive and negative effects, give advice or warnings about dosages, and provide support for users experiencing negative reactions (Soussan and Kjellgren 2014;Rolando and Beccaria 2019). By reading such information, users try to gain new knowledge about substances and to minimize their risk of experiencing adverse effects (Norman, Grace, and Lloyd 2014;Duxbury 2018;Bilgrei 2019;Berning and Hardon 2016).…”

Section: Online Drug Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glowing Experience or Bad Trip? A Quantitative Analysis of User Reported Drug Experiences on Erowid.org

Mooseder

Malik

Lamba

et al. 2022

ICWSM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Erowid.org is a website dedicated to documenting information about psychoactive substances, with over 36,000 user-submitted drug Experience Reports. We study the potential of these reports to provide information about characteristic experiences with drugs. First, we assess different kinds of drug experiences, such as 'addiction' or 'bad trips'. We quantitatively analyze how such experiences are related to substances and user variables. Furthermore, we classify positive and negative experiences as well as reported addiction using information about the consumer, substance, context and location of the drug experience. While variables based only on objective characteristics yield poor predictive performance for subjective experiences, we find subjective user reports can help to identify new patterns and impact factors on drug experiences. In particular, we found a positive association between addiction experiences and dextromethorphan, a substance with largely unknown withdrawal effects. Our research can help to gain a deeper sociological understanding of drug consumption and to identify relationships which may have clinical relevance. Moreover, it can show how non-mainstream social media platforms can be utilized to study characteristics of human behavior and how this can be done in an ethical way in collaboration with the platform providers.

show abstract

Community‐consumerism: negotiating risk in online drug communities

Cited by 8 publications

References 39 publications

Bottom-up meets top-down: exploring vapers’ accounts of risk in a context of e-cigarette controversies

Bottom-up meets top-down: exploring vapers’ accounts of risk in a context of e-cigarette controversies

Changes in Alcohol Consumption among Users of an Internet Drug Forum during a COVID-19 Lockdown

Glowing Experience or Bad Trip? A Quantitative Analysis of User Reported Drug Experiences on Erowid.org

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About