“Hey Everyone, I’m Drunk.” An Evaluation of Drinking-Related Twitter Chatter

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: The promotion of drinking behaviors correlates with increased drinking behaviors and intent to drink, especially when peers are the promotion source. Similarly, online displays of peer drinking behaviors have been described as a potential type of peer pressure that might lead to alcohol misuse when the peers to whom individuals feel attached value such behaviors. Social media messages about drinking behaviors on Twitter (a popular social media platform among young people) are common but understudied. In response, and given that drinking alcohol is a widespread activity among young people, we examined Twitter chatter about drinking. Method: Tweets containing alcohol-or drinking-related keywords were collected from March 13 to April 11, 2014. We assessed a random sample (n = 5,000) of the most infl uential Tweets for sentiment, theme, and source. Results: Most alcohol-related Tweets refl ected a positive sentiment toward alcohol use, with pro-alcohol Tweets outnumbering anti-alcohol Tweets by a factor of more than 10. The most common themes of pro-drinking Tweets included references to frequent or heavy drinking behaviors and wanting/needing/ planning to drink alcohol. The most common sources of pro-alcohol Tweets were organic (i.e., noncommercial). Conclusions: Our fi ndings highlight the need for online prevention messages about drinking to counter the strong pro-alcohol presence on Twitter. However, to enhance the impact of anti-drinking messages on Twitter, it may be prudent for such Tweets to be sent by individuals who are widely followed on Twitter and during times when heavy drinking is more likely to occur (i.e., weekends, holidays). (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 76, 635-643, 2015)

Perceived Attitudes About Substance Use in Anonymous Social Media Posts Near College Campuses: Observational Study (Preprint)

“…Our finding that most posts related to substances were positive is consistent with previous studies [7,[13][14][15][16]. A selection bias exists in the present data, as these attitudes may not be consistent with the majority of college students, but the findings highlight the type of content to which any college student may be exposed to via social media.…”

“…In particular, exposure to substance use via social media normalizes the use for some young adults, and can present the subject in a positive light, potentially providing a skewed perspective compared to the behavior of most college-aged persons. In fact, a study involving the social networking site Twitter showed that messages ("tweets") about alcohol use (especially heavy use and binge drinking) are quite common, and typically portray a positive attitude about the substance (pro-alcohol tweets were ten times more frequent than antialcohol tweets; [7]). …”

Marketing to Youth in the Digital Age: The Promotion of Unhealthy Products and Health Promoting Behaviours on Social Media

“…An earlier US study found 93 commercial Facebook pages with more than one million "friends" for top beer brands and 334 pages with more than three million for top spirit brands, with a vast array of applications and activities available through or promoted on these pages (Mart, Mergendoller, & Simon, 2009). A search of drinkingrelated content on Twitter identified 11,966,381 English-language tweets in a one-month period in 2014; the most common keyword was "drunk" (5,336,372), followed by "beer" (3,444,778) and "alcohol" (1,565,258) (Cavazos-Rehg, Krauss, Sowles, & Bierut, 2015). Analysis of a random sample of 5,000 of these tweets identified that 16% were commerciallygenerated marketing or promotion.…”

Social Media and Alcohol: Summary of Research, Intervention Ideas and Future Study Directions

“…A study of Twitter found that the majority of content was positive towards alcohol and that most content was generated by individual users rather than companies or corporations (Cavazos-Rehg, Krauss, Sowles, & Bierut, 2015). Previous studies in other health-related areas have illustrated that Twitter can be used to identify alcohol-related behaviors or intentions across populations (Chew & Eysenbach, 2010;Signorini, Segre, & Polgreen, 2011).…”