Social Media Exposure of Addiction Content Mediates Experimentation with Addictive Behaviours

 

Original Article 

Social Media Exposure of Addiction Content Mediates Experimentation with Addictive Behaviours 


Happy Baglari,1 Manoj Kumar Sharma2  P. Marimuthu3 

1Assistant Professor, Programme of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, 

Assam Downtown University, Guwahati 

2Professor of Clinical Psychology, SHUT Clinic, NIMHANS, Bengaluru 

3Professor of Biostatistics, NIMHANS, Bengaluru 

Address for Correspondence: shutclinic@gmail.com 


ABSTRACT 

Objectives:  Social  media platforms provide  an  exposure to  substances  and  other behavioural addictions in the form of content shared on such platforms. The current study investigated the association between social media-based exposure to substance/ behavioral addiction and experimentation with substance /behavioral addiction. Method: A total of 300 subjects in the age range of 18-25 years were assessed using Background Data Sheet, Exploration Sheet for social media, The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification and Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence. Results: The average age of the sample was 20.5 years with a standard deviation of 3.02 years. The amount of social media exposure was associated with alcohol use and smoking. It was more for alcohol use. Conclusions: The study suggested that social media literacy is required to   reduce   the 

indulgence in addiction among young adults. 

Keywords: social media, addiction, experimentation, adults  


INTRODUCTION 

In the India National survey, 22.4 % of the population over the age of 18 years had substance use  problems, including alcohol  use  disorder, tobacco, and other drugs e.g., illicit and Beullens & Schepers, 2013; Cavazos-Rehg et prescription drugs  (Gautham  et.al.,  2020).  In  India,  290 million active  social media  users  utilise  their mobile devices to visit social network sites. In India, the most popular social media networks were  Facebook  and YouTube.  People  with  a higher academic background were more likely to utilize social media use than people with lower education backgrounds (Social Media Landscape, Demographics and Digital ad Spend in India, 2020). Young adults have expanded out to  different  social  media  platforms  such  as Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram etc., and others, as  social  media  websites  like  Facebook have dominated  them for a long  time. The  present scenario clearly demonstrated that social media has established itself as a persistent and well- known influence, particularly  in  the  lives  of college students. According to several studies, young adults who use social media to speak about their  substance  use  seem  to  receive  positive feedback for doing so (Beullens & Schepers, 2013; Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2015; Lyons et al., 2015; Thompson  et  al.,  2015). This  clearly demonstrate a substantial danger of encouraging and propagating the risky addictive behaviour, particularly  among  those  who  are  receiving positive reinforcement   for  addictive  behavior related  posts (Ridout et al., 2012). Social media facilitate the substance usage and pay ways for access  of the  substances  such  as by giving a platform  for  the  online  drug  traffickers. The individuals  may obtain substance using social media or the dark web (Denise-Marie Griswold, 2021). The purpose of this communication was to examine the effect of social media in addictive behaviour. 

METHOD 

Ethical  approval  was  received  from  the Institutional  Ethics  Committee,  and  written informed consent was taken from all subjects prior to participation. 

Study design and participants 550 people between the ages of 18 and 25, who had used social media for at least a year, were contacted by  survey  methodology  from  academic institutions based in Southern part of India. The researchers  looked  for  people  who  had  been exposed  to addictive behaviour-related  social media content in the previous year. Subjects with medical  conditions  that  made  it  difficult  to complete assessments were omitted. The study invited  339  people  who  said  they  had  been exposed  to  additive  content  on  social  media platforms. 

Measures 

Background  data  sheet:  The  researcher created  a  background  data  sheet  to  collect information  such  as  date  of  birth,  age,  sex, religion, education, socioeconomic status, marital status and language spoken. 

Exploration  sheet for social  media: The questions were developed to assess the effect of social media  on  addictive behaviours through focused group discussion of mental health experts working in the addiction field (social media users in the 18–25-year age group to cover presentation of addictive behaviours on social media). 

Alcohol Use  Disorder Identification Test (Babor et al., 2001): It is a 10-item screening tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assess alcohol consumption, drinking behaviours, and alcohol-related problems. Both an interview version (0-4 score) and a self-report version (0-4 score) of the AUDIT are provided. A score of 8 or more is considered to indicate hazardous or harmful alcohol use. The AUDIT demonstrated high internal consistency of 0.88 and test-retest reliability of 0.91 

Fagerstrom  Nicotine  Dependence  Test (Heatherton et al., 1991): The Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence is a standard instrument for assessing the intensity of physical addiction to nicotine. The test was designed to provide an ordinal measure of nicotine dependence related to cigarette smoking. It contains six items that evaluate the quantity of cigarette consumption, the compulsion to use, and dependence. Yes/no items are scored from 0 to 1 on the Fagerstrom Test  for  Nicotine  Dependence,  and  multiple- choice items are scored from 0 to 3. The items are added up to produce a total score of 0-10. The greater the patient’s total Fagerström score, the greater his or her  physical  dependence on nicotine. 

Procedure 

After obtaining the participants’ informed consent, the study was  conducted  with group administration of the Background datasheet, the social  media  exploration  sheet, Alcohol  use disorder identification test and Fagerstrom test of nicotine dependence on 10-20 participants in one setting. The study comprised 300 completed protocols from 339 who met the inclusion criteria for the study.  

Data analysis 

To assess the demographic information, the data  was  analysed  using,  percentages,  and frequencies. The association between the vari- ables was evaluated using the chi-square method. The probability level was set at 0.05. 

RESULTS 

The study included 144 unmarried males and 156 unmarried females who were enrolled in a graduating course and ranged from moderate to upper  socioeconomic  families. The  sample’s average  age  was  20.5 years, with  a  standard deviation  of  3.02  years. The  average age  of people who started using social media sites was 13 for Facebook, 16 for WhatsApp, and 17 for Instagram. The following is a breakdown of how men and women utilise social media. 51.4% of men and 48.6% of women used Facebook; 43.33 percent of men used WhatsApp, and 56.7% of women used WhatsApp; and 47.7 % of men used Instagram,  and  52.33%  of  females  used Instagram. There was no representation of twitter users in the sample. The amount of time spent on  social media everyday  ranges from 17.05 minutes to 90 minutes. 

In the sample, 34% (N=103) were interested in experimenting with tobacco, 31.9% (N=91) with  alcohol,  while  38%  were  unsure  about experimenting with substances. Most of the social media content took the form of posting/liking/ sharing  or visiting an  addiction  website. The effect of social media exposure on FTND and AUDIT scores was acknowledged in 108 (36% got score 8 & above on AUDIT) and 113 (38% got  score  of 5  &  above  on  FTND). Table  1 showed that effect of social media exposure on addictive behaviours. 

DISCUSSION 

The study showed that the mean age of the sample  was  20.5  years.  The  median  age  of initiating social media sites was from 13 years 

Table 1 

The effect of social media exposure on addictive behaviour (N=300) 


to 17 years. Men used Facebook more, whereas women had higher use of WhatsApp. The time spent on social media varied from 17.05 minutes to  90  minutes  per  day.  Thirty  four  percent participants  (N=103)  showed  interest  in experimentation with tobacco; 31.9% (N=91) for alcohol and 52% (N=156) for gaming whereas 38%  were ambivalent  about experimentation. Social media exposure had stronger association with alcohol use. It was corroborated by research that showed exposure to risky behaviors on the social media platform was generally associated with an increased likelihood of engagement in risky addictive behaviors (Moreno et al., 2015). In the cross-cultural study using online format for the age group of 13 to 25 years in India and Australia reported presence of interaction with alcohol  content  online,  predominantly  on Facebook, followed by YouTube and then Twitter (Gupta et al., 2018). Online peer influence was also  found  to  be  a  predictor  of  alcohol consumption  in  users  in  the  Indian  context. Previous  studies  have documented the role  of Twitter in identifying behaviours or intentions across populations (Chew & Eysenbach, 2010; Signorini  et  al.,  2011).  It  was  corroborated through the Media practice model (Brown, 2000). According to this model users explored or shared experiences or indulged in behaviour they were contemplating to experiment. This tendency also affected  their  need  for  experimentation  of addictive  behaviours.  It  was  also  seen  that adolescents or young adults who  come across alcohol  references on  their  friend’s Facebook profiles found this information to be influential sources of information. The impact of Facebook on initiation of health risk behaviours can also be  understood  in  terms  of  4  categories  of Facebook influence model. These are connection (peer communication), comparison (a compari- son using photo or any other behaviour), identi- fication (developing identity through the feedback of  peer),  and  immersive  experience  through experimentation  with  addictive  behaviours (Moreno et al., 2015). The available review of studies in this area indicates that social media serve as source of information about addictive behaviours  (Beullens  &  Schepers,  2013; Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2015; Lyons et al., 2015; Thompson et al., 2015) as well as a source of influence on behaviour using social media. Media practice model  (Brown,  2000) and  Facebook influence model (Moreno et al., 2013). 

The findings of this study it contains two main  limitations.  Firstly,  the  study  did  not investigate the severity of social media use and its link to addiction. Secondly, other confounding characteristics  such  as  personality, history  of substance  use  and  coping  methods  were  not evaluated. 

CONCLUSIONS 

The present communication implied the role of social  media use in the experimentation  of alcohol and tobacco. The users were more active on Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. It has implications  for  identifying  at  risk  persons experimenting  with  addictive  behaviours  and guiding them to psychological/cyber intervention utilising large sample sizes of  participants on online  platforms. The  social media can  be  a medium of advertisement to promote responsible behaviour  among users  or direct them  to use online intervention to manage of addiction based on  the  frequency  of  exchange  happen  for addictive behaviours. There is a need to develop empirical  evidence  for  understanding  the presence of  addiction  concerns  across  social media sites and its impact on users, as well as government policy for online interaction about addiction. 

Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. 

Funding: Nil. 


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Journal of Society for Addiction Psychology | Volume 1 | Issue 1 | March 2024  Page 40 -44