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