Do Your Social Media Friends Drink Alcohol? So Will You!
A recent study found that if you always see your social media pals posting about their alcohol consumption, then you are more likely to be drinking alcohol as well!
This study was conducted by a group of researchers in Australia, and found that alcohol consumption among teenagers was strongly predicted by the amount of their exposure to posts about alcohol consumption on their social networking timelines.
Interestingly, this relationship was even more pronounced for teens with a stronger sense of online social identity, especially if they spent low to moderate amounts of time on social networking sites.
In other words, teens who feel strongly about being members of their online social networks, and who think of this membership as a reflection of who they are and as part of their self-image, are the most likely to display a strong relationship between their own alcohol consumption and their exposure to their friends’ alcohol consumption.
So how come this is happening?
This is the case because “individuals align their behaviors with other members of their social group to demonstrate, enact, and maintain social identity”, the researchers explained.
Teenagers thus tend to be influenced by their friends’ drinking patterns posted online, and end up modeling their own drinking behaviors on these patterns.
Given the crucial role of online social identity in this relationship between teens’ drinking behavior and their exposure to their friends’ alcohol consumption, professionals working with vulnerable young people are recommended to educate the latter about their online identity perceptions to prevent risky levels of alcohol use, and to guide them towards alternative expressions of alignment to online social norms.
