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Social networking sites more addictive than alcohol and tobacco

There has been a lot of investigation recently into the role of social networking sites such as twitter and facebook and their influence on teen behaviours, and their influence may influence the way rehab, UK wide addresses addiction.

One study revealed that some people find networking sites to be more addictive that tobacco and alcohol, and more difficult to resist temptation to check up on other people's status updates than they do to resist a glass of alcohol or a cigarette (MailOnline, 2012).

However this revelation aside, there is further concern over the use of these sites, as some research has shown that they may be connected to how much young people, drink smoke and take drugs (WebMD, 2011).

The research conducted by Columbia University shows that those who regularly visit social networking sites, are more likely to drink, smoke cigarettes and use marijuana than those who do not. 

However, the reasons for this are not clear and dry cut.  In many cases social networking sites are full of images of other people undertaking these risky behaviours, it may be images of friends or people known to an individual and the comments associated with these images are often endorsing this sort of behaviour.  Furthermore the basic idea of social networking sites is to allow people to connect, discuss ideas and make plans with one another – it thus makes it the perfect venue for young people to make plans, as messages to on another can be more private than a phone call if they need them to be.

It is issues such as this that make social networking sites a danger to young people, it is mostly the same issues as ever before – issues of peer pressure and wanting to fit in, but utilising the digital technologies we have at our disposal.  A further issue that should be considered, is the prevalence of online bullying – cyberbullying- as with any bullying this can have a very detrimental effect on an individual's well-being and as such this can influence the likelihood of them being involved in high risk behaviours such as drinking, smoking and drug use.

With all these issues arising from social networking, residential rehab programs may well need to adapt to address these issues, and if the influence of these sites continues to affect young people's chances of developing addiction, rehabs will have to adjust to this change and ensure that they are prepared in the future to help young individuals in this situation.

MailOnline.  2012.  Sourced from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095464/Social-networks-addictive-cigarettes-alcohol.html

WebMD.  2011.  Sourced from:  http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20110824/social-networking-tied-to-teen-drug-alcohol-risk

Published by on 27/03/2020.

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