Social media giant Facebook is now being used to diagnose drinking problems among college students, according to a recent study conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Washington.

‘Social media gives us a new way to look at behaviors that are tough to identify on the surface,’ said Megan Moreno, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Wisconsin-Madison, in an Oct. 4 Time magazine article.

Moreno could not be reached to comment.

The study focused on college students whose drinking habits cannot always be detected out in the open. Students whose Facebook posts consist of drunk and alcohol-related messages are now being looked at as a possible link to drinking problems.

The students were required to fill out individual surveys that measure possible alcohol consumption. If students scored an eight or higher, it meant they could have a drinking problem. Overall, 35 percent of the 224 students surveyed scored high enough to be in the at-risk category.

Dessa Bergen-Cico, assistant professor of public health in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, agreed with the study and said more people are exposed to social media and there is a certain expectation to follow the social norm. Having two children of her own in college, Bergen-Cico said she believes kids post their activities because ‘that’s what people do.’

A student’s decision to post drunken messages reflects who the student is, whether he or she is liberal or conservative, Bergen-Cico added.

‘Some students are shaped by what they see,’ she said.

Facebook can also be seen as a reflection of students’ beliefs, she added. Students are more likely to see what other people are doing and imitate it based on peer acceptance.

Kenneth Londono, a freshman broadcast and digital journalism major, said he believes there is a relationship between drunken Facebook posts and possible drinking issues.

The amount of alcohol-related posts a college student releases to the public gives parents a reason to worry, he added. When students see the messages, they have more reason to think the person posting is drunk, he said.

Samantha Koenig, a freshman graphic design major, said she believes it depends on the person posting and the situation in which the post was written. An outgoing person will post more than a reserved person, Koenig said.

Anthony Rotolo, an assistant professor of practice at the School of Information Studies, disagreed with the study.

‘It is difficult to make a connection between Facebook status updates and possible drinking problems,’ he said.

Some students feel more comfortable than others sharing photos of parties and posts about being drunk, he added. The student who posts more about being drunk does not necessarily have a problem. He or she is just more liberal than those students who decide to keep their profiles ‘clean and professional,’ Rotolo said.

Rotolo has not encountered any students at Syracuse University with drinking problems associated with Facebook. Social media is a voluntary outlet for students to express themselves, and sometimes the things people post are surprising but do not expose drinking issues, he added.

He said: ‘College students were getting drunk long before Facebook, Twitter or the Internet itself.’

nrcardon@syr.edu

Published on October 17, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Nick: nrcardon@syr.edu