Sharing health risk behaviors on social media
Date
2021
Authors
Ross, Abigail Lynn, author
Long, Marilee, advisor
Sivakumar, Gayathri, committee member
Few, Meara, committee member
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Abstract
The popularity of social media platforms has provided an outlet for young adults to display risky health behaviors. Previous research has shown sites, such as Facebook provide the perfect platform to share drinking, drug use and sexual behaviors. With the creation of Snapchat and its unique disappearing content affordance, it is the perfect platform to examine how and why young adults display risk health behaviors on social media. A uses and gratifications theoretical framework was used to help understand how and why college students use Snapchat to display risky health behaviors, specifically alcohol and marijuana use. Particularly the researcher was interested gratifications from sharing risky health behaviors on Snapchat, affordances of the platform, if there was a relationship between content sent and received on Snapchat versus Instagram, and if there was a relationship between age and sharing risky health behaviors on Snapchat. Instagram was included as a comparison to Snapchat since the platforms share some affordances and Instagram, like Snapchat, is popular with the age group studied. For this study, 194 participants were recruited from undergraduate journalism classes at Colorado State University to complete an online survey. This population was chosen because it was reasonable to assume that participants were members of Gen-Z, who make up 82% of Snapchat users ("21 Snapchat Stats That Matter to Social Media Marketers," 2020). This sample also included participants who had not reached the legal age for consuming alcohol and marijuana in Colorado, as well as participants who had reached the legal age. The results showed that, when alcohol-related and marijuana-related content were analyzed together, social sharing was the most highly rated gratification from sharing risky health behaviors on Snapchat. When examining affordances, the researcher thought the disappearing content affordance would be the most highly rated reason for using Snapchat. However, it was found that selectivity when sharing content with a few friends was the most highly rated reason for using Snapchat. Results also indicated that participants sent and received alcohol-related and marijuana-related content more often on Snapchat than Instagram. Last, while no relationship was found between age and sending alcohol-related and marijuana-related content, there was a relationship between age and receiving alcohol-related and marijuana-related content. Limitations, practical applications, and recommendations for future research were also discussed.
Description
Rights Access
Subject
Instagram
Snapchat
affordances
uses and gratifications
risky health behaviors