TY - JOUR PY - 2013// TI - Display of alcohol use on Facebook: a content analysis JO - Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking A1 - Beullens, Kathleen A1 - Schepers, Adriaan SP - 497 EP - 503 VL - 16 IS - 7 N2 - The present study has two main objectives. First, to examine how alcohol use is portrayed in the visual and textual references on Facebook, and second, to determine how friends react to these alcohol-related postings. A theoretically based content analysis of 160 Facebook profiles generated 2,575 pictures and 92 status updates referring to alcohol use, which represented about 6.50% of the pictures in the total sample and 2.90% of the status updates. These visual and textual references, as well as the peer reactions to these posts, mostly referred to alcohol use in a positive context (72.23% of the pictures and 72.83% of the messages). Furthermore, multiple regression analyses identified the number of Facebook friends and the number of status updates referring to alcohol use as significant predictors of the total number of uploaded pictures containing alcohol use. The results of this study are discussed within the framework of expectancy models of behavior and media effects theories, and show that alcohol-related references are quite common, while negative reactions to these posts are seldom. Further research into the effects of these visual and textual messages is warranted.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2152-2715 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2013.0044 ID - ref1 ER -