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S H O R T R E P O R T Open Access
Emerging adults’use of alcohol and social
networking sites during a large street festival: A
real-time interview study
Jennifer M. Whitehill
1*
, Megan A. Pumper
2
and Megan A. Moreno
2,3
Abstract
Background: Emerging adults have high rates of heavy episodic drinking (binge drinking) and related risks including
alcohol-impaired driving. To understand whether social networking sites (SNSs) used on mobile devices represent a
viable platform for real-time interventions, this study measured emerging adults’use of two popular SNSs (Facebook
and Twitter) during the Mifflin Street Block Party. This annual festival is held in Madison, Wisconsin and is known for
high alcohol consumption.
Findings: Event attendees ages 18–23 years were recruited by young adult research assistants (>21 years). Participants
completed a brief in-person interview assessing drinking intensity, use of SNSs, and use of SNSs to plan transportation.
Analyses included t-tests, chi-squared tests, and Fisher’s exact tests. At the event, nearly all of the 200 participants (97 %)
consumed alcohol and 18 % met criteria for heavy episodic drinking. Approximately one-third of participants had used
Facebook or Twitter on the day of the event. Facebook use (23 %) was more prevalent than Twitter use (18 %), especially
among heavy episodic drinkers. Use of either SNS was 41 % among females and 24 % among males (χ
2
=6.01;df=1;
p =0.01). Plans to use a SNS to arrange transportation were relatively uncommon (4 %), but this was more frequent
among heavy episodic drinkers (11 %) compared to non-heavy episodic drinkers (2 %) (Fisher’s exact p = 0.02).
Conclusions: These results indicate that SNSs are used during alcohol consumption and warrant exploration as a way
to facilitate connections to resources like safe ride services.
Keywords: Alcohol, Mifflin Street Block Party, Binge drinking, Drunk driving, Social networking sites, Social media,
Facebook, Twitter, Emerging adult
Background
Alcohol use is among the leading causes of morbidity
and mortality for emerging adults age 18 to 24 years [1].
Approximately 54 % of college students and 50 % of
their non-college attending peers report alcohol use in
the past 30 days [2]. A particularly risky setting for alco-
hol consumption and associated negative consequences
are alcohol-themed events and parties such as New
Year’sEve,StPatrick’s Day, spring break or Halloween
[3, 4]. These events can lead to heavy episodic drinking
even among students who typically abstain [3, 5]. Previous
work has illustrated associations between heavy alcohol
at these events and negative health and behavioral
consequences including driving after drinking, and
committing acts of theft or vandalism [6].
One specific alcohol-themed event takes place yearly
in Madison, Wisconsin. The Mifflin Street Block Party
(MSBP), held in May on a major street adjacent to the
University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) cam-
pus, is a day-long event in which 2 blocks of Mifflin
Street are blocked-off from vehicular traffic and booths
are set up with music and food. In 2011, alcohol was
served to those who are over age 21. The street and
nearby off-campus student housing become a destination
for partying by approximately 10,000–15,000 individuals.
A majority of MSBP attendees are students, though other
members of the Madison community attend as well. In re-
cent years, the MSBP event has led to arrests for open
containers and underage consumption [7, 8], as well as
more serious violent offenses [9]. Alcohol-themed events
* Correspondence: jmw@umass.edu
1
Department of Health Promotion and Policy, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
© 2015 Whitehill et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain
Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article,
unless otherwise stated.
Whitehill et al. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (2015) 10:21
DOI 10.1186/s13011-015-0016-3
like MSBP occur at many colleges and universities and
can present challenges for institutions wishing to keep
their students safe from alcohol-related harm [3]. As law
enforcement, communities and universities consider
novel approaches to appropriately limit or sanction
alcohol-themes events, innovative ideas to reduce harm
are needed.
Use of online social networking sites (SNS) is wide-
spread among emerging adults and may offer new possi-
bilities for identification of problem drinking and
interventions to prevent related consequences during
alcohol-themed events. Nearly 75 % of 18–24 year-olds
use Facebook [10] and 31 % use Twitter [11], the two
most popular SNSs. Young adults with dense online so-
cial networks and strong emotional links to their online
peers report more alcohol use [12]. Online discussions
of substance use have been found to support social
norms that are permissive of alcohol use [13]. Research
among college students demonstrates that they fre-
quently display references to alcohol consumption on
their Facebook profiles [14, 15]. These references are
positively associated with clinical measures of problem
drinking [16]. A 2014 study in the Wisconsin Medical
Journal illustrated that UW-Madison students frequently
posted on Facebook about their intention to attend the
MSBP and these postings were highly correlated with
high levels of alcohol consumption at MSBP [17].
Nearly half of emerging adults own a smartphone that
permits mobile use of SNSs [18]. A majority of Facebook
users in the United States access the site via a mobile
device [19], but previous research has not addressed
whether social media is used during episodes of drinking
when there are other sources of influence competing in
real time for attention (e.g. music, food, friends who are
present, etc.) From a public health perspective, the use
of SNSs from mobile devices creates the potential to
reach individuals where and when they are actively
drinking alcohol. Prior qualitative work suggests that
some college students thought SNS features could be
useful for obtaining help in an emergency or if safe
transportation is needed [20], but the extent to which
emerging adults use SNSs in real time during alcohol
consumption remains unknown. Understanding the
characteristics of those who may use SNS in this manner
could have implications for targeting efforts to prevent
alcohol related harm. Female gender is associated with
higher use of SNSs, generally [21], but it is unclear if this
holds true in the context of alcohol use. Further, those
who engage in heavy episodic drinking are at high risk for
alcohol related problems, so it is useful to understand
whether that type of drinker is also using SNSs. Thus, the
purpose of this exploratory study was to: 1) assess the pro-
portion of emerging adults who use Facebook and/or
Twitter during a drinking event, 2) determine whether use
of these SNSs varies by gender or drinking intensity, and
3) assess patterns in intent to use SNSs for planning
transportation.
Methods
Study design
This cross-sectional study utilized participant interviews
on-site at a large, alcohol-themed event to capture real-
time data.
Setting
Data were collected during the Mifflin Street Block Party
in May 2012. This event had approximately 5,000 at-
tendees, most of whom were college students. This event
was an ideal environment in which to study drinking be-
havior and SNS use in real-time, as it had a significant
social media presence with 7,959 “likes”on the event's
Facebook page as of November 1, 2012 [22]. Study pro-
cedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Participants
Participants were emerging adults attending the street
festival. Inclusion criteria limited participants to those
between the ages of 18 and 23 years. Persons who ap-
peared to be heavily intoxicated were not approached.
Procedure
During the street festival, between 12 pm and 5 pm, 7
research assistants (age > 21) were present at the MSBP
in 5 different locations. The research assistants were
trained to use a standardized protocol for data collec-
tion. The data collectors selected and approached indi-
viduals and asked if they were interested in participating
in a brief interview about social media and alcohol use.
After a script was read, interested individuals provided
oral consent. Data collectors read interview questions to
the participants and recorded their responses using pen
and paper. The interview lasted approximately 5–10 min.
Data collection
Rather than asking participant age directly, age was
assessed as a yes/no response to the question “Are you
between the ages of 18 and 23?”in order to avoid disclo-
sures of underage drinking. The interviewer then assessed
gender.
To assess alcohol consumption, the interviewer asked
the participant if he/she had been drinking any alcohol
that day. Participants who indicated they had been
drinking were asked: “What time did you begin drinking
today?”and “How many drinks have you had so far?”
The interviewers recorded the time the interview took
place so that the duration of drinking could be
calculated.
Whitehill et al. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (2015) 10:21 Page 2 of 6
All participants who indicated that they had been
drinking were asked about SNS use. To assess SNS use,
drinkers were asked: “Have you used Facebook since you
started drinking today?”and “Have you used Twitter since
you started drinking today?”Finally, to assess patterns in
whether SNS are used for planning safe transportation we
asked all participants: “Do you plan to use Facebook or
Twitter to arrange transportation home tonight?”
Participants received a small (0.5 L) bottle of water as
an incentive for participation.
Constructed variables
Drinking duration was calculated by subtracting the re-
ported time that drinking began from the time at which
the interview was conducted. The rate of drinking was ob-
tained by dividing the number of reported drinks by the
duration of drinking. We multiplied the hourly rate by 2
in order to obtain an estimate of heavy episodic drinking
that was in line with g criteria from the National Institutes
of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA), defining
heavy episodic drinkers as males who drank at a rate of 5
or more drinks in two hours and females who drank at a
rate of more than 4 drinks in 2 h [23] We categorized
heavy episodic drinkers as those with a drinking duration
of 2 or more hours and a rate greater than or equal to 5
(for males) or 4 (for females) drinks per 2 h.
Analysis
All analyses were conducted using Stata 12 computer soft-
ware. Analysis first involved calculating descriptive statis-
tics (means and proportions) for all variables. Chi-square
tests were used to assess differences in categorical vari-
ables by gender and status as a heavy episodic drinker.
Fisher's exact test was used in instances where the ex-
pected values were less than 5 observations in at least
one cell of the 2 × 2 table. T-tests were used to assess
between-group differences for the continuous variables
for drinking duration and number of drinks.
Results
A total of 200 individuals completed the study and 52 %
were male. Research assistants approached 214 individ-
uals: 8 people refused to participate (response rate = 96 %)
and 6 were ineligible due to being outside the target age
range of 18 to 23 years. The majority (97 %) of emerging
adults surveyed reported drinking alcohol on the day of
the event. On average, participants had been drinking for
5 h (SD = 2.4) and consumed 7.4 drinks (SD = 4.6). Almost
one quarter of participants had met NIAAA criteria for
heavy episodic drinking (Table 1). Males and females had
statistically significant differences in the number of drinks
consumed at the event and in the duration of drinking,
with males having higher values on both of these mea-
sures (Table 2). The proportion of participants who met
criteria for heavy episodic drinking was similar for males
(19 %) and females (17 %); chi-squared tests indicated this
difference was not statistically significant.
Overall, 32 % of participants used either Facebook or
Twitter since they began drinking that day, with 23 %
reporting Facebook use and 18 % reporting Twitter use.
Use of both SNSs was higher for females than for males
(Table 2). For females, 42 % used either SNS at the event,
whereasthiswastrueforonly25%ofmales(χ
2
= 6.01;
df=1;p=0.014).
There were several differences in SNS use based on the
intensity of drinking, as shown in Table 3. More heavy epi-
sodic drinkers (40 %) used Facebook compared to non-
heavy episodic drinkers (19 %) (χ
2
=7.07;df=1;p=0.008).
Twitter use was less common among heavy episodic
drinkers (9 %) than among non-heavy episodic drinkers
(20 %), although this difference was not a statistically sig-
nificant difference (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.145).
Use of SNS for transportation planning was relatively
rare for the sample overall (4 %), but heavy episodic
drinkers (12 %) were more likely report intention to use
SNS to plan transportation compared to non-heavy epi-
sodic drinkers (2 %) (Fisher’s exact test; p = 0.02).
Discussion and conclusions
To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate
the use of social media during a public event at which
alcohol consumption is a primary activity. It builds upon
prior knowledge demonstrating that the use of mobile
devices and social media are ubiquitous among the
emerging adult population [24] by assessing the proportion
that use social media while they are actively drinking. The
purpose of this study was to assess whether emerging
adults use social media during the day of a drinking event,
as understanding this could provide a basis for considering
Table 1 Characteristics of emerging adults age 18-23 years
attending the Mifflin Street Block Party (MSBP)
n = 200 n %
Gender
Male 103 52
Female 97 48
Alcohol use at block party
Used alcohol 192 97
Heavy episodic drinking 43 22
Social networking site use at block party
Used Facebook 45 23
Used Twitter 35 18
Used either SNS 65 33
Planned to use SNS to arrange transportation from block party 7 4
SNS Social networking site. Heavy episodic drinking defined according to
NIAAA criteria (>5 drinks in 2 h for males; >4 drinks in 2 h for females)
Whitehill et al. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (2015) 10:21 Page 3 of 6
future intervention possibilities. The results indicate that
46 % of heavy episodic drinkers used either Facebook or
Twitter while drinking on the day of a large alcohol-
themed event. Fewer emerging adults used Twitter as com-
pared to Facebook, which is consistent with prior research.
In this study, heavy episodic drinkers, known from
previous work to be at elevated risk of alcohol-related
motor vehicle crashes, used Facebook during the drink-
ing episode at higher rates than non-heavy episodic
drinkers and used Twitter at lower rates. This is consist-
ent with previous studies which showed positive associa-
tions between displaying alcohol references on Facebook
and self-reported problematic alcohol use [16]. This
study extends those findings to illustrate that in some
cases, the displayed alcohol references are happening in
real-time during a drinking experience.
Use of social media use for transportation planning dur-
ing this event was relatively low. This may be because
many individuals walk to the event and therefore do not
spend much time considering transportation. Or, it may
reflect the idea that other forms of communication (i.e.
phone calls or text messaging) are used to plan transporta-
tion rather than social media. This is an area that warrants
future exploration. It is possible that if safe ride services
were advertised and offered via social media, SNS use to
plan transportation would increase.
Heavy episodic drinkers also had a greater tendency to
indicate intent to use SNS to plan transportation. Re-
sources to facilitate use of safe transportation, especially
delivered through the Facebook environment, may be
able to reach a population of high-risk drinkers. One
practical translation of this finding could be to encour-
age event organizers to disseminate messages about a
free shuttle bus service or taxi stand locations to individ-
uals who “like”the Facebook page of the alcohol-
drinking event. This tactic could allow prevention efforts
to be directly and inexpensively targeted to a high-risk
population. Mobile users of Facebook, like those in this
study, would receive these messages and could poten-
tially even be able to interact with the organizers via
Facebook during the event. Future studies could explore
the feasibility, acceptability, and outcomes of such an
Table 3 Heavy episodic drinking and SNS site use among alcohol-using emerging adults at MSBP
Heavy episodic drinker (n =35) Non-heavy episodic drinker (n =157) p-value*
Alcohol use at the block party
Mean hours drinking (SD)** 3.67 (2.1) 5.35 (2.32) 0.001
Mean number of drinks (SD)** 10.0 (6.0) 6.9 (4.0) <0.001
Social networking site use at the block party
% used Facebook 40 19 0.008
% used Twitter*** 9 20 0.145
% used either SNS 46 30 0.086
% planned to use SNS for transportation*** 12 2 0.020
SNS Social networking site, MSBP Mifflin Street Block Party
Heavy episodic drinking defined according to NIAAA criteria (>5 drinks in 2 h for males; >4 drinks in 2 h for females)
*p-values reported from chi-squared tests unless otherwise indicated
**p-value from t-tests for difference in means
***p-value from Fisher’s exact test
Table 2 Alcohol and SNS use among alcohol-using emerging adults at MSBP, by gender
Males (n = 99) Females (n = 93) p-value*
Alcohol use at the block party
Mean hours drinking (SD)** 5.5 (2.6) 4.5 (2.0) 0.004
Mean number of drinks (SD)** 9.6 (5.0) 5.4 (3.0) <0.001
% heavy episodic drinkers 19 16 0.696
Social networking site use at the block party
% used Facebook 15 31 <0.001
% used Twitter 14 22 0.142
% used either SNS 25 42 0.014
% planned to use SNS for transportation*** 3 4 0.715
SNS Social networking site, MSBP Mifflin Street Block Party
Heavy episodic drinking defined according to NIAAA criteria (>5 drinks in 2 h for males; >4 drinks in 2 h for females)
*p-values reported from chi-squared tests unless otherwise indicated
**p-value from t-tests for difference in means
***p-value from Fisher’s exact test
Whitehill et al. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy (2015) 10:21 Page 4 of 6
intervention. SNS may also be useful for connecting
drinkers to mobile apps such as Uber and Lyft which
can be used for arranging safe transportation.
This study has limitations. The potential for selection
bias exists because we did not apply standardized ran-
dom sampling techniques, though we endeavored to
sample a variety of event attendees by conducting data
collection throughout the duration of the festival and at
different locations within the event. The data was self-
reported and therefore potentially subject to recall bias.
There is also the possibility of social desirability bias,
though prior research indicates that young adults dis-
close heavy episodic drinking behaviors in other in-
person assessments [25, 26]. The data collectors were
young adults themselves, which may have helped
minimize the potential for this bias. It is possible that
being under the influence of alcohol could have led par-
ticipants to over or under-report their alcohol consump-
tion, which is a limitation of any study in which
participants have consumed alcohol. Our method for
classifying heavy episodic drinkers may have underesti-
mated the number who engaged in this behavior at some
point during the day of MSBP. Because the sample was
drawn from one event, on one day, the results may not
be generalizable outside the context where the study oc-
curred. Efforts to examine whether these results hold
true in other settings are encouraged.
In conclusion, nearly one-third of emerging adults
used SNSs while drinking on the day of MSBP, an
alcohol-themed event; those who drank heavily were
more likely to use Facebook compared to those who did
not drink heavily. This finding should motivate univer-
sities and event organizers to incorporate social media,
especially Facebook, into their plans for advertising harm
reduction strategies and offering safe ride services when
alcohol-themed events take place. Additional research
will be needed to evaluate the reach and impact of such
efforts. Nonetheless, this study is an important first step
towards understanding the potential for targeted, real-
time interventions that use social media to influence be-
havior related to risky alcohol consumption and alcohol
impaired driving.
Abbreviations
SNS: Social networking site; MSBP: Mifflin Street Block Party; SMS: Short
message service; L: Liter; NIAAA: National Institutes of Alcoholism and
Alcohol Abuse.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’contributions
JW performed the statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. MP
participated in the design of the study, coordination, and data collection,
and helped draft the methods of the study in the manuscript. MM
conceived of the study and participated in the design and coordination, and
helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final
manuscript.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this study would like to acknowledge Leah Wachowski,
Natalie Goniu, Shari Schoohs, Mara Stewart, Angie Davis, and Lauren
Kacvinsky for helping with the data collection process.
Author details
1
Department of Health Promotion and Policy, University of Massachusetts
Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA.
2
Center for Child Health, Behavior and
Development, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA.
3
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Received: 19 December 2014 Accepted: 29 April 2015
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