“Come on Barbie, let’s go party!”
How social media can influence ‘drunkorexia’ related behaviours of college students
Student: C.R. Valk
Studentnumber: 6079768 Master Thesis
Research Master of Communication Science Supervisor: D.A. de Vries
University of Amsterdam
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences Graduate School of Communication
1 Abstract
The aim of this research was to investigate if social media have an influence on drunkorexia related behaviours by looking at norms. Which norms are being communicated on social media and what is the possible influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours, namely body image, eating patterns, exercising, and substance use. To investigate this, ten college students, five men and five women, were interviewed about their social media use, with the focus on Facebook and Instagram, and their behaviours were related to drunkorexia, namely body image, eating patterns, exercise, and substance use. The results of this research show that social media seem to influence drunkorexia related behaviours, because many norms concerning drunkorexia related behaviours are being communicated on social media. These norms particularly seem to have influence on body image, this influence also has an effect on eating patterns and exercising. It seems very likely that social media have influence on drunkorexia related behaviours, however the participants don’t perceive it that way. The participants say that they perceive little to no influence from social media on their
drunkorexia related behaviours, because they think peers would have more influence on their drunkorexia related behaviours in most cases. Perhaps the participants aren’t aware of this influence, because it’s possible that social media influence the participants more
2 “Come on Barbie let’s go party!”: How social media can influence ‘drunkorexia’ related
behaviours of college students
Nowadays Barbie symbolizes the perfect life for some college students who try to achieve the perfect body and lifestyle. These students want to have the best of both worlds, they want to go out and party all the time with alcoholic drinks, but in the meantime they have to think about their bodies and want to stay slim (Esschendal, 2015). During the week they try to compensate for the weekend and eat very little and go to the gym three times a week (Esschendal, 2015). During the weekend they want to go out with their friends and drink and eat all the things they want (Esschendal, 2015).
These behaviours are referred to as symptoms of ‘drunkorexia’. Drunkorexia can be defined as the practice of restricting calorie intake so more alcohol can be consumed without gaining weight (Bryant, Darks & Rahal, 2012; Burke, Cremeens, Vail-Smith & Woolsey, 2010; Chambers, 2008; Kershaw, 2008; Smith 2008; Stoppler, 2008) or even to get drunk faster (Cofsky, 2011). Drunkorexia is also associated with excessive exercising (Chambers, 2008; Mond, Meyers, Crosby, Hay & Mitchell, 2008; Babiaz, Ward & Brinkman, 2013). Drunkorexia is mainly observed amongst young women, members of a sorority/fraternity, but also amongst college students (Chambers, 2008; Keathley, Sandlin & Avans, 2011; Korioth, 2011; Bryant et al., 2012; Babiaz et al., 2013; Buchholtz & Crowther, 2014).
At this moment, it’s known from other research that social media have influence on a few drunkorexia related behaviours, such as an influence on body image and eating disorders through the internalisation of the beauty ideals and appearance comparison process (Rodgers, Chabrol & Paxton, 2011; Tiggeman & Slater, 2013). It’s also known that mainly health-risk behaviours are being displayed on social network sites, such as alcohol consumption
(Strassburger, Wilson & Jordan, 2013). Through the exposure to photos and comments, people may develop some normative perceptions, also called perceived norms, about certain
3 behaviours, for example smoking and alcohol (Huang et al., 2014b; Litt & Stock, 2011). Unfortunately, there has been no research on the influence of social media on drug use and exercising, but there might be an indirect influence of social media on exercising through body image. Despite that there is little research about the influence of social media on behaviours related to drunkorexia, the research that has been done shows that social media plays a role in most of these drunkorexia related behaviours. Social media could possibly contribute to or reinforce certain behaviours which in turn could cause drunkorexia. Therefore, the aim of this research was to investigate if social media have an influence on drunkorexia related behaviours by looking at norms. Which norms are being communicated on social media and what the possible influence of these norms might be on drunkorexia related behaviours, namely body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance use. To examine this, this research will focus on college students, because drunkorexia is a growing phenomenon among this population (Esschendal, 2015).
Drunkorexia has serious health consequences that are caused by the effects of increased drinking frequencies, for example doing something they would later regret and having forced intercourse (Dams-O’Conner, Martens & Anderson, 2006). These effects will also be reinforced by disordered eating. The combination of these unhealthy behaviours can cause even more serious health problems (Bryant et al., 2012). Not eating prior to alcohol consumption or replacing eating by alcohol consumption can lead to brain and organ damage, nutritional deficits and hypoglycemia, which could cause memory lapses and blackouts (Burke et al., 2010). It doesn’t only destroy brain cells that store current memories, but also brain cells that are responsible for storing new memories. This can lead to reduced cognitive functioning (Burke et al., 2010).
These serious negative health consequences show that it’s needed to investigate how people would get involved in drunkorexia related behaviours. Consequently, I can explore
4 how people would adapt to such a lifestyle in order to create possible prevention measures and adjust current education about healthy lifestyles. Therefore this research will use semi-structured interviews, because interviews give you the possibility to go deeper into underlying motives and opinions about how people perceive, for example, the influence of social media on drunkorexia related behaviours (Boeije, ‘t Hart & Hox, 2008; Bryman, 2008).
Furthermore, in the current scientific literature it’s still unknown which norms are being communicated and what the possible influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours might be. This research will try to cover this gap in the literature.
Drunkorexia
The term ‘drunkorexia’ is still controversial, because it isn’t an officially recognized medical term (Piazza-Gardner & Barry, 2013). Also, drunkorexia seems to be a misnomer and most researchers are inconsistent with the use of the definition of drunkorexia within their studies (Piazza-Gardner & Barry, 2013). For instance, drunkorexia could be defined as only being about restricting calorie intake (Eisenberg & Fitz, 2014) or as an eating disorder (Babiarz, 2012) or as an alcohol dependency problem (Cofsky, 2012). The definition of the term drunkorexia is different in almost every research. But it’s difficult to define drunkorexia, because so many behaviours are involved. In some studies excessive exercising is a part of or is associated with excessive exercising, but other studies don’t include excessive exercising as a characteristic of drunkorexia. To be clear, in this research I didn’t focus on whether or not people have the disorder drunkorexia, but I looked at the variation of the drunkorexia related behaviours and if social media play a role in instigating or reinforcing such behaviours. In order to have a clear idea of which behaviours can be attributed to drunkorexia, the next section will be an overview of the current literature about drunkorexia.
Eating disorders and extreme drinking are significantly correlated (Krahn, Kurth, Gomberg & Drewnowski, 2004; Anderson, Simmons, Martens, Ferrier & Sheehy, 2006;
5 Babiaz, 2012). Associations have also been found between eating disorders and excessive exercising (Mond et al., 2008; Babiarz, 2012). Furthermore, associations have been found between extreme drinking and excessive exercising (Dinger, Brittain & Hutchinson, 2014). This means that college students who participate in extreme drinking have a higher
probability of having an eating disorder as well as a higher probability of participating in excessive exercising (Babiarz, 2012). Other research showed that excessive drinking, physical activity and disordered eating behaviours predicted binge drinking among a nationally
representative sample of college students (Barry & Piazza-Gardner, 2012). Moreover, results from this research suggest that physical activity and disordered eating behaviours are strongly associated to alcohol consumption, even when controlling for confounding demographic and personal factors (Barry & Piazza-Gardner, 2012). One reason for this correlation could be that alcohol contains calories which may result in gaining weight due to drinking. To compensate for those calories and the possible weight gain people might involve themselves with
disordered eating and physical activity (Piazza-Gardner & Barry, 2013). These studies emphasize that drunkorexia involves the co-occurrence of three related behaviours:
Disordered eating, physical activity and alcohol consumption. Therefore drunkorexia in this research includes eating patterns, exercising and substance use (alcohol consumption, drugs use and smoking).
Although there has been some research on drunkorexia related behaviours, it still isn’t clear how people would get involved with this phenomenon. Is there something that can contribute to the involvement with drunkorexia related behaviours, could social media be a contributing factor and which role do norms play? In the next paragraph the role of norms and social media on drunkorexia related behaviours will be discussed.
6 Perceived norms
This research will focus on the influence of social media by conveying norms. These perceived norms can be divided into descriptive and injunctive norms. Descriptive norms are beliefs about the prevalence of the behaviour (what they think the norms is according to others), while injunctive norms are about the perceive approval of a behaviour (how okay do others think a particular behaviour is) (Cialdini, Reno & Kallgren, 1990). These norms might also be applied online, because people can copy their offline behaviour into the online world and that behaviour is the same as their online behaviour (Strassburger et al., 2013). Besides possible influences from their friends online, people could also be influenced by the norms on grouppages or people or organisations which they follow on social media, because people also use social media for entertainment and their personal interests (Pempek, Yermolayeva, & Calvert, 2009; Strassburger et al., 2013)
Social media have a powerful and extensive influence on people (Strassburger et al., 2013). Mainly health-risk behaviours are being promoted on social network sites. Although displays of the negative consequences of these behaviours, for example alcohol consumption, are rarely displayed online (Strassburger et al., 2013). One of the main activities of users of social media is viewing photos and comments (Pempek et al., 2009). Through exposure to this content, people may develop some normative perceptions, also called perceived norms, about certain behaviours, for example alcohol consumption or smoking (Huang et al., 2014; Lit & Stock, 2011). It’s therefore possible that social media contains multiple norms, and maybe also about drunkorexia related behaviours.
To examine if social media influence drunkorexia related behaviours by conveying norms, it has to be clear that there are possible norms about drunkorexia related behaviours. According to Thompson, Heinberg, Altabe, and Tantleff-Dunn (1999) both peers and (social) media contribute to the norms about beauty ideals of individuals. According to their research,
7 individuals internalize these messages from their sociocultural environment and compare themselves with these norms (Thompson et al., 1999). In this way both body image and eating patterns are being influenced through these norms (Keery, van den Berg, & Thompson, 2004; Thompson et al., 1999). Also, substance use is being influenced by norms. This happens in two steps (Borsari & Carey, 2001). First, the personal substance use is compared to the perceived descriptive and injunctive norms. The second step is the students acting in
accordance with the perceived group norm (Borsari & Carey, 2001). It seems to be possible that norms have an influence on drunkorexia related behaviour norms.
Social media
In the current literature about drunkorexia, little is known about the possible influence of social media on drunkorexia related behaviour by conveying norms. Therefore the limited research about drunkorexia behaviours will be complemented with other related literature about the possible influence of the social media and norms on body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance use.
There has been little research on the influence of social media on body image by conveying norms. The research that has been done shows an association between the time spent on social network sites and higher levels of internalization of the thin ideal, body surveillance and drive for thinness (Tiggeman & Slater, 2013). It seems that people are very conscious of their appearance and this could lead to body image concerns when creating their own profile on these social network sites (Tiggeman & Slater, 2013). Furthermore, social media contains idealized images (Tiggeman & Slater, 2013) which could lead to certain norms about beauty ideal. These norms will be reinforced by the fact that people edit their pictures to create a physically attractive representation of themselves on their profile
(Ringrose, 2011). Furthermore, social network sites are associated with body image concerns (de Vries, Peter, de Graaf, & Nikken., 2015; Tiggeman & Slater, 2013). Facebook users
8 scored significantly higher on body image concerns than non-users (Tiggeman & Slater, 2013). Therefore it’s expected that certain norms will be communicated which have influence on body image.
Also, little research has been done on the influence of social media on eating patterns. In the research of Deliens, Clarys, De Bourdeaudhuij and Deforche (2014) five focus groups were held, students stated that the media could influence their eating patterns, but isn’t said how and it seems unclear how social media are involved. Furthermore, an association has been found between the use of Facebook and disordered eating (Mabe, Forney & Keel, 2014). The use of Facebook may result in the continuance of body concerns and anxiety, which could result in eating disorders (Mabe et al., 2014). On the contrary, other research shows that the use of Facebook results in increases of these concerns, which could lead to over-eating episodes or bulimic symptoms (Smith, Hames & Joiner, 2013). The individuals who valued the responses on their post the most and individuals who received extremely negative
comments were more likely to be involved in eating disorders (Hummel & Smith, 2015; Mabe et al., 2014). It looks like if social media have an influence on eating patterns, but it’s unsure what the possible influence might be. Therefore it’s expected that social media have
influence, but it’s seems unclear which norms are being communicated and what the possible influence is.
Also, there has been little research on the influence of social media on substance use, including alcohol consumption, drugs use and smoking. The exposure to (friends’) online pictures on social network sites of partying or drinking was significantly associated with smoking, but had no effect on alcohol consumption (Huang, Soto, Fujimoto & Valente, 2014a). In other research they also proved that there was an association with alcohol consumption (Huang et al., 2014b; Stoddard, Bauermeister, Gordon-Messer, Johns, & Zimmerman, 2012). Adolescents with friends who drink were more likely to drink as well
9 because of these friends. But adolescents without friends who drink were more likely to be affected by higher exposure of online alcohol related content (Huang et al., 2014b).
Adolescents who are exposed a lot to online alcohol related content and who perceive this content as normative are more likely to use alcohol than adolescents who aren’t much exposed to this type of content (Litt & Stock, 2011). Furthermore, online peer support was associated with less alcohol use (Stoddard et al., 2012). There was nothing known about the influence of social media on drug use, maybe because of lack of content (Stoddard et al., 2012). People don’t want to be associated with this type of content, because of the possible negative consequences and therefore people will be more careful with sharing and reacting on these types of content. In sum, it’s expected that social media have an influence on substance use, because certain norms are being communicated, however not for all behaviours.
No research has been done on the influence of social media on exercising, but it is possible that there is an indirect effect through body dissatisfaction. When someone is dissatisfied with their own body, this could lead to the determination to improve upon their body and could lead to exercising. In this way body dissatisfaction could lead to an increase of physical activities. Although in the scientific literature there isn’t any prove for this indirect effect. Women are more willing to try to lose weight than men (Davis & Cowles, 1991). However for women and older men, no association could be found between exercising and any body image related variables. Only for young men an association was found between body dissatisfaction and increased levels of exercising (Davis & Cowles, 1991). Other and more recent research found that there was no significant association between body
dissatisfaction and physical activity (Duncan, Al-Nakeeb, Nevill & Jones, 2006). Besides, controlling for body fat and physical activity, that when physical activity increased, the body dissatisfaction also increased (Duncan et al., 2006). Other research adds that the bigger the difference is between the actual and the ideal body, the lower the levels of physical activity
10 were (Anton, Perry & Riley, 2000). It looks like if social have at least an indirect influence on exercising, but it’s unsure what the possible influence could be. Therefore it’s expected that social media have influence, but it is seems unclear which norms are being communicated and what the possible influence is.
It seems that social media have influence on drunkorexia related behaviours by conveying norms, but is seems unclear which norms are being communicated and what is the possible influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours. Therefore this research tries to investigate how social media influence drunkorexia related behaviour by looking at perceived norms about body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance use. It’s being examined what the possible influence is from these norms and how these norms are being communicated on social media. The research question reads as follows “Which norms are being communicated on social media about drunkorexia related behaviours, namely body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance use and how do college students perceive the influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours?”. The aim of this research is to examine what the perceived influence of social media is on drunkorexia related behaviours by looking at norms. To investigate this, ten college students have been interviewed about their social media use, with the focus on Facebook and Instagram, and their behaviours related to drunkorexia. Although the focus of this research is on social media, the possible outcomes on the influence of parents and peers won’t be disregarded, because sometimes in the interviews the influences of peers and parents will probably be mentioned.
Method Sample
For this research, ten interviews were conducted amongst college students at the University of Amsterdam in their second or third year of their Bachelor, the interviewees consisting of five women and five men. Also, all interviewees had to be living independently
11 and not with their parents or guardians. These selection criteria were set in order to create a homogenous group. The participants ranged from 19 to 28 years old (M=21.5 years). The time they lived independently from their parents ranged from 1 month to 9 years (M=2.5 years). The participants came from various studies, for example Communication Science, Economics and Physics. Some were in sororities or fraternities. Most of them lived together with roommates and most of them also had a job for a few hours during the week. Some of the participants were recruited through an appeal on Facebook and others through an online web panel of the university.
Procedure
The interviews were conducted by the author of this article. The interviews took place at the university and lasted approximately one and a half hours. The interviews were held in Dutch, all interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. The interviewer used a topic guide, which consisted of six topics. The interviews were semi-structured interviews where the interviewer started each topic with an initial question and asked some follow up questions. The first topic existed of introduction in order to ‘break the ice’ and get to know the
participant a bit better. Several things were asked, such as what they studied, how long they had lived independently, and what they liked and disliked about their student lives. The second topic was about the social media the participant used. Participants were asked which social media they used and if they could show their social network profile on a laptop. This was done to make it easier to remember and say something about their social media use. This way the participant could be more precise and the interviewer could ask questions in response to the content that came up. Together the interviewer and the participant looked at the online profile on Facebook, Instagram and sometimes related other online social network sites. Several questions were asked, such as for what, when and why they use this application or website. After looking at their online profiles, they were asked, for example, if they felt the
12 pressure to conform to certain norms and if they thought social media had an influence on their lives. The third topic was about body image. Amongst other things, they were asked how they perceived their appearance, how important appearance is to them and if they think social media influence their body image. The fourth, fifth and sixth topic were respectively about eating patterns, exercising and substance use.The participants were asked to give a description of their behaviours related to the topic and if they thought social media have an influence on these behaviours.
Analysis
After transcribing the interviews, the transcripts were analysed by creating summaries of these transcripts. This way, the researcher could focus on the key aspects and themes that emerged from the interviews (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007). These analyses are based on the framework analysis, only without putting the data in an actual framework. Instead of a framework the data will be categorized and summarised per topic. Through summarising the results retain a link with the original data (Ritchie & Spencer, 1994). For each topic you would get ten summaries divided in five female participants and five male participants. The framework analysis has five steps, familiarisation, identifying a thematic framework,
indexing, charting/summarising and mapping and interpretation (Ritchie & Spencer, 1994). In the first step I familiarized myself with content, by just going through the transcripts. The second step was to identify a thematic framework. In this research this was already been done, because the interviews were divided into several topics that formed the themes within the interviews. The third step is indexing, which is more or less the same, because it’s already clear that the participants will be compared to each other per topic. Therefore it isn’t
necessary to identify the relevant parts for each participants. The fourth step is summarising the data. All transcripts were summarised per topic and each topic was divided into men and women, because it is interesting to see if there are gender differences, although it isn’t an aim
13 of this research. The fifth step is mapping and interpretation. In this step, all the summaries were compared, first among their own gender per topic and searched for patterns. Next, these findings of both men and women were compared. The similarities and differences were summarized into a conclusion per topic. This resulted in a clear overview of the important things what’s being said per topic. Finally, all conclusions per topic were compared amongst each other to look for patterns and this resulted in an overarching conclusion that answers the research question of this research.
To assure the internal validity, several measures were taken. The first measure was memo-writing (Charmaz, 2006). The author wrote a number of memos during the whole process of the research. First, after each interview took place, the interviewer/author wrote a memo, during the process of transcribing the interviews a memo was written and also during the process of summarising a memo was written. Memo writing was done in order to detect possible biases and to reconstruct the data collection and the analyses. The second measure was member checks (Guba, 1981). During the interviews the interviewer repeated,
summarised and rephrased the stories of the participants and asked if the participants meant it this way or had any additions. This way, the participants were able to correct the interviewer if they misinterpreted the story or could add more valuable information.
Results Social media
This topic will start off with a description of the social media use of the participants and after that I will discuss the perceived influences of social media on the participants’ lives. In general almost every participants has a social media account, except one who had no social media account whatsoever. In total, nine out of ten have a Facebook account, but only five have both an Instagram and Facebook account, four women and one man. With some
14 the results because they don’t contribute to the topic of this research. Most of the participants aren’t very active on social media, because they post almost nothing and neither do most of their friends. They post about twice a year. One of the participants expressed it like this “I read a lot, but I don’t post anything.” Therefore, the participants say they don’t perceive any influence from friends through social media. Furthermore, the social media accounts are mainly checked when they’re bored or when they’re waiting for something. Some of them check their social media during breakfast or before they go to sleep. A participant
demonstrates this by saying “When I have nothing to do I will look if there is something interesting, although I know usually there isn’t anything interesting, still I will have a look.” Facebook is mainly being used to pass the time, because most of the participants don’t post much and neither do their close friends. However, quite a few participants say that have often been tagged in posts of others. They use Facebook to pass their time by entertaining
themselves, for example they follow some pages of organizations which they find interesting or they are subscribed to certain pages which posts funny things or nonsense facts.
Furthermore, they use Facebook for some practical reasons, such as to keep contact with friends in foreign countries or to stay informed about birthdays, upcoming events, news or fashion news. Some are also member of certain group pages which are related to their study association or studies, where they can exchange summaries of study books or can find some exam questions. Although most of the participants have their reasons to have Facebook, for some it isn’t clear. For example “I’m asking myself, why do I have Facebook? Still it isn’t clear, but in the mean time you remain a member.” Instagram is used to stay informed about friends, celebrities and other personal interest like so called Fitgirls which blog about healthy food and sports.
When participants were asked about if they perceived influence of social media on their lives, most of the participants said that they perceived little influence from the social
15 media. Although there are some participants who do perceive some influence of social media on them and others. For example this participant “Yes, I think my friends won’t be more influenced than me. Everybody is influenced by social media, but up to some extent off course.” According to these participants social media have influence, because social media is time consuming and in some cases you depend on social media. Even though most of the participants said they wouldn’t perceive any influence from social media on their lives, all the participants who possess a social media account say that they are dependent on these social media. Some participants say that this is could also be seen as a form of influence of the social media on their lives. A participant explains it “It’s a bit of a feeling that when you don’t have it you will miss something. You’re scared to miss something.” This seems a descriptive norm, because social media you have to have a social media account in order to miss nothing.
Participants indicate that one of the norms on social media is that you should only post positive messages, because everyone only posts positive messages and this way it looks like if your life is more exciting. This could be caused by the fact that most of the participants said that they hated stupid or pathetic stories which are posted on Facebook. This way social media creates a norm to only post positive and happy posts. This is an injunctive norm, because the participants think it’s socially accepted behaviour to only post positive posts.
Also most of the participants said that they only post pictures of themselves where they looked alright. The female participants indicated that they often use a filter to make them look even prettier. A participant describes this as “And sometimes you see pictures of how you are in real life and how you are online. Online you look slightly prettier than you look in real life.” Most male participants seem to care less, as long as it the pictures aren’t
embarrassing or harmful. Some of the participants actively monitor their timeline and try to prevent or delete the ugly, harmful or embarrassing post and pictures of themselves. This is a
16 combination of descriptive and injunctive norms, because it’s socially acceptable to edit your pictures and furthermore, it’s the norm to present yourself as positive or pretty as possible. Body image
In general, every participant is satisfied with their appearance. When the participants graded their appearance on a scale from 1 to 10, the grades ranged from a six and a half up to a nine. Almost every participant thinks appearance is important, but not everyone cares as much about their appearance. All participants think it’s important to have a groomed appearance, but the definition of groomed appearance differs among participants. A
participants explains the importance of appearance “Always it’s been said that the inside is more important than the outside, this sounds nice, but in the meantime people judge you on your appearance.” To look better most female participants use make-up every now and then, but in general most of the participants try to eat healthy food, follow the basic hygiene rules, putting on nice clothes and exercise. There were some things the participants would like to change, most of female participants wanted to have tighter bellies, nicely shaped buttocks and some wanted to have bigger breasts. Most of the male participants wanted to lose some weight and or wanted to become more muscular.
Besides that the participants have to give a description about how they perceive their own body image, the participants were also asked about who have more influence on their body image, their friends or the social media. The participants were divided about whether friends have more influence on their body image or the social media. On the one hand, participants attach more value on the opinion of their friends, because friends are honest. On the other hand, friends are only kind and don’t say anything bad. A participant demonstrates this by saying “I think social media have more influence, because your friends are your friends and they will be more likely to say ‘hey, you look nice today’ or something like that. Not that you friends say that your really have to go to the gym.” One participant believes that
17 it’s an interaction between friends and the social media and explains it like this “Yes, because in general social media gives a more idealistic image of how you should look like. On the other hand friends give a more realistic image of how you should look like.” It seems that friends perceive influence of peers on their body image, because peers seem to show a more realistic norm of how you should look like.
However the participants disagreed on whether friends or the social media have more influence, they all agreed that social media do have an influence on them and/or others. Some of the participants said that they do feel insecure and bit jealous after watching the ‘perfect’ pictures of friends, celebrities or so called Fitgirls. Although they are aware that these pictures of these celebrities and Fitgirls are unrealistic and it’s unlikely that they can obtain the same body, still they are impressed and maybe want to be more like them. This means that there is an influence of social media on body image, but it isn’t restricted to Facebook and Instagram, but maybe blogs of those so called Fitgirls have a possible influences as well. One of the participants adds to this “I think the more bloggers you follow, the more you want to be just like them.” Furthermore, not only women are influenced by (social) media, but men as well according to a male participant “Girls are being influenced by for example magazines, but boys are having to deal with the same influence. I don’t think it’s only limited to girls.” These results show that (social) media communicates a descriptive norm about what you should look like, however the participants know this isn’t realistic. Still they are impressed and want to be more like the celebs or the Fitgirls.
Eating patterns
In general, most of the eating patterns differ among the participants, depending on their own taste preferences or those of their friends or roommates. After the participants moved out of their parents homes and live independently on their own or together with roommates some participants are struggling to eat varied and healthy. This could result in a
18 shortage of eating fruit and vegetables. Although most of them also discover that there are so many more possibilities then the dishes their mothers cooked. The lack of money does play an important role in their eating patterns, because they tend to eat less fruit because fruits are expensive, buy things only when they have discount, cook for multiple days at once or for more people in order divide the cost on more people or more days. A perfect example of how the lack of money interferes with eating patterns is this female participants which said “No, I wanted to eat healthy this week, but then I realized I don’t have much money anymore, so a sandwich with sprinkles is easier than making your own fruit smoothie.”. When most of the participants are eating alone they don’t want to cook and choose for a fast and simple meal. If they’re eating together with friends or roommates they often coke more elaborately and more healthy. Most of the female participants eat or try to eat healthier, whereas the male
participants tend to focus less on healthy eating. Although this doesn’t say men eat less healthy, for women it is more important to eat healthy.
Within drunkorexia related behaviours, people would try to eat little in order to compensate for the many calories consumed during drinking. But I believe also other
behaviours could be involved in order to compensate. This is affirmed by one participant who says she and her roommates, especially her roommates, compensate for their calorie intake during alcohol consumption by eating healthy and also avoid carbs. This is confirmed by other participants who know also friends or other people who do the same thing, eating healthy in order to compensate for their drinking. It seems that healthy eating is a descriptive norm, especially for women.
Besides that the participants have to give a description about their eating patterns, the participants were also asked about who have more influence on their body image, their friends or the social media. The participants think that peers have more influence on their eating patterns, because they adjust their food choices to others and when they share meals together
19 this leads in general to more responsible food choices. But is there also influence of social media? Most of the participants said that social media had little to no influence on their eating patterns, because they don’t have the time or motivation to, for example try out the recipes they come across on their social media. On social media, many recipes are being shared, these could be divided into healthy recipes and nice, but unhealthy, recipes. There are a few
participants who try out these recipes, mainly healthy recipes, for inspiration. It seems that healthy eating is a descriptive norm which is being communicated by friends, mainly in the case of women, and by social media. Moreover, social media show not only that you have eat healthy, but also shows you can eat healthy according to the many healthy recipes which are being shared.
Furthermore, some of the participants know others, mainly women, who display the drunkorexia related behaviours. For example, “Interviewer: And she also eats healthy?
Participant: Yes, in general she eats very healthy. Interviewer: And during the night when you go out, does she eat healthy as well? Participant: No, she drinks a lot and she even goes with us to get some snacks afterwards. Interviewer: Oh, then she eats the same? Participants: Yeah, she is a bit inconsistent, but on weekdays she eats very healthy. Interviewer: But in the
weekend it’s different? Participant: Yes, and she even drinks more than most of my friends. Interviewer: She drinks more than you? Participant: Yes, and she goes out more often.” However, it’s uncertain if these girls are being influenced on their eating patterns by social media, because the participants couldn’t say much about the social media use of these girls. Exercising
Almost all participants exercise, except three male participants, but two of them do some exercises at home. Most of the participants do fitness, others do for example running or soccer. There are two main reasons why the participants exercise, namely for their health and for their appearance. Both male and female participants had health reasons, such as wanted to
20 improve upon their health and endurance. But male participants had other appearance reason than women. Men mainly wanted to have a lower body fat and more muscles, while female participants want to have a tighter body, especially when summer is coming these girls want to be in bikini shape. This participants describes this “Participant: And the summer is coming, so I want to look good in my bikini again.” Also one female participant said that she and her friends were exercising in order to compensate for their drinking and eating. Furthermore, fitness is mainly used to improve upon their appearance.
Besides that, the participants had to give a description of their exercising, the
participants were also asked about who have more influence on their exercising, their friends or the social media. Most of the participants said nobody has an influence on their sports, because they already did it along time or it was something they did for themselves. Although parents would be of some influence, because most of the parents stimulated to exercise. But if they had to choose between those two, participants were more inclined to say friends, because their friends would be able to motivate the participants to exercise more. However, some participants would say social media, because in their case social media could motivate them. For example a participant said “But when you see those Fitgirls you think that you have to start exercising again and do a special program for your belly. Something like that. I think that has influence.” But this is mainly for women. This can be seen as a injunctive norm, because you have to start exercising to get in shape, whether it’s for your belly, buttocks or legs.
For some it could also be a more indirect relation, where social media have an
influence on their body image, which could lead to body dissatisfaction. Body dissatisfaction could lead to the determination to improve upon their body and this could lead to exercising. Furthermore, some male participants say that they or their friends use social media as a way to learn some tips and tricks about some exercises or more general idea of how the lifestyles of sportsmen looks like. For example they follow some body builders or other sportsmen on
21 social media. Or even use YouTube for some tutorials. This seems like a descriptive norm, because these people show how you should practice sports. However it’s is unclear if this is being used for inspiration or that they actually apply this tips and tricks when they exercise. In this way you could say that (male) participants perceive some influences of social media. But some participants, men and women, say that it’s more of an interaction between social media and friends. For example a participants said “It’s an interaction with certain goals you want to meet. Because of the social media you want to have a certain body type. But your daily routine is determined by your coach and friends.”.
Substance use
First, substance use of the participants will be discussed and then the perceived influences of social media on the participants’ substance use will be discussed. All
participants drink alcohol, eight out of ten participants use drugs, and one smokes cigarettes regularly. They drink especially beer, wine, and liquor. The alcohol consumptions of the participants range from once in two months up to thirty alcohol consumptions approximately per week. They drink more alcohol now than when they were living back home with their parents, because they have now more opportunities to drink. They go out more often and have more meetings with friends. Mainly they drink in the company of others. A few participants explaining this “But it’s mainly when there is cosiness there is always a drink” and “I’m trying to stop drinking on my own, because that makes no sense” It seems to be a descriptive norm to always consume alcohol in company at social occasions, at dinners, at evenings of the student associations, nights they go out, etc. Also, when you don’t drink alcohol people start ask questions. One participant even describes it as “feeling social pressure.” This shows there may be certain norms about consuming alcohol on social occasions.
The participants who use drugs, mainly use XTC and cannabis. The reason to use drugs is mainly to relax or to have fun, in case of cannabis, or because of the amazing feeling
22 it gives or to make it through the night, in case of XTC. They only use drugs in company of others, the reason behind this seems unclear, but maybe they do this out of precaution in the case something would go wrong. The drug XTC is mainly used during parties and festivals. Although almost every participant in my sample uses drugs, it doesn’t seem to be a norm. A few participants demonstrate this “Everyone decides for themselves. We try to don’t push each other…. We have some friends who don’t use drugs and that is also fine, that’s being respected.” and “It isn’t that you’re being put under pressure, I mean, if I would go to a festival and say this time I won’t use drugs it’s all fine. But you’re doing it yourself in the end, but you’re started because of friends.” Maybe it depends on the social environment that you’re in, because the participants who don’t use drugs don’t have friends who use drugs. This could mean that it is possible that it depends on your social environment and if your friends do use drugs you will have a higher chance to also use drugs. It’s maybe a descriptive norm to use drugs on festivals and parties, but it isn’t an injunctive norm, because it isn’t for everyone socially accepted behaviour to use drugs.
However only one participant smokes regularly, most of the other participants can’t stand it or find it dirty. However, there are some others who smoke when have been drinking or smoke when they go out. Especially when all their friends smoke go outside to smoke, they don’t want to stay alone. Therefore, some of the participants join their friends and smoke with them, although they won’t smoke regularly. A participants demonstrates this “I’m more a social smoker, because nowadays you have to smoke outside, and often you stand with a group of people who says let’s go outside to smoke, and then you will join them.”. This indicates that there must be some influences of their friends on their smoking behaviour. Although the question remains how big the influence of peers is, because most of the participants still find it repulsive. It’s hard to tell if there is a norm, but it seems socially acceptable behaviour to smoke as long others won’t be bothered by it.
23 Besides that the participants have to give a description about their substance use, the participants were also asked about who they think has more influence on their substance use, their friends or the social media and what the possible influence is of social media. Every participant thinks that friends have more influence on their substance use than social media, or in some cases their education. For example, some participants were used to drink together with their parents when they still lived at their parents’ house. Also the participant who smokes is influenced by his family, because they all smoked. But in general all participants think that friends have more influence on their substance use, because they admit that they would conform to the behaviours of their friends. One participants classifies is as a
“behaviour of a herd” or another participant would call himself a ‘follower’. It looks like if consuming alcohol on social occasions is a descriptive norm communicated by friends.
However the participants indicate that friends have more influence than social media, social media also has some influence. A participant demonstrates this by saying “Yes, once in a while you will see photos with people sit on terrace with a beer on Friday afternoon, yah in that case you want to also sit on a terrace with a beer.”. Another participants thinks the influence on social media goes a bit further: “Interviewer: How does social media have an influence on that? Participant: I think by sharing pictures on Facebook. Interviewer: How does sharing of photos encourage someone to drink? Participant: Not necessarily to encourage, but to show that it’s the norm to drink in certain situations.”. She suggests that social media displays these possible norms in photos on social media. It looks like if
consuming alcohol on social occasions is a descriptive norm communicated by social media as well. Presumably these norms communicated on social media reinforce the norms
communicated by friends. At last, according to some participants there is also some education on social media, such as alcohol awareness or anti-smoking campaigns, but the participants say that they don’t pay attention to these campaigns.
24 Discussion
The aim of this research was to investigate if social media have an influence on drunkorexia related behaviours. The research question that had to be answered through this research is “Which norms are being communicated on social media about drunkorexia related behaviours, namely body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance use and how do college students perceive the influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours?” To answer this question I will give an overview of what has been said per topic.
In the topic about social media the participants said they perceived little to no
influence of social media on their lives, but at the same time most of the participants describe that they conform to certain norms that are being communicated on or in social media. They have to have a social media account, because they don’t want to miss anything that may be important and they depend on this because of the endless possibilities these social media offer. Furthermore, most of the participants believe that it’s the norm to keep up appearances on social media and present yourself as positive and pretty as possible and therefore they only post positive and happy posts and only pictures where they look pretty.
In the topic about body image the participants didn’t agree about whether friends or the social media have more influence on their body image. It seems that friends perceive influence of peers on their body image, because peers seem to show a more realistic norm of what you should look like, than social media do. On the other hand the participants perceive influence of social media on their body image, because social media communicate a
descriptive norm about how you should look like, however the participants know this isn’t realistic. Still they are impressed and want to be more like the celebs or the Fitgirls. Besides the possible influence of Facebook and Instagram on body image there could as well be influence from blogs, the blogs of the so called Fitgirls.
25 In the topic about eating patterns, the participants said that their friends have more influence on their eating patterns than social media do, because most of the participants adjust their eating patterns to the eating patterns or taste preferences of their peers, especially when they often eat with friends or roommates. It seems that healthy eating is a descriptive norm which is being communicated by friends, mainly in the case of women, and by social media, were also women seem to be more prone to. The social media show you not only that you have to eat healthy, but also how you can eat healthy, because many healthy recipes are being shared on social media.
In the topic about exercising, the participants said they perceive no influence from friends or social media, because they exercise for themselves. Although one of reasons to exercise is for their appearance, maybe they want to make a good impression on others. If they had to choose between friends and social media, the participants were more inclined to say friends. But this doesn’t say social media have no influence at all, because several descriptive norms on social media are being communicated. The social media show you not only that it’s the norm to exercise, but also how you could exercise. Although the question remains how much influence these norms have, because the participants are inclined to say no-one or maybe friends have more influence on their exercising.
In the topic about substance use, it seems like there is a descriptive norm to consume alcohol on social occasions, this is communicated by friends, but also reinforced by social media, because the pictures on social media show that it’s the norm to drink in certain situations. Furthermore, it might be a descriptive norm to use drugs on festivals and parties, but it isn’t an injunctive norm, because it isn’t socially accepted behaviour for everyone to use drugs. But this descriptive norm isn’t communicated on social media, because that isn’t socially accepted and posting pictures in which you use drugs is also seen as foolish.. For smoking it’s hard to tell if there is a norm, but it seems socially acceptable behaviour to
26 smoke as long others won’t be bothered by it. It looks like social media have nothing to do with smoking within this research.
In sum, this research shows that social media seem to have influence on drunkorexia related behaviours, because many norms are being communicated about drunkorexia related behaviours on social media. Particularly, these norms seem to have influence on body image, this influence has also an effect on eating patterns and exercising. Furthermore, it is likely that not only Facebook and Instagram are involved, but maybe also certain blogs like those of the so-called Fitgirls, especially for women, and maybe also Youtube tutorials, especially for men. It seems very likely that social media have an influence on drunkorexia related behaviours, however the participants don’t perceive it that way. But maybe the participants aren’t aware of this influence, because it’s possible that social media influences the
participants more subconsciously. But this has to be examined in future research.
The participants say that they perceive little to no influence from social media on their drunkorexia related behaviours, because they think peers would have more influence on their drunkorexia related behaviours in most cases. This could be explained by the fact that peers are very important for them. A participant described it as the following “Because your friends are the people you cherished the most. So yeah, I think so. And everybody is influenced by the media, certainly with body image. However, I think my friends are much more important than the media.” And another participant describes it as the following “My friends are my everything.”
Limitations
One of the limitations of this research is that the results of the interviews are difficult to generalize. Only ten people have been interviewed which is hardly representative for all the college students studying in Amsterdam, let alone for all the college students in the
Netherlands. To be able to generalise to a certain population we set some entry requirements for our participants as described in the method section in order to create a homogenous group.
27 This has also been done in order to be able to reach data saturation sooner. Although it seems unsure if we have reached data saturation, because there are no guidelines of data saturation and you only know if you reached data saturation when you already have data saturation for a long time. Another limitation is that the interviews included sensitive topics, which could lead to social desirable answers or no answers at all. Therefore all participants were told that the interviews were anonymous. It also seemed to be an advantage that I was a student myself, because I’m more familiar with the situations which they are in, which creates a bond. Implications
In terms of theoretical implications, this research contributes to our knowledge about drunkorexia, because this research is one the first studies which looked into the influence of social media in drunkorexia related behaviours. This research shows that social media could possibly influence drunkorexia related behaviours, by conveying certain norms about body image, eating patterns, exercising and substance. Furthermore, this research shows which norms are being communicated on social media and how college students perceive the influence of these norms on drunkorexia related behaviours.
In terms of practical implications, this research shows that the possible influence of norms communicated by social media and norms communicated by peers need to be taken into account, because the participants perceived more influence from friends on their
drunkorexia related behaviours than social media. Therefore an integral approach needs to be developed, where the offline and the online social environment are being taken into account, for when we want to develop a medical treatment program for people who actually might suffer from drunkorexia. Also, education about healthy lifestyles must take into account the possible influence from peers and social media.
28 Future research
This research is a first step towards new research about the possible influence of social media on drunkorexia related behaviours. Despite the results this research offers, many
questions remain unanswered and more research has to be done. This research is merely a first exploration of the possible influence of social media. We still don’t know if social media could possibly cause or maybe even enhance drunkorexia related behaviour and how social media could influence drunkorexia related behaviours or which people would be more sensitive to get involved with drunkorexia related behaviours. Therefore, further research is needed. For example, with an experiment it could actually be tested if social media can cause or enhance drunkorexia related behaviours. Similarly, a longitudinal survey could be
conducted through which the drunkorexia related behaviours can be traced over time and one could see if social media use changes and what the possible effect is on drunkorexia related behaviours. Furthermore, with a survey it could be identified which other characteristics are linked to these behaviours and it could be tested whether or not drunkorexia is prevalent amongst college students in Amsterdam. And last but not least, interviews could be conducted with people who actually have drunkorexia and are being treated for this, to gain more
insights in their motivations, characteristics of those people and investigate how they use social media.
In the end this research brings us a step closer to the understanding of drunkorexia, but this is only the beginning and much more research has to be done before fully understanding this phenomenon. As Barbie would say “Oh, I’m having so much fun!” where Ken answers “Well Barbie, we’re just getting started!”
Notes
I want to thank my participants for participating. Furthermore, I want to thank Dian de Vries, postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, for
29 supervising my thesis. I’m grateful for all her ideas and feedback she gave on my work. And last but not least, I want to thank Ruben Boerwinkel for helping me transcribing my
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