“Can't Wait to Blackout Tonight”: An Analysis of the Motives to Drink to Blackout Expressed on Twitter

Abstract

Background: Alcohol-related blackouts are associated with a range of negative consequences and are common among social drinkers. Discussing alcohol use on social networking platforms (e.g., Twitter) is common and related to higher alcohol consumption levels. Due to the widespread nature of alcohol-related social networking posts and alcohol-related blackouts, we examined the content of alcoholrelated blackouts posts/"Tweets" on Twitter, with a focus on intentions to black out and specific motivations for blacking out.Methods: A set of Tweets containing "blackout," "blackout," "blacking out," "blacked out," or "blacks out" were collected from April 26, 2018, and April 29, 2018. Using NVivo software, we coded all preblackout Tweets (i.e., before the blackout experience) for intentions and motives to blackout.Results: Most Tweets that we collected expressed an intention to blackout and these intentions ranged in strength (i.e., will blackout vs. might blackout). With respect to specific motives for blacking out, celebration motives were identified. For example, Tweets addressed blacking out to celebrate one's birthday, someone else's birthday, a school or work accomplishment, a sports win, during a vacation, or a holiday. Another endorsed motive for blacking out was loss or coping motives. For example, the Tweets commented on blacking out to deal with stress or a bad day.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that Twitter users express intentions to blackout due to celebration or coping reasons. Given the consequences associated with blackout drinking, future research should consider the link between blackout intentions, blackout motives, and alcohol-related harm.

Monitoring the sentiment of cannabis‐related tweets in the lead up to New Zealand's cannabis referendum

“…Using the firehose allows us to describe the trends in how cannabis has historically been referenced in New Zealand, unlike other studies that have limited their analysis to the most influential tweeters, used only 1-10% of tweets or have limited analysis to a short period of time (e.g. 1 month or weekend) [15,17]. Additionally, while it was not our goal to predict the outcome of the referendum, our data provide an example of how data of this nature can be collected, analysed and reported on in close to real time.…”

“…Twitter chatter may be particularly helpful for understanding views of the public leading up to the New Zealand cannabis referendum because of how common substance use posts are [15][16][17][18]. Indeed, a recent study in the USA found that around 2% of tweets written included a reference to alcohol [19] and 7.7 million English language cannabis-related tweets were written in 1 month in 2014 [17].…”

Describing the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on alcohol‐induced blackout tweets

“…In addition, previous research using tweets to track alcohol use patterns indicated that 2% of all tweets reference alcohol consumption [14]. Moreover, research suggests that social media users discuss alcoholinduced blackouts on Twitter [15,16]. Therefore, using Twitter to track alcohol-induced blackouts during the COVID-19 'stay at home' and 'shelter in place' orders, allows for the examination of real-time data in a naturalistic setting.…”

“…Monitoring Twitter, specifically for references to alcohol‐related blackouts, could provide information about how the pandemic impacted risky drinking. Given that some people tweet about desiring to blackout [16], it might also provide an early warning system regarding additional factors straining the health‐care system. Moreover, it provides data beyond self‐report surveys by examining expressions of cognition and behaviour that are not prompted by researchers.…”

What are people saying on social networking sites about the Australian alcohol consumption guidelines?

“…Social networking sites are universal, with 5.8 million Australians using Twitter and 110 000 using Reddit each month 2 . Given that a number of these posts are publicly available, they can be used to answer research questions and track health behaviours, 3‐5 and may be an informative source of feedback on health guidelines during public consultation 6 …”