The Rising Social Media and Declining Alcohol Use: The Case of Finnish Teenagers

Abstract

The article aims to make understandable a significant change that has taken place in the adolescent drinking habits: throughout the world, the teens are drinking much less than previous generations. Previous research has approached this phenomenon through survey research methodology, trying to identify the variables that correlate with individuals’ alcohol consumption level, thereby explaining the phenomenon. The impact of social media use on drinking habits has been identified as one possible explanation, but the results have been contradictory. The article hypothesizes that the rise of social media created an institutional change in young people’s conditions for and patterns of socializing. Using qualitative interviews with Finnish teenagers as empirical data, the article concludes that since socializing with peers and initiating romantic relationships takes place primarily in virtual contexts, there are less occasions in which alcohol would serve as a social lubricant. Consequently, compared with previous generations, alcoholic beverages play a smaller role in young people’s lives. The current living conditions molded by the social media concern everyone, which is why individual-level correlations between social media use and alcohol consumption level do not capture the aggregate effect that the changed living conditions have brought about.