Facebook, social media and its application to problem drinking among college students

• Alcohol content on social media is disproportionate and generally positively depicted.
• Social media influences perceived drinking norms and drinking decisions.
• Facebook appears to be effective for delivering personalized feedback interventions.
• Social media provides unprecedented opportunities to engage with college students.
• Peer-to-peer sharing is yet to be utilized to address college drinking.

The use of social media to address college drinking is only in its infancy, with this the first review of developments in this area. Given nearly all college students use Facebook, most research has focused on this social networking site. Evidence suggests a disproportionate amount of alcohol content is posted by students on Facebook, influencing peer drinking norms. Portraying oneself as ‘a drinker’ is an important and socially desirable component of online identity for many students, and a study of alcohol content can be used to identify at-risk students. Early findings suggest Facebook can also be used to deliver a personalized normative feedback intervention, resulting in clinically significant reductions in alcohol consumption. There are unprecedented opportunities to build on these findings by utilizing untested peer-to-peer sharing and geo-locating aspects of social media.