SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – People who see tobacco content on social media are more than twice as likely to use tobacco than people who don’t have that content populating in their feed, according to a new paper published this week.
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"In our research, we've observed that the social media space has a lot of pro-tobacco content," Scott Donaldson, first author of the paper and a senior research associate in the Keck School of Medicine's Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the University of Southern California, told KCBS Radio's Liz Saint John on Monday.
"Especially if you've been exposed to it," he said. "So it kind of works in a feedback loop – if you've been exposed to this content you're more likely to get posts that are related to that."
The content appears in different forms, including commercial tobacco vendors, as well as users and peers exhibiting tobacco consumption.
Vendors are putting out advertisements, sometimes with coupons, trying to get people to try their products.
"Both of these create susceptibility and are associated with likelihood to use tobacco, and tobacco use," said Donaldson.
Researchers came to this conclusion by studying 139,624 participants that were a part of 29 different studies in several countries.
Platforms included in the research were are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Pinterest and Tumblr.
The research spanned several demographics and age groups. Young adults and adolescents were found to be more susceptible than adults to tobacco use.
Different types of engagement were studied – whether the user liked or marked the post in some way or if the content was simply viewed – but both played a factor in increasing use.
If one user saw tobacco content on more than one platform, the risk of tobacco use increased even more.
To mitigate the harm being caused by this type of content, there are steps that need to be taken.
Social media platforms could better police this type of content, and the federal government could also take a more direct approach by putting out more information against tobacco use, and creating new laws and restrictions.
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