According to a new study, the portrayal of drunkenness in popular videos on Youtube is almost overwhelmingly positive, with little time and space given to depicting the negative outcomes associated with excessive alcohol consumption.

Man with beer and laptop.Share on Pinterest
While popular videos often depict intoxication in a humorous light, very few address negative health outcomes.

In the analysis, published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, researchers suggest that videos on the site could be used as part of a public health intervention, aimed at informing young viewers about the less entertaining consequences of drinking too much.

Lead author Dr. Brian A. Primack, of the University of Pittsburgh, PA, states that so far there has been little research examining alcohol-related messaging on the Internet, where industry-generated content brushes shoulders with videos created by the general public:

“While we know that some viewers may be savvy enough to skeptically view music videos or advertisements portraying intoxication as fun, those same viewers may be less cynical when viewing user-generated YouTube videos portraying humorous and socially rewarding escapades of a group of intoxicated peers.”

YouTube is one of the most popular and influential websites on the Internet today, with more than 1 billion users registered across the world. Every day, its videos are watched billions of times, and every minute, around 300 hours of video is uploaded to the website.

For the study, Dr. Primack’s team evaluated the most popular 70 videos depicting drunkenness on YouTube. Videos were found through searching for five terms associated with intoxication: “drunk,” “buzzed,” “hammered,” “tipsy,” and “trashed.”

In total, the videos had more than 333 million views between them. On average, the videos received 23.2 “likes” – the primary way for users to express enjoyment – for every “dislike” that was registered.

Videos were assessed by the team in six different categories:

  • Alcohol depiction
  • Characteristics associated with alcohol
  • Character sociodemographics
  • Consequences of alcohol
  • Degree of alcohol use
  • Video characteristics.

The researchers found that alcohol consumption was associated with humor in 79% of the videos and that active intoxication was portrayed in 86%. However, only 7% of the videos contained any references to alcohol dependence. Also of concern to the researchers was the fact that almost a quarter of the videos (24%) featured motor vehicle use.

A gender divide was observed, with 89% of videos involving males and only 49% involving females. Dr. Primack states this finding suggests a focus for future public health interventions:

For example, we know that men tend to report more frequent binge drinking than women and that alcohol use is perceived as more socially acceptable for men. Because they are portrayed more frequently in YouTube videos, it may be useful to target men with future interventions debunking alcohol-related myths propagated on social media.”

Specific brands of alcohol were referred to in nearly half (44%) of the videos. Previous studies have suggested that references to specific brands in popular media can promote alcohol consumption.

However, the search terms focused on by the researchers are more likely to be readily linked with positive accounts of intoxication than negative ones, potentially weakening the results. Utilizing different terms may have led to different findings.

Equally, considering that YouTube is primarily used as a source of entertainment, should it be surprising that the tone of the majority of the most popular videos was humorous and positive?

Despite these limitations, there is no denying the influence that YouTube has over certain social demographics. The website itself states that the most successful YouTube creators have been “found to be more popular than mainstream celebrities among US teenagers.”

“The popularity of this site may provide an opportunity for public health intervention,” write the authors. With positive portrayals of alcohol consumption abounding on the Internet, there is a worry that the proliferation of positivity could lead to widespread negative alcohol-related effects.

“This is the first comprehensive attempt to analyze YouTube data on intoxication, and these statistics should be valuable in guiding interventions,” concludes Dr. Primack.

Last month, Medical News Today reported on a study that found there was no direct association between social media use and stress.