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Social Media's Role In Peer Pressure 39

Daniel_Stuckey writes "The Fear of Missing Out phenomenon is part of why people tend to get addicted to social networking and then depressed. And if you're a young, impressionable teenager, it could pressure you into making sure you, too, are happily intoxicated the next time someone snaps a group shot. That's the gist of the latest study to find that social media photos of people drinking and smoking can influence teens into partaking in the same degenerate behavior. The University of Southern California study was published online today in the Journal of Adolescent Health."
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Social Media's Role In Peer Pressure

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  • by Cyfun ( 667564 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @03:46AM (#44754117) Homepage

    I've had these fears for as long as I can remember. Always wondered if this problem had been documented, and was afraid that it already had been announced and I'd missed out on it.

    • I've had these fears for as long as I can remember.

      On the other hand, I have a real fear of not remembering things that I need to remembered, and I honestly don't know how long I've forgotten I'm not remembering whatever that I need to remember.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Whether or not you're missing out really depends on what your friends are posting. My friends constantly nag me about getting a Facebook account, and now and again there are conversations I'm slightly left out of where they'll say "See, if you had Facebook you'd know this".

      Thing is, those conversations tend to be about incredibly inane things like cat videos and pictures of people at a party. Very rarely are they about something which is actually interesting or which actually matters, and in those situati

      • by robsku ( 1381635 )

        Note: Long babbling ahead, skip to end of message if bored/sane/etc. for something I actually wanted point out...

        I've been addicted to social networking for a long time.
        I do have facebook account, and I've chosen to associate myself with only certain people, which keeps it actually around as largely interesting for me as slashdot postings - but only for very limited time.

        I practically never really "use" facebook, but sometimes I do go there for one of several reasons:
        1) To post text, link or images (like wh

    • by chromas ( 1085949 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @04:51AM (#44754327)
      It's why kids don't want to go to sleep—something will happen and they'll miss out.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        ...and drunks don't want to go to sleep because they know their friends will write on them with a Sharpie.

      • by robsku ( 1381635 )

        In the social network of IRC we had awaylog which you could configure to capture lines which contain a string or match an expression - by default most clients captured anything with your nick.
        It was also a convenient way to set status, ie. /away "Gone to sauna, brb" while you were away to be shown for anyone private messaging or querying /whois from you...

        There was nothing that important you could not go to sleep at 3am for at least 3-5 hours when I was a teen ;)

  • by Anonymous Coward

    "social media photos of people drinking and smoking can influence teens into partaking in the same degenerate behavior"

    Hmmm... Where did I hear that same argument?

    Oh Yeah! I remember now! Every time any new form of communication has come to existence!

    I'm starting to think someone's using 50 year old newspapers as source for their articles.

  • Social media is exactly the same as AFK.

    News at, well, never.

  • Amazing! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sidevans ( 66118 ) on Wednesday September 04, 2013 @04:01AM (#44754171) Homepage

    I thought it was movies, TV shows, rock music, rap music, computer games, friends and family that were at fault for the evil's of society, I'm glad we can blame social media now, people were starting to point the finger at religion for causing these issues and we can't have that happening now...

    • No one was really blaming religion. That's a dumb argument and you should know better. People seek scapegoats even when something else isn't seeking protection from criticism.

  • The bottom line is this: "the frequency of adolescent SNS use and the number of their closest friends on the same SNSs were not significantly associated with risk behaviors." It has been known since at least Aesop the birds of feather flock together.

  • Fear of Missing Out = Bored, Lonely, Horny as a dog in heat.
    Addicted to Social Media = Addicted to Porn
    Lonely and depressed = Can't get laid on impulse

    Sounds like the usual state of affairs. Facebook is fueled by boners and sex drives generated by the Large Hard-on Collider

  • Degenerate by whose reckoning? Was this study funded by christian science or something?

  • The only reason I bother with Facebook at this point (the only "social media" network I actually check) is that I have discovered that I like knowing what my cousins across the country are up to. It's hard to stay connected to family in this day and age on a day to day basis without it.

    If it weren't for that, I'd have deleted the thing years ago. I could care less about the group photos and whatnot from the blurb.

  • So basically, it's the same issue of teens wanting to fit in and do what the other teens are doing, only with a more tech-involved twist...okay then. Social media, while often a cause of irritation and annoyance, shouldn't be the latest in a line of scapegoats to place the blame of peer pressure on. I wonder who this study was funded by anyway.
  • Smoking and drinking are degenerate behaviorm. Glad the guy running this study wasn't my dad.

  • All through my life I've had this strange unaccountable feeling that something was going on in the world, something big, even sinister, and no one would tell me what it was.

  • That's the gist of the latest study to find that social media photos of people drinking and smoking can influence teens into partaking in the same degenerate behavior.

    And what is it that pressures people into partaking in judging others choices as "degenerate". Seems like a more important question to answer since its a problem that tends to lead to attempts to control others behaviour, as this sort of behavior often turns violent as the perpetrators find their means of control don't work and they inevitably

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