title: Emerging adults' use of alcohol and social networking sites during a large street festival: A real-time interview study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Emerging adults have high rates of heavy episodic drinking (binge drinking) and related risks including alcohol-impaired driving. To understand whether social networking sites (SNSs) used on mobile devices represent a viable platform for real-time interventions, this study measured emerging adults' use of two popular SNSs (Facebook and Twitter) during the Mifflin Street Block Party. This annual festival is held in Madison, Wisconsin and is known for high alcohol consumption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Event attendees ages 18-23 years were recruited by young adult research assistants (>21 years). Participants completed a brief in-person interview assessing drinking intensity, use of SNSs, and use of SNSs to plan transportation. Analyses included t-tests, chi-squared tests, and Fisher's exact tests. At the event, nearly all of the 200 participants (97 %) consumed alcohol and 18 % met criteria for heavy episodic drinking. Approximately one-third of participants had used Facebook or Twitter on the day of the event. Facebook use (23 %) was more prevalent than Twitter use (18 %), especially among heavy episodic drinkers. Use of either SNS was 41 % among females and 24 % among males (χ (2)=6.01; df=1; p=0.01). Plans to use a SNS to arrange transportation were relatively uncommon (4 %), but this was more frequent among heavy episodic drinkers (11 %) compared to non-heavy episodic drinkers (2 %) (Fisher's exact p=0.02).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that SNSs are used during alcohol consumption and warrant exploration as a way to facilitate connections to resources like safe ride services.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Promotion and Policy, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA. jmw@umass.edu.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Whitehill
authors.affiliation: Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. megan.pumper@seattlechildrens.org.
authors.forename: Megan A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Pumper
authors.affiliation: Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Seattle Children's Research Institute, Seattle, WA, USA. megan.moreno@seattlechildrens.org.|Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. megan.moreno@seattlechildrens.org.
authors.forename: Megan A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Moreno
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D040261:Harm Reduction; D006693:Holidays; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D060756:Social Networking; D014186:Transportation; D014922:Wisconsin; D055815:Young Adult