More Time Spent on Social Media Linked to More Smoking, Vaping in Youth

The more time spent on social media, the greater the chance that children and young adults will smoke and/or vape, according to a new study.

Researchers found that spending more than seven hours daily on social media more than doubles the chance of vaping or smoking among children and young adults, HealthDay reports.

The findings come from a survey of almost 11,000 British people ages 10 to 25, who were tracked from 2015 through 2021. Only 2% of those who said they didn’t use social media at all smoked cigarettes, compared with 17% among those who said they were on social media at least seven hours daily. Less than 1% of those who didn’t use social media vaped, compared to 2.5% of those who were using it seven or more hours a day.

The researchers noted that vaping and smoking are heavily promoted on social media. “This includes direct advertising which is algorithmically targeted and the use of paid social media influencers who present smoking and vaping as a fashionable and desirable activity,” they wrote in the journal Thorax. “Greater time spent on social media is likely to increase exposure to these forms of influence.”