Te Ngāngara Limbic capitalism in Aotearoa: Young people, social media and unhealthy product marketing

Abstract

Young people actively use social media for many reasons, including for expressing identities, building and maintaining relationships with friends and whānau, connecting to broader social networks and engaging in civic, commercial, political, and cultural activities and issues of the day. Some have noted that not participating in life online can mean young people miss out on key areas of contemporary life. Our project, Te Ngāngara: Social media and digital marketing, sought to gain insight into digital lives, how young people connect to the internet and how they engage with social media platforms, including what platforms they use, how often they use them, and what they use them for. We were particularly interested in how much they see and engage with the marketing of legal psychoactive products – specifically alcohol, tobacco, and vape products – on social media. We explored changes in these activities through the Covid-19 lockdowns, and looked at drinking, smoking and vaping behaviours. The research employed an online survey, digital ethnographic interviews and in-depth group discussion methods, and culturally-relevant methodologies.

This report focuses on the survey findings. It provides an overview of the methods employed in undertaking the survey, a detailed description of the sample, and findings relating to respondents’ Internet access and use, their social media activity, their exposure to social media marketing of vape, alcohol, and tobacco products, their engagement with this marketing, and vaping, drinking, and smoking behaviour.

Methods: The online survey was developed, piloted and then finalised. Its 6 sections explored demographics; internet access and use; social media content, use, and activity; marketing exposure and engagement; Covid-19 changes; drinking, smoking and vaping behaviours. The survey and data collection procedures were approved by a University ethics committee. Recruitment took place online and in high schools during 2022. In total 3698 respondents aged between 14 and 20 years (M=17) completed the survey. There were a range of gender identities, including 55% wahine/female, 39% tane/male, and 8% non-binary, transgender, agenda, fa’afafine, intersex, or something else. In terms of ethnicity, 67% identified as Pākehā or NZ European, 25% identified as Māori, 7% as Pasifika and 21% as another ethnicity.

Key findings: Respondents were highly engaged internet users. They accessed the internet through a range of hardware devices both inside and outside of the home, primarily using their own mobile phone. They were online a lot of the time, with 97% reported using the internet several times a day or almost constantly. They were also high users of social media platforms, using between 1-19 different platforms in the past month (mean=5.1; median = 6). The most commonly used platforms were Instagram (92%), YouTube (86%), Snapchat (73%), TikTok (72%), and Facebook (68%).

Instagram and TikTok were used more than other platforms to comment, tag, react, and like content. For creating and sharing their own content, participants used Instagram and Snapchat, and to a lesser extent TikTok. For chatting with friends, whānau, and family, Snapchat was used by over three-quarters of the respondents. On the social media platforms they used frequently, 35% reported seeing vape product marketing, 43% saw alcohol marketing, and 11% saw tobacco marketing, primarily on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. A subset of these participants also engaged with this marketing content in various ways. Within the sample, 51% of young people reported having ever vaped, 69% had drunk alcohol, and 22% had smoked at least one cigarette.

Conclusions: Findings show that young people in Aotearoa are highly connected to the internet and are online for much of their time. They actively use multiple social media platforms, and some platforms are used continuously throughout the day. Many young people reported seeing alcohol and vape products ads within their social media feeds, and some engage with this marketing in a range of ways.