Surprising link found between alcohol use in kids and how much time they spend on social media

Teens who spend all day scrolling social media can be more likely to use alcohol, a new study has found.

The harmful effects of social media on kids have been scrutinized in recent years as technology advances and becomes more prevalent in the lives of young people.

Researchers analyzed the habits of more than 14,000 U.S. high school students in a new Northwell Health study, finding that higher social media use is linked with a greater chance of drinking alcohol.

“Using nationally representative data, we found that adolescents with the highest levels of social media use had more than triple the odds of recent alcohol use compared to non-users,” Neel Sharma, research intern at Northwell Health and lead author of the study, said in a news release issued Friday.

The study showed that 28 percent of students with heavy social media use, those who use it one or more times an hour, said they drank alcohol in the last 30 days, while only 13.2 percent of students with low social media use, those who use it a few times a week or just a couple times a month, reported drinking alcohol.

Researchers also looked at kids who moderately used social media, those who use it once or several times a day, finding that 19.7 percent of them drank alcohol. Just 9.2 percent of teens who didn’t use social media drank alcohol.

“These findings suggest that social media environments may play a role in exposure to alcohol-related content and behaviors highlighting the need for efforts focused on digital literacy and helping adolescents navigate online spaces more safely,” Sharma said.

Alcohol is the most common drug used by teens, and it can be deadly. About 4,000 people under 21 years old die from excessive drinking each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Teens who drink alcohol are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as violence, they may get lower grades and it can also lead to injuries such as car crashes. Alcohol use among young people can also slow brain development, and those who start drinking earlier in life have a higher risk of drinking excessively later in life.

The new study found the link between social media and alcohol use did not significantly differ by grade, sex, or race or ethnicity. But students who identified as gay or lesbian had a greater chance of alcohol use if they reported moderate or high social media use.

Researchers say further studies are needed to understand how depictions of alcohol on social media shape youth health outcomes.

Findings from the new study are being presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2026 Meeting this weekend in Boston.