Social mobile sensing and problematic alcohol consumption: Insights from smartphone metadata

Background Alcohol is often consumed in a social context. We aim to investigate whether social mobile sensing is associated with real-world social interactions and alcohol consumption. Furthermore, we investigate how social restriction policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced these associations. Methods We conducted a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study for 7 days over a 213-day period from 8 August 2020 to 9 March 2021 in Germany, including both no-lockdown and lockdown stages. Participants used a smartphone application which passively collects data on social behavior (e.g., app usage, phone calls, SMS). Moreover, we assessed real-world social interactions and alcohol consumption via daily questionnaires. Results We found that each one-hour increase in social media usage was associated with a 40.2% decrease in the average number of drinks consumed. Mediation analysis suggested that social media usage decreases alcohol intake through decreased real-world social interactions. Notably, we did not find that any significant influence of the lockdown stage on the association between social mobile sensing and alcohol intake. Conclusions Our study suggests that people who use more social media drink less, likely due to reduced face-to-face social interactions. This highlights the potential of social mobile sensing as an objective measure of social activity and its implications for understanding alcohol consumption behavior.