Introduction

This chapter provides a narrative review of evidence that links increased use of technology to negative health and well-being. While the chapter touches on several issues, it particularly focuses on two case studies of influencing alcohol use in young people. The chapter begins by reviewing internet use. Second, it considers how growing engagement with technology has influenced sedentary behaviour and, third, how it can influence mental well-being. Fourth, the chapter considers how the content created by other internet users may encourage or reinforce health risk behaviours, presenting the first alcohol case study. Finally, it considers the influence of digital marketing on behaviour, thus presenting the second alcohol case study.

The digital society and internet use

The half-century either side of the millennium has been characterised by a digital revolution, driven by increasing advancements in technology and accessibility to online spaces (Halfpenny and Procter, 2015). This revolution has also been driven by the increased social importance that we subscribe to online environments, and the ways in which technology has infiltrated our lives. This online revolution is characterised by the many not the few. For example, half of the estimated 3 billion internet users worldwide (Kende, 2015) are now members of social networking website Facebook (Facebook, 2015). Indeed, if Facebook was considered a country, it would have a population greater than any other in our physical world (Stenovic, 2015). In the UK specifically, internet use continues to steadily increase (Office for National Statistics, 2015). Frequency of use, the amount of time spent online and many online behaviours are also negatively correlated with age (OFCOM, 2015a, 2015b). This suggests that it is young people, who remain in a state of mental and social development, whose health may be most influenced by our digital society.

Technological developments have also fundamentally changed how we engage with media. Throughout the 20th century, traditional media channels saw audiences as passive observers with little power to influence content (Jenkins, 2006). Digital media, however, has instead created a culture where users have many opportunities to participate, predominantly through social networking and media-sharing websites designed specifically for this purpose (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).