623 - Longitudinal Content Analysis of Popular Hallucinogen Content on TikTok

Monday, May 1, 2023

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM ET

Poster Number: 623
Publication Number: 623.454

Amrutha Garimella, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI, United States; Bradley Kerr, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, United States; Reese Hyzer, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, United States; Megan A. Moreno, UW Madison, Madison, WI, United States

Presenting Author(s)

AG

Amrutha Garimella (she/her/hers)

Student
University of Wisconsin Madison
Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Background:

Adolescent use of hallucinogens has steadily increased since 2013. Little is known about hallucinogen content on the youth-dominated social media platform, TikTok.

Objective:

To understand the content and engagement of hallucinogen-related TikTok videos at two time points.

Design/Methods:

In this content analysis study, data were collected at two time points during two weeks in spring 2021 and fall 2022. At each time point, we sampled 20 unique posts referencing hallucinogens from the most popular TikTok hashtag associated with LSD (#Acid), Psilocybin (#Shrooms), Peyote (#Peyote), dimethyltryptamine (#DMT), and Ayahuasca (#Ayahuasa). A codebook was developed inductively to assess video content. Videos were evaluated for the following content elements: personal stories, substance-related humor, hallucinogen information, live hallucinogen use, psychedelic artwork, consumption tutorials, video game references, and psychedelic video simulations. Differences in content element proportions between the two time points were assessed with chi-square tests. T-tests assessed differences in mean likes between the two time periods.

Results:

A total of 100 videos were evaluated across five hashtags at time point 1, and 60 videos were evaluated across three hashtags at time point 2, as #Shrooms and #DMT in time point 2 were removed by TikTok. Overall, videos with personal stories (22.05%) and substance-related humor (21.03%) were the most common. The least prevalent content element was hallucinogen artwork (2.05%). At time point 1, personal stories was the most prevalent content element (22.66%) followed by substance-related humor (21.09%). At time point 2, personal stories, hallucinogen information, and substance-related humor each had the same prevalence of 29.89%. Most content elements did not show a change in prevalence between time point 1 and time point 2. Video game references were less likely to be displayed at time point 2 (3.33%) than time point 1 (21.67%, p=.002). Overall, videos observed at time point 1 (M=234923.81, SD=281889.62) had more likes than videos observed at time point 2 (M=108038.75, SD=232890.23, t(142.633)=3.079, p=.002).

Conclusion(s):

Findings suggest personal stories and humor are consistently present in hallucinogen videos on TikTok. Decreased engagement between 2021 and 2022 may be related to the removal of two hashtags. Future studies should examine the influence of personal stories and humor elements on adolescent hallucinogen use.