We all know the routine. Take a shower. Shave legs. Shave armpits. Wash and condition hair. Exfoliate body. Moisturize skin. Apply three different creams and liquids. Brush teeth. Dry hair. Apply makeup. Contour cheeks. Apply lashes. Curl hair. Squeeze into a dress. Charge phone. Strap on high heels. Hit the town.
It’s an exhaustive, yet all too familiar weekly ritual for college women. And in a new era where public image and perception can be contorted into whatever they choose, this ritual — and the requisite alcohol and drug use that comes with it — has become totally normalized as a necessary part of being a young person in college.
These days it’s virtually impossible to scroll through social media and see unfiltered or un-enhanced photos and it’s more and more common to see the photos other people are posting of party scenes or being drunk or high and assume that there’s something wrong with you (to be clear: there isn’t) if you aren’t doing those things as frequently or documenting them as glamorously.
Sophomore at East Carolina University, Sara Ellen Poston tells Her Campus, ”Social media affects the self-esteem of young women. I sometimes get false validation from likes or comments on social media, although I know deep down, that’s not where my validation comes from.”
A 2013 study conducted by professors at The University of Michigan found that college students who were more likely to use social media were more likely to be sad and overall less enthusiastic about life, as opposed to college students who did not engage in social media. And for those affected by mood or mental disorders, the gateway to substance abuse is a quick and slippery slope.
The Recovery Village, a personalized addiction facility in Umatilla, Florida says, “In many instances, substance use disorder can co-occur with an existing mental disorder.” This is known as a dual diagnosis, which is caused by a direct correlation between a substance abuse brought on to cope with a mental health issue.
With the introduction of social media and an increase in college acceptance rates, numbers of students overdosing, binge drinking and using illegal drugs, substance abuse has reached an all time high. In 2015, 23 percent of college students had admitted to taking an illicit drug with 7 percent of college students meeting the criteria for substance use disorder involving illicit drugs.
In 2015, 23 percent of college students had admitted to taking an illicit drug with 7 percent of college students meeting the criteria for substance use disorder involving illicit drugs.
“Generally, college-age students are at a higher risk for abuse for a multitude of factors. Drug use among this population can be driven by newly found independence, peer pressure as well as recreational use,” Kris Shubert, clinical pharmacy manager with Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, tells Her Campus.
And while substance abuse in college students can be brought on by inevitable outside forces, the ubiquity of party culture that social media perpetuates has certainly played a key role.
One study found that college women who use social media specifically compare themselves more to their peers than any other age group, and in doing so feel the need to provide content that is better and more engaging than their peers. Decades prior to social media and smart devices, there were college parties where pictures were rarely taken — and even more so, those images were rarely shared. Our culture has now morphed into an age where image is everything — and if that means doing what it takes to fit in, and documenting it along the way, many college women will do it.
A 2017 study out of Tennessee State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro found that college women rival their male counterparts when it comes to consuming alcohol, and this was in large part to keep up their “fun,” and “feminine image,” that they felt they were projecting. Alcohol abuse among college students is higher than any other substance abuse.
And the unfortunate reality is that many young adults are not reaching out for help for fear of judgment, stigma or are just not concerned they are in trouble.
“The health center has not experienced an increase in the amount of questions being asked or students turning to the pharmacy for these types of question,” Shubert said. “Those students may be present on our campus, but may not be willing to reach out and ask for help.”
Party culture is all too often portrayed as light-hearted and non-consequential by pop culture and the media, but the reality of the pressure women are feeling — and how our feeds contribute to that pressure — isn’t something we can ignore.