Microprocessing
How Instagram Can Make Quitting Drinking Harder
As people try to reduce their alcohol consumption, ads served up on social media — and posts from friends — can be an impediment
At the end of last year, I decided to significantly slow down my drinking. At the time, I was — like everyone in New York City — extremely stressed out, and alcohol both soothed and heightened that stress. Though my seven drinks a week were within what’s considered acceptable for nonpregnant women, according to the National Institute of Health’s standards, to better manage my anxiety and health, I decided it would be best to halve that.
So I did. The results were better than I expected: Suddenly, my dinner bills were considerably cheaper, I lost weight, and rarely did I go home after an evening with friends worried that I’d said something embarrassing. But there was an unexpected wrinkle that made slowing down my drinking much more difficult than it ought to have been: Instagram.
All the local bar Instagram accounts had to go. Favorite spirits brands got the ax. Instagram feeds for publications dedicated to alcohol didn’t survive my purge.
If you’re in a demographic that advertisers think is…
