The Hidden Perils of Texting Under the Influence

Most people recognize that there are many activities it is unwise to attempt after drinking alcohol. Driving, operating equipment, caring for children—the list goes on.

Sometimes even shopping is on that list. In a previous column, I addressed how cocktail choice predicts online spending, noting how alcohol's disinhibition effect impacts decision-making. Many businesses capitalize on this reality, serving free champagne at art auctions and other shopping events. Many casinos offer free alcohol for gamblers also.

But how does drinking alcohol impact personal interaction? Research reveals that some people decide to overshare after indulging—in more ways than one.

Source: Image by David D from Pixabay

Communicate With Caution After Cocktails

If you have ever received a late-night phone call from someone who has been drinking (or made one yourself), you know that sometimes cocktails spark contact. We cannot accurately refer to such behavior as “drunk dialing,” because for some normally reserved individuals, less than half a glass of wine can instill the courage to make that call.

But when we are even a bit compromised, we make mistakes. We reveal things and use words we otherwise might not, which can be dangerous depending upon who we are communicating with. And unlike words spoken on a phone call, which are more easily dismissed or forgotten (thankfully in some cases), digital communication is memorialized—potentially forever.

Texting has widely become the type of popular communication option that many people, young and old, engage in throughout the day. Yet as with all other methods of communication, it should be tempered with wisdom, because unlike verbal communication, texters are creating a digital transcript of every word they type, and every image they share.

Research reveals this is particularly good advice for young people. Because for some adolescents, drinking plus texting becomes sexting.

Risky Digital Behavior: Drinking and Sexting

Most people do not text after drinking planning to send provocative content. Most people do not have such content on their phones, to begin with. But it happens, often at the solicitation of a communication partner.

Mara Morelli et al. examined sexual behavior among adolescents with and without alcohol in an article aptly entitled "Sexting Behaviors and Cyber Pornography Addiction among Adolescents” (2017).[i] They define sexting as “the exchange of provocative or sexually explicit content via smartphone, Internet, or social networks.” They observe that previous research found a relationship between sexting and cyber pornography. Their research sought to investigate the associations between sexting, cyber pornography, and alcohol.

Morelli et al. acknowledge evidence supporting alcohol's disinhibitory effect on sexual responsiveness. They note this raises the possibility of alcohol playing a moderating role in the relationship between cyber pornography addiction and sexting.

To investigate this theory, they administered the Sexting Behaviors Questionnaire, the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, and the Cyber Pornography Use Inventory to 610 adolescents. The results found that boys reported significantly more sexting, cyber pornography addiction, and alcohol consumption as compared to the girls.

They found that as they predicted, sexting showed a robust correlation with both alcohol consumption and cyber pornography. The association between cyber pornography and sexting, however, was apparently moderated by the amount of alcohol consumed.

They did not find a significant relationship between cyber pornography and sexting among participants who reported consuming low levels of alcohol. Among those reporting high levels of alcohol, however, the relationship was stronger and significant. Morelli et al. note that their results suggest that limiting alcohol intake could protect against sexting behavior, even for individuals with high addiction to cyber pornography.

Clear-Headed Communication

It is important to note that it is not just young people who are susceptible to sharing compromising photos after drinking; adults do it too. And of course, alcohol is not necessary to make poor decisions when it comes to sharing sexually explicit material. Some relationships include elements of coercive photo sharing, as I discuss in one of my prior articles discussing the dark side of sexting. Others simply involve the exercise of bad judgment, drunk or sober.

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The takeaway is that research suggests that some people, even those who would normally be unwilling to engage in risky behavior, are more easily talked (usually via text) into sexting when their judgment is compromised. If sexually explicit images are not already on someone's phone, they might be talked into snapping a few in the moment (another unfortunate result of impaired cognition) and then sending.

In all settings, we can agree that sober communication is the safest. Because in today's world, many people would rather text than talk, texting falls into the post-drinking behavior category where one should proceed with caution. Even people who would not be caught dead with a compromising image on their phone might “slur” their texts after drinking—even further than autocorrect can (ironically) butcher.

So perhaps for everyone, barring emergency situations, when you pick up a drink, you might want to put down the phone.