Duncan Tristan, Dwyer Robyn, Savic Michael, Pennay Amy, MacLean Sarah
Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.
Monash Addiction Research Centre, Eastern Health Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Drug Alcohol Rev. 2022 Sep;41(6):1293-1303. doi: 10.1111/dar.13415. Epub 2021 Dec 7.
The COVID-19 pandemic and associated social restrictions have profoundly shaped the routines, practices and space-times of alcohol and other drug (AOD) consumption. As a part of these transformations, video conferencing services (e.g. Zoom, Whereby) have emerged as popular mediums for socialising and AOD consumption. In this article, we adopt a more-than-human theoretical framework to explore how these online contexts re-shape experiences of AOD consumption.
Data were gathered using a case-study approach, guided by principles of digital ethnography. We 'staged' the online gatherings of three established friendship clusters of adults in Melbourne, Australia, and drew on a discussion guide to elicit accounts of past online AOD encounters during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our thematic analysis was sensitised to the dynamic composition of these encounters and the kinds of relations, practices and affects they enabled and constrained.
Composed via video conferencing services, AOD consumption afforded distinct pleasures, including enhanced sociality, excitement and momentary reprieves from isolation. Importantly, these effects were not uniform or stable. Participants also navigated various constraints of online AOD consumption while establishing for themselves what substances and associated practices 'fit' within these novel encounters.
Our study conveys the importance of digitally-mediated AOD consumption as a site of socialising and pleasure. In so doing, it demonstrates the ways in which AOD consumption was drawn on in the everyday negotiation of health and wellbeing under lockdown conditions. We call for research and policy approaches that are sensitive to the affirmative potentials of digitally=mediated AOD encounters.
新冠疫情及相关社会限制深刻改变了酒精和其他药物（AOD）消费的日常、行为模式及时空。作为这些转变的一部分，视频会议服务（如Zoom、Whereby）已成为社交和AOD消费的流行媒介。在本文中，我们采用超人类理论框架来探讨这些在线环境如何重塑AOD消费体验。
采用案例研究方法收集数据，以数字民族志原则为指导。我们“组织”了澳大利亚墨尔本三个成年老友群体的在线聚会，并借助讨论指南引出关于新冠疫情期间过去在线AOD消费经历的描述。我们的主题分析关注这些经历的动态构成以及它们所促成和限制的关系、行为和影响类型。
通过视频会议服务进行的AOD消费带来了独特的乐趣，包括增强社交性、兴奋感以及从隔离状态中获得短暂缓解。重要的是，这些影响并不统一或稳定。参与者在确定哪些物质和相关行为“适合”这些新环境的同时，也应对了在线AOD消费的各种限制。
我们的研究表明了数字媒介化的AOD消费作为社交和愉悦场所的重要性。在此过程中，它展示了在封锁条件下日常健康和幸福的协商中AOD消费的作用方式。我们呼吁采取对数字媒介化AOD接触的积极潜力敏感的研究和政策方法。
