JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Methamphetamine has received extensive media, policy and research attention that has emphasized its perceived association with violence, physical deterioration and mental health problems. Social media affords an opportunity to openly and honestly discuss a variety of habits, practices and health conditions which may be difficult to address offline due to the theorized ‘online disinhibition effect’. In this study, we examine how methamphetamine use as habit and as addiction is discursively produced, reproduced and contested on an internet forum specifically for people using methamphetamine.

Objective:

This study examines the social construction of identity among people who use methamphetamine.

Methods:

Using a mixed methods approach, we analyzed 500 threads (318,422 words) from an online forum for people who regularly use crystal meth. The qualitative component of the analysis used concordancing and corpus-based discourse analysis to identify discursive themes informed by assemblage theory. The quantitative portion of the analysis employed corpus linguistic techniques including keyword analysis to identify words occurring with statistically marked frequency in the corpus and collocation analysis to analyze their discursive context.

Results:

Our findings reveal that forum contributors use a rich and varied lexicon to describe crystal meth and other substances, ranging from a neuroscientific register (e.g. methamphetamine, dopamine) to informal vernacular (e.g. meth, dope, fent) and commercial appellations (e.g. Adderall, Seroquel). They also use linguistic resources to construct symbolic boundaries between different types of methamphetamine users, differentiating between the esteemed category of "functional addicts" and relegating others to the stigmatized category of "tweakers". In addition, forum contributors contest the dominant view that methamphetamine use inevitably leads to psychosis, arguing instead for a more nuanced understanding that considers the interplay of factors such as sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, and neglected hygiene.

Conclusions:

This is the first digital discourse analysis of an online community of methamphetamine users and provides a candid view and rich insight into this community.