Celebs Pushing Teens to Smoke and Booze!

A study conducted by Mekam Maheshwar, senior social scientist (deputy director) of the National Institute of Nutrition, revealed that teenagers are resorting to smoking and drinking after being influenced by visuals of celebrities in the mass media and internet. The survey was conducted on 517 teenagers.

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Maheshwar did the research on “Influence of mass media on teenagers’ diet and health-related behaviour’ for his doctoral degree by Osmania University. It was concluded that 15 per cent of boys smoked cigarettes or consumed alcohol on more than one occasion to imitate media visuals involving film stars and celebrities.

These visuals include from movies, television and the internet. The study was conducted during 2014-15 in Hyderabad. The 90% of the respondents watched television at least for an hour every day and about two-third of teenagers browse the internet and that prompted them to resort to smoking and boozing.