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When you think of tools for studying substance use and addiction, a social media site like Reddit, TikTok, or YouTube probably isnt the first thing that comes to mind. Yet the stories shared on social media platforms are offering unprecedented insights into the world of substance use. In the past, researchers studying peoples experiences with addiction relied mostly on clinical observations and self-reported surveys. But only about 5% of people diagnosed with a substance use disorder seek formal treatment. They are only a small sliver of the population who have a substance use disorderand until recently, there has been no straightforward way to capture the experiences of the other 95%. Today, millions of people openly discuss their experiences with drugs online, creating a vast collection of raw narratives about drug use. As a doctoral student in information science with a background in public health, I use this material to better understand how people who use drugs describe their lives and make sense of their experiences, especially when it comes to stigma. These online conversations are reshaping how researchers think about substance use, addiction, and recovery. Advances in artificial intelligence are helping make sense of these conversations at a scale that wasnt possible before. The hidden population The vast majority of people diagnosed with a substance use disorder address the issue informallyseeking support from their community, friends, or family, self-medicating or doing nothing at all. But some choose to post about their drug use in dedicated online communities, such as group forums, often with a level of candor that would be difficult to capture in clinical interviews. Their social media posts offer a window into real-time, unscripted conversations about substance use. For example, Reddit, which is comprised of topical communities called subreddits, contains over 150 interconnected communities dedicated to various aspects of substance use. In 2024, my colleagues and I analyzed how participants in drug-related forums on Reddit connect and interact. We found that they focused on the chemistry and pharmacology of substances, support for drug users, recreational experiences such as festivals and book clubs, recovery help, and harm reduction strategies. We then selected a few of the most active communities to develop a system for categorizing different types of personal disclosures by labeling 500 Reddit posts. Policymakers and public health experts have expressed concerns that social media encourages risky drug use. Our work did not assess that issue, but it did support the notion that platforms such as Reddit and TikTok often serve as a lifeline for people seeking just-in-time support when they need it most. When we used machine learning to analyze an additional 1,000 posts, we found that most users in the forums we focused on were seeking practical safety information. Posters often posed questions such as how much of a substance is safe to take, what interactions to avoid and how to recognize signs of trouble. We observed that these forums function as informal harm reduction spaces. People share not just experiences but warnings, safety protocols and genuine care for each others well-being. When community members are lost to overdose, the responses reveal deep grief and renewed commitments to keeping others safe. This is the everyday reality of how people navigate substance use outside medical settingswith far more nuance and mutual support than critics might expect. We also explored TikTok, analyzing more than 350 videos from substance-related communities. Recovery advocacy content was the most common, depicted in 33.9% of the videos we analyzed. Just 6.5% of the videos showed active drug use. On Reddit, we frequently saw people emphasizing safety and care. Why AI is a game-changer Platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube host millions of posts, videos, and comments, many filled with slang, sarcasm, regional language, or emotionally charged stories. Analyzing this content manually is time-consuming, inconsistent, and virtually impossible to do at scale. Thats where AI comes in. Traditional machine learning approaches often rely on fixed word lists or keyword matching, which can miss important contextual cues. In contrast, newer modelsespecially large language models like OpenAIs GPT-5are capable of understanding nuance, tone, and even the underlying intent of a message. This makes them especially useful for studying complex issues like drug use or stigma, where people often communicate through implication, coded language, or emotional nuance rather than direct statements. These models can identify patterns across thousands of posts and flag emerging trends. For example, researchers used them to detect shifts in how Canadians on X, the social media site formerly called Twitter, discussed cannabis as legalization approachedcapturing shifts in public attitudes that traditional surveys might have missed. In another study, researchers found that monitoring Reddit discussions can help predict opioid-related overdose rates. Official government data, like that from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, typically lags by at least six months. But adding near-real-time Reddit data to forecasting models significantly improved their ability to predict overdose deathspotentially helping public health officials respond faster to emerging crises. The role that stigma plays in substance use disorder is difficult to capture in traditional surveys and interviews. Bringing stigma into focus One of the most difficult aspects of substance use to studyand to addressis the stigma. Its deeply personal, often invisible and shaped by a persons identity, relationships, and environment. Researchers have long recognized that stigma, especially when internalized, an erode self-worth, worsen mental health, and prevent people from seeking help. But its notoriously hard to capture using traditional research methods. Most clinical studies rely on surveys or interviews conducted at regular intervals. While useful, these snapshots can miss how stigma unfolds in everyday life. Stigma scholars have emphasized that understanding its full impact requires paying attention to how people talk about themselves and their experiences over time. On social media platforms, people often discuss stigma organically, in their own words and in the context of their lived experiences. They might describe being judged by a health care provider, express shame about their own substance use or reflect on how stigma shapes their relationships. Even when posts arent directly naming the experience as stigma, they still reveal how stigma is internalized, challenged or reinforced. Using large language models, researchers can begin to track these patterns at scale, identifying linguistic signals like shame, guilt or expressions of hopelessness. In recent work, my colleagues and I showed that stigma expressed on Reddit aligns closely with long-standing stigma theorysuggesting that what people share on social media reflects recognizable stigma processes, not something fundamentally new or separate from what researchers have long studied. That matters because stigma is one of the most significant barriers to treatment for people with substance use disorder. Understanding how people who use drugs talk about stigma, harm, recovery, and survival, in their own words, can complement surveys and clinical studies and help inform better public health responses. By taking these everyday expressions seriously, researchers, clinicians and policymakers can begin to respond to substance use as it is actually lived messy, evolving and deeply human. Layla Bouzoubaa is a doctoral student in information science at Drexel University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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Big city or small town? Tourist trap or undiscovered sights? Following an itinerary or spontaneous exploring? Travel has become a trend as generations raised on social media catch flights, not feelings. But Gen Z and millennials may also be redefining travelall in the search of a more authentic adventure. Hidden-gem locations and no-stress getaways are top of the list for young travelers. Its a shift from the kinds of bucket-list destinations that have saturated Instagram and TikTok and fueled an overtourism crisis in recent years. As traveler-favorite towns are combatting high influxes of visitors, some travelers are looking to new horizons. Theyre also looking to AI to help plan trips. Rather than ask friends or scroll the social media feed, young travelers are turning to the technology for destination suggestions and deals. Travel search engine company Kayak looked into the vacation trends of the future as younger generations jet set. Here are some of the top findings. Hidden gems The days of TikTok-planned itineraries may be waning, as posts with the #hiddengem hashtag increased by at least 50%. Sixty-nine percent of Gen Z and 66% of millennials say they want to visit places theyve never seen before, according to Kayak’s 2026 WTF What the Future report. Young travelers are searching for hidden gems (and the ability to claim they discovered them first). Influencers and travel gurus are quick to offer suggestions of their favorite underground vacation spots. So where are young travelers headed? Check out some of the emerging destinations, as highlighted in Kayak’s report: Cork, Ireland Fez, Morocco Sofia, Bulgaria Praia, Cape Verde Baku, Azerbaijan Chongqing, China Asunción, Paraguay Barranquilla, Colombia Halifax, Canada Norfolk, VA Slow travel Beyond just looking for the next undiscovered dream vacation spot, younger travelers are increasingly looking for ways to actually unwind on holiday. Where trips used to be about seeing every sight imaginable, TikTok creators are now promoting so-called slow travel. Sixty-six precent of travelers say relaxation and mental reset are their top priorities on a trip, according to Kayak’s report. So what does slow travel entail? It might encapsulate a few trends: shorter trips, looser itineraries, and focusing on wellness. Younger generations are certainly exercising their wanderlust, but theyre doing it at their speedand in a dream location they might be gatekeeping.
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If a City is going to operate a multimodal transportation system, then it helps to understand the motivations of people who continue to choose personal cars for their short trips. Bicycle advocates often talk about this in terms of bike trips not taken because of a lack of quality infrastructure. Survey after survey shows that many people opt out of cycling because of gaps in the bike lane network, busy intersections to cross, or other real or perceived pain points. And case study after case study shows that when cities create comfortable and convenient bike infrastructure, more people choose to ride bikes. Theres a similar issue with public transportation that urbanists seem afraid to talk about: If people feel unsafe using the subway or local bus, theyll find another way to reach their destination. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}} The feeling might come from witnessing violence on the subway, from knowing their city has decriminalized shoplifting, or from trying to explain to their kids why a person on the bus is yelling at strangers. If people dont feel safe and secure on public transit, theyre going to do what they can to opt out. Safe systems Theres no easy answer to this issue, but it doesnt help anyone to pretend like perceived safety is exaggerated. Or worse, to act like these fears are just part of some kind of suburban conspiracy against city living. A safe systems approach to transportation involves enforcement, and that makes some urbanists and city planners uncomfortable post-2020. I get ityou dont want the boys in blue dragging someone into a squad car for not paying a $2 fare. But the average American is aware of stories much more disturbing than a teenager hopping a subway turnstile. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, transit system homicides increased 50% from 20202024 compared with the previous five-year period (20152019), along with an 80% rise in assaults. In August 2025, Iryna Zarutska was murdered while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Ridership on the light rail and the local bus has been down since. The thing is, a multimodal transportation system is much safer than one that prioritizes automobile trips at the expense of other modes. But most people dont know that because the news doesnt broadcast the 100+ people who lose their lives in preventable traffic crashes every single day. Case study In New York City, 2025 marked a turning point for subway safety. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that subway crime was on track to reach its lowest levels in 16 years (excluding the pandemic era). Accounting for surging ridership, the rate of major crimes per million riders fell to 30% lower than in 2021 and comparable to pre-pandemic lows. Felony assaults dropped sharply in the second half of the year (down 16% from 2024 overall). MTA rider surveys showed perceived safety climbing dramaticallyfrom 57% of customers feeling safe in January 2025 to a record-high 71% by November 2025. This improved sense of security helped drive post-pandemic ridership records, with subway usage up nearly 8% for the year. Safer than cars Public transit remains far safer than the alternative most people default to: driving personal cars. Transit trips are about 10 times safer per passenger-mile than car trips, with far lower rates of traffic fatalities and injuries. Transit-oriented communities also see about one-fifth the per-capita crash risk overall, thanks to reduced vehicle miles traveled and safer speeds. The sooner we talk openly about the real and perceived issues surrounding public transit, the better. The worst thing to do is downplay the topic out of fear that people might start sharing stories about perceived safety and crime. Do you want more people to take the bus? Use the subway? Share rides with strangers? Then ask people who drive everywhere about transit trips not taken and take lots of notes. {"blockType":"creator-network-promo","data":{"mediaUrl":"","headline":"Urbanism Speakeasy","description":"Join Andy Boenau as he explores ideas that the infrastructure status quo would rather keep quiet. To learn more, visit urbanismspeakeasy.com.","substackDomain":"https:\/\/www.urbanismspeakeasy.com\/","colorTheme":"blue","redirectUrl":""}}
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