Twitter as a Tool to Warn Others about Sobriety Checkpoints: A Pilot Observational Study

Anecdotal evidence suggests that young people use the website Twitter as a tool to warn drivers about the locations of sobriety checkpoints. Researchers investigated this claim by independently analyzing the website's content regarding a sample of 10 sobriety checkpoints that were conducted in cities throughout the United States during the weekend of August 26, 2011. Researchers discovered that Twitter content either described one's experience driving through a checkpoint or acted as a warning to others regarding the exact location of a checkpoint. In the study's sample, there was over six times as many warnings as compared to experiences posted on Twitter. The warnings, 81 in total, reached an audience of over 64,000 people. The majority of warnings were made by males and by young people between the ages of 20 to 29 years old. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are described. (Contains 3 tables.)