How Social Media Makes Shisha Smoking Looks Good? A Systematic Review

Despite the danger of shisha smoking, the freedom provided by social media means, pro-shisha smoking content can be freely shared across the platform. This could have a negative impact on youth who are frequent users of social media. They are often associated with the shisha smoking habit. Hence, this paper systematically synthesized the findings of the earlier literature related to the portrayal of shisha smoking on social media. This was performed to provide insight pertaining to the issue, which contributes to public health intervention and also for future research. Search for relevant literature was conducted using academic search engines including Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. The literature was qualitatively and thematically synthesized. The results of this review indicated that, shisha smoking is commonly portrayed as a social activity that is fun, relaxing, and desirable. At the individual level, it was also found that, social media serves as a platform for youth to express shisha smoking attitude. The findings of this review can enhance the understanding of how the portrayal of shisha smoking on different social media platforms may be interfering with public health cessation intervention. This study adds to the present knowledge with regard to the portrayal of shisha smoking on social media.