According to social constructionists, there is a difference between objective and subjective realities. The objective reality usually consists of hard data, facts, and statistics.
Subjective reality means the different viewpoints about an issue espoused by various claimsmakers.
One issue that is especially prone to a dichotomy between the objective and subjective realities concerns drug and alcohol usage among teenagers. Different subjective realities collide and interpret the objective data to suit their purposes. For example, the prevailing subjective reality in the United States is that any drug or alcohol use among teenagers is a social problem. This belief is evident even in smaller communities. In a group project on alcohol and drug abuse among teens in Newark, Ohio, the subjective reality differed greatly from the objective reality of this social problem.