Alcohol

1032 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Why teenagers are influenced to drink alcohol

Alcohol

Drinking has always been a problem for teenagers, particularly for the past few years.

Research shows that over 60% of high school seniors drink at least once a week, although the law does not make drinking legal until age 21. In reality, kids are drinking at increasingly younger ages. The question is why do teens use alcohol when they know it's forbidden? Students give various reasons; with most saying they drink for enjoyment, to be accepted by friends, to forget problems, and to reduce stress in their lives.

During my sophomore year at Garden Grove High School, there was a friend of mine named Toni who was different from everyone else. Gifted with a photographic memory, he concentrated all his time to study and helped out other people. Including his looks and being favored by all of his teachers, he was sure that he would be very popular and well-known in high school. Unfortunately, Toni found it was very shocking to learn that he was despised by all the football and basketball players whom he longed to befriend with.

Never been so disappointed in life, he went out for a walk; suddenly, the idea of drinking just popped into his tiny head. For once, everything seemed so bright again as if Toni found a fortune, he had finally known the solution how to fit into the crowd and become the most popular guy in school. After following the other students’ ideas to drink and use drugs, he ruined himself by partying out all night. His goal of going to Harvard started to fade away and was slowly replaced by the urge to have a few cups of beer everyday. Instead of choosing a better path by using his talents, he chose to live more idly rather than going to a well-known university. Many students, favoring lying on their back...

... middle of paper ...

...ring to be accepted into the popular group of friends and yearning to forget their worries, turn to alcohol to satisfy themselves. However, alcohol does not make them special nor does it relieve their worries. My dad, Toni, and Lynn's experiences helped me see the effects of alcohol and the consequences of excessive drinking. Being at a time where they need to feel acceptance and control, teenagers choose to drink, believing that it will not only free them from parental dictation, but also gain them the approval of their peers. However, their choice does not show their independence because they are really following their peers' influence. Instead of enabling themselves to get away from their worries, they create more problems for themselves. With all the troubles that I know drinking cause, I, Yen Nguyen, will never turn to alcohol for any solutions to my problems.

Show More
Related

  • College Students and Their Lives of Drinking

    3787 Words  | 8 Pages

    “80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college environment, will damage themselves mentally, physically, and socially later in life, because alcohol adversely affects the brain, the liver, and the drinkers behavior.

    Read More

  • Edward Snowden: A Traitor Of Edward Snowden

    1506 Words  | 4 Pages

    While the words Traitor and Hero are easy to define and understand it is the perspective of the viewer and society they exist within that gives the words relevance. A Traitor to one may be a Hero to another. In this Essay the researcher hopes to demonstrate that Edward Snowden is both a Hero and a Traitor.

    Read More

  • Sobriety

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    Severe mood swings, violent rages, memory loss—each of these problems were a part of my family life during the past two or three years. These problems are the result of alcoholism. Recently, a member of my family realized his abuse of alcohol was a major problem to not only himself, but also to those around him. He would lose control of his temper and often would not even remember doing it the next day. Alcohol became a part of his daily life including work, home, and any other activities. His problem was that of a "hidden" and "high-society" alcoholism. When he was threatened with the loss of his job and the possibility of losing his family, this man knew it was time to get help. After he reached his lowest point, he took the first step towards recovery—admitting his problem.

    Read More

  • The Shunning of a Whistleblower

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Today’s shunned people are a new breed. With the internet, information spreads like a wildfire, creating scandals over night and created a person into an outcast. One of the most prevailing examples of this kind of person is Edward Snowden. Snowden worked for the U.S government for many years in both the CIA and the NSA. While working for the government, he found many things wrong with the way they functioned, but figured that the 2008 election of Barack Obama would create reforms in the government(Greenwald, MacAskill, and Poitras). To Snowden’s dismay, no reform came; in fact, Obama pushed for the same corrupt policies that Snowden hated(Greenwald, MacAskill, and Poitras). In 2013, Snowden felt it was time to released the confidential government documents he had been so concerned over to the internet, for whom he trust to make what need to be public and what needed to stay secret(Greenwald, MacAskill, and Poitras). His motives for doing so seemed harmless enough. When asked why he released the documents, he said “There are all so...

    Read More

  • Snowden Research Papers

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Currently, Snowden’s leaks have revealed a global surveillance apparatus used by the NSA as well as Britain’s Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, a surveillance apparatus in the UK that conducts real time monitoring of social media networks. The exact size of Snowden's disclosure is unknown, but the following are possible: 15,000 or more Australian intelligence files, according to Australian officials9; at least 58,000 British intelligence files, according to British officials10; and roughly 1.7 million U.S. intelligence files, according to U.S. officials.11 Snowden’s leaks are unprecedented on several levels. His disclosure has been called the most significant leak in U.S. history by Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg.12 Regardless of future action, the debate on the protection of...

    Read More

  • The Drinking Age Should Not Be Lowered

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    We knocked on the door of the off-campus apartment, as it opened we were confronted with the heavy stench of alcohol. A young girl was passed out on the living room floor, a pile of empty beer cans filled the kitchen sink, and the deafening music rattled the window panes. A group of girls managed to stumble past us. They waved goodbye to the host, who was handing drinks to me and my sister. It was not my first time drinking. In fact, everyone there was quite experienced – after all, it’s college. Half of the guests were completely drunk, and I had no problem with it. That is, until later that night when my sister locked herself in a room with a guy she had met only a week before. This prompted me to seriously consider the effects of alcohol. Would my sister have been able to see the danger of the situation had she been sober? Would the absence of alcohol have prevented the events of that night from occurring? These questions, along with the vivid memory of that night, fueled my examination of the complex social problem of underage drinking.

    Read More

  • Edward Snowden: Traitor or Whistleblower

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cassidy, John. "Why Edward Snowden Is a Hero." The New Yorker. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

  • Eugenics: America's Dark Past and Future

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shah, Dhruti. "How the Nazis Undermined Eugenics." BBC History. BBC, 12 July 2013. Web. Apr. 2014. .

    Read More

  • Edward Snowden: An American Hero

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.

    Read More

  • Eugenics

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    The topic of eugenics is a controversial one, but through research it is evident that there are both positive and negative aspects. In 1926, the American Eugenics Society was founded by Harry Crampton, Harry H. Laughlin, Madison Grant, and Henry Fairfield Osborn. The main goal of the organization was to distribute accurate scientific information on genetic health, draw attention to eugenics, and promote eugenic research. “Between 1907 and 1937 thirty-two states required sterilization of various citizens viewed as undesirable: the mentally ill or handicapped, those convicted of sexual, drug, or alcohol crimes and others viewed as degenerate" (Larson).

    Read More

  • The Sociopolitical Implications of Darwin's Theory

    1460 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Nazi’s believed that the ‘Aryan race’ were superior to all other races because they were the most evolved. They used the idea of eugenics to purify their race by killing anyone seen as inferior such as Jewish people and people with disabilities. The belief that they were superior helped them to justify invading Europe as they saw other races as inferior so they believed they had the right to world domination. Furthermore starting a war was seen as necessary to create conflict as it creates the survival of the fittest. This ideology resulted in World War 2 and approximately 60 million deaths. Eugenics also became influential in America when the American breeders association was formed. The purpose of this organisation was to protect the biological standards of the race (Bowler 1984, p. 275). Many people who were believed to show signs of hereditary weak-mindedness were sterilized in order to prevent them from breeding (Depew, 2010, p. 350). It also created fear of immigrants from other races, as it was believed that good traits would be blended with bad ones from other races and be weakened over time (Depew, 2010, p. 350). It was generally believed that poverty was the consequence of lesser ability so the poor were often targeted to be sterilized. The lower social classes were often less intelligent but this cannot be attributed entirely to genetics, they would often have

    Read More

  • Military Drinking Age Analysis

    1172 Words  | 3 Pages

    Almost everyone in the United States drinks alcohol “ In 2014, 87.6 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime” according to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. People drink alcohol for different reasons like celebrations, relaxing, peer pressure and/or boredom. The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty- one but “in 2014, an estimated 679,000 adolescents ages 12–176 (2.7 percent of this age group) had a drink.” “By age 15, about 33 percent of teens have had at least 1 drink. By age 18, about 60 percent of teens have had at least 1 drink. In 2015, 7.7 million young people ages 12–20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.”

    Read More

  • Alcohol

    400 Words  | 1 Pages

    Men - should drink no more than 21 units of alcohol per week and no

    Read More

  • Reflection on the Use and Abuse of Alcohol

    1088 Words  | 3 Pages

    Most people do not realize that alcohol is a drug that claims the lives of youth in college campuses across the world. In my case, it took the encounter with the ORL staff at UCLA for me to come to understanding that I am putting myself and those around me in danger through my risky drinking habits. With hours of self-reflection and the help of a cosmopolitan article called The Deadly Drinking Mistakes Smart Girls Make, I have found that there are several risks associated with alcohol that can put me at a quarrel with death. Even so, drinking does not always need to be deadly, and by keeping in mind the well-being of my fellow bruins and the skills mentioned in the article, I can find a balance between drinking for fun and drinking till death.

    Read More

  • Three Characteristics of Alcohol Abuse

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Curiosity: Teenagers are often curious about things they haven’t tried yet and alcohol is one of them. Teens often wonder why others drink so much and then try it themselves, and unfortunately, if they like it, it becomes a big problem.

    Read More

More about Alcohol

Open Document