The stereotypical idea of college brings to mind scenes of dorm rooms, studying, and of course partying and drinking alcohol. The presence of alcohol on college campuses is undeniable. The National Institute of Alcohol and Alcohol abuse claims that 80% of college students drink alcohol. While about 75% of college students are under 21 years old this should be surprising, but it isn’t. Drinking culture starts in high school. Most kids can attest high school is where one discovers drinking, binge drinking, and their limit to how much alcohol they can consume without their parents knowing. Drinking is perfectly natural. The act of consuming alcohol has been a staple in our culture for centuries. High school kids think it is cool, college kids think it is a way to have a …show more content…
great time, and adult think of it as a way to have a good time and a way to unwind or socialize. The danger comes when one consumes too much alcohol, too often. Binge drinking in the number one issue in this culture of drinking.
Binge drinking is defines as “consuming large quantities of alcohol in a single session” (drugfreeworld.org). This is a recipe for disaster. The idea of drinking a lot in a short amount of time is appealing to college students because they are “drinking to get drunk” (npr.org). This idea of drinking to get drunk is not a new one. The idea of changing one’s state of mind has been appealing to people for centuries. Whether it be drugs or alcohol or adrenaline seeking, people have been altering the chemical balance in their brain. The danger comes when this imbalance becomes frequent and severe. Binge drinking causes people to make decisions they would not normally make. These decisions can be as minor as kissing a girl you are strictly friends with or saying something offensive, or they can cause car crashes, alcohol poisoning, or other lethal injuries (cdc.gov). These are unintentional consequences to the seemingly harmless act of drinking alcohol. These consequences are the most prominent in teenagers and college students. This could be because of the undeveloped brain of people 18-24 years old. The decision making process is not fully
developed so they are prone to make poor decisions already; adding alcohol makes this process much worse. College student are naïve to the fact that any of these terrible things could happen to them. The culture of college does not help this, but perpetuates it. The culture has already been established in that drinking is a vital part of the college experience. Sexual assault and rape on college campuses is exponentially more than the national average. This is projected to be due in large part to the alcohol culture. The culture of drinking in college is undeniable, but the responsible drinking in college is nonexistent. On of the main concerns should be the access college kids have to alcohol. The price of most alcohol is inexpensive. And it becomes even more inexpensive to drink if one buys a huge volume all a once. The volume discounts at bars and liquor stores is tremendous (npr.org). Not to mention the access to fake ID’s. The website database for fake ID’s is huge. If one simply types in “fake ID’s” into google.com they will come up with at least a dozen websites that specialize in printing fake ID’s for minors. College students are getting drunk on weekdays, getting drunk on weekends, and their lives are becoming affected because of it. At high binge drinking schools, graduation rates are low, class participation rates are low, and healthy eating habits are nonexistent (npr.org). This causes a culture not only of drinking but also of apathetic students. People care less about success and therefore start on a path of failure. Clearly the drinking culture in college is a problem whether it be lethal or not. Change should and needs to be made.
We meet people every day that can have a positive or negative influence on our lives and it is in these people that our lives are defined. One bad choice can send you in a downward spiral that you may not be able to recover from no matter how much help is around you. When it comes to binge drinking colleges are plagued with this growing issue because alcohol is legal and is not regulated the way that some fee that it should be.
I fully agree that binge drinking is a problem and that it not only endangers the students who drink but others around them. Binge drinking is prevalent in America because of the social constraints our country puts on alcohol consumption along with the constant messages from the media that binge drinking is a social norm.
The customs that college students go through are mostly a result of the environment they live in. The walls of college sports arenas everywhere have advertisements from alcohol industry sponsors somewhere, even if it is in the smallest area, it is still visible. Magness Arena does not have advertisements on the walls but they do sell beer to students. I have seen many students that go to University of Denver get alcohol when at a game. Local establishments near campus that serve or sell alcohol, depend on the college clientele for their financial success. These students that help with the local establishments normally get their beer for parties. Many people think that it will be easier to meet people at party if there is alcohol. When the majority of students look at a college they look at the sports teams, academics, and they actually...
College student drunkenness is far from new and neither are college and university efforts to control it. What is new, however, is the potential to make real progress on this age-old problem based on scientific research results. New research-based information about the consequences of high-risk college drinking and how to reduce it can empower colleges and universities, communities, and other interested organizations to take effective action. Hazardous drinking among college students is a widespread problem that occurs on campuses of all sizes and geographic locations. A recent survey of college students conducted by the Harvard University School of Public Health reported that 44 percent of respondents had drunk more than five drinks (four for women) consecutively in the previous two weeks. About 23 percent had had three or more such episodes during that time. The causes of this problem are the fact that students are living by themselves no longer with parents or guardians; they earn their own money; students need to be a part of a group, be accepted; and they have the wrong idea that to feel drunk is “cool.”
We've all heard it before: "Too much of anything is bad for us." The amount of binge drinking occurring on American college campuses today proves that college students do not heed this warning. Binge drinking, or drinking for the purpose of getting drunk, harms both drinkers and non-drinkers alike. As today's college students come dangerously close to being swept away in the sea of papers, exams, jobs, and interviews, they use bingeing as the lifeboat that allows them to escape the stress. It allows them to forget their worries, fit in with the crowd, and live on the edge in a fast-paced world that normally does not leave time for such activities. Teetering on the brink of adulthood, yet still trapped in childhood makes drinking decisions difficult for many college students. A desire to get away from our usual lives because of societal regulations and conformity, psychological and emotional problems, and the stress of everyday life causes college binge drinking.
Alcohol use has been an important part of the American college experience since the eighteen century. The early form of drunken college kids with a lifestyle known as “the collegiate subculture”. In the 17000s when “the sons of the rich came to college for four years of pleasure and social contacts. They considered academic work an intrusipon on their fun and they were content to pass their courses with a ‘gentleman’s C’ grade. The collegiate subculture is antieducational with students associated with party scenes, taking precedence over academic endeavors.” Modern college drinking is not limited to power elite, usual universities partiers are from the wealthy. Students use alcohol to demonstrate their privilege status. College for them is not the only pathway to success. They are already success through family wealthy backgrounds. Alcohol consumption is a way to let everyone know about their status and that they had already “made it”.
One of the main reasons students feel the need to binge drink is peer pressure. They do this because their peers are doing it and they want to fit in better. College dorm rooms offer many different places for students to drink. Dorm rooms give a great place for a few people to get together, and before you know it “everybody’s doing it”.
According to a national survey conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “almost 60 percent of college students ages 18–22 drank alcohol in the past month, 1 and almost 2 out of 3 of them engaged in binge drinking during that same timeframe” (NIH). Binge drinking culture refers to the recent rise and normalization of college age students drinking excessively. The CDC describes binge drinking as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol level to 0.08grams within two hours” (CDC). For many young adults, college is one of the first times they will experience complete freedom. This freedom often leads to partying, which goes hand in hand with the consumption of alcohol. However, since the age at which
Over 49% of the college students within America do not consume alcohol on a regular basis (Lankford, 2007). However, a significant percentage of these students lack the control to abuse alcohol when they start consuming it. The annual Health College Alcohol Study indicates that the social interaction within a majority of the societal settings has significantly been affected by the increased amount of alcoholic consumption. This has seen the rise of fights and disorderly communities, especially within those areas where colleges are set up. ...
Binge or excessive drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, health, and education on college campuses today. Binge or excessive drinking by college students has become a social phenomena in which college students do not acknowledge the health risks that are involved with their excessive drinking habits. Furthermore college students do not know enough about alcohol in general and what exactly it does to the body or they do not pay attention to the information given to them. There needs to be a complete saturation on the campus and surrounding areas, including businesses and the media, expressing how excessive drinking is not attractive and not socially accepted.
Almost anything can become a cause for binge drinking. There are things that directly lead to drinking problems such as depression but most of the causes for it are just any old excuse. If I had to decide on main causes for binge drinking they would be depression and simple excuses that give students a reason to drink. People that are depressed usually have thoughts of giving up on life, so by drinking they are just easing their pain. Most of the binge drinking that goes on in college is because students feel that they are supposed to drink, its a college tradition in a way. This is why students will use any excuse they can to drink.
Binge drinking or heavy drinking is a modern description for drinking alcoholic beverages with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. It is a kind of purposeful drinking style that is popular in several countries worldwide, and overlaps somewhat with social drinking since it is often done in groups. The degree of intoxication, however, varies between and within various cultures that engage in this practice. A binge on alcohol can occur over hours, last up to several days, or in the event of extended abuse, even weeks. Due to the long-term effects of alcohol misuse, binge drinking is considered to be a major public health issue. The more often a child or adolescent binge drinks and the younger they are the more likely they will develop an alcohol use disorder called alcoholism.
Alcohol is a very serious and dangerous drug, although it is not treated this way anymore. College students have taken drinking to a new level in which, for many, is very scary. Alcohol is much more dangerous than many would think. Kids see a night of drinking as a great way to have fun and party but do not see the consequences. Getting drunk and even blacking out can lead to many problems. When alcohol is consumed in unhealthy amounts, it can lead to not only short-term effects, but long-term ones as well.
The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.
A person with an addiction puts the drug first, ahead of what is to be important for them for example, their career, school, even their own health, security and happiness. The most common substance that a teenager can get their hands on tends to be alcohol. In the book, CLEARING THE HAZE Helping Families Face teen Addiction by Christina Thurstone, MD, and Christine Tatum it states, “Nearly 69 percent of high school senior, or seven out of every ten, said they had tried alcohol in an amount “more than just a few sips.” More than half of senior, 52%, reported they had been drunk at least once in their life time. Meanwhile back in middle school, about three out of ten, or 28%, of students they had used alcohol by 8th grade—and 12 percent said they’d be drunk atlas once. Among college students surveyed, 35% said they had consumed at least 5 alcoholic drinks in a row in the previous two weeks. Researches noted what they called” particularly worrisome” rates of “extreme binge