Hello again bloggers!Have you heard any stories recently about your friends getting completely wasted at a party and not remembering anything? I have heard many such stories, and usually these stories are a result of the binge drinking I mentioned in my previous post. I believe that lowering the drinking age to eighteen would help decrease these problems because it would take away the rebellious appeal that comes along with drinking illegally. Many underage teens are curious as to why this substance is illegal, and why they have to wait until they are twenty-one to partake in this experience. Therefore, it makes them that more tempted to try it and to see what this illegal drink is all about. Even growing up as a kid myself, I had heard about drinking, and that it makes you feel funny, and maybe it would make you do things you typically would not do. After hearing something like this of course a person is going to be curious about it. Another factor that makes alcohol so appealing to underage teens is the fact that if an underage teen tries alcohol and gets away with it that may give them a rebellious rush because they broke a law and got away with it. A lot of the reasons for this are physiological; click here to read more about the psychology behind underage drinking. I believe that if the rebellious appeal is taken away then teens would be less likely to experiment, and wait until they are eighteen to legally drink. As far as binge drinking goes, I feel that lowering the drinking age would decrease this habit as well because eighteen year olds would be able to go out and drink rather than having to get extremely drunk before going out. Please let me know of you have any contrasting ideas or thoughts in general! Be on the lookout for my next post! Until then peace and love…
I understand why you think that the dangers would lessen for eighteen year olds because it would no longer be illegal and the dangerous appeal would lessen but what about teens who are younger than eighteen? If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen would teens younger than eighteen be tempted like eighteen year olds are while the drinking age is 21? The temptation and dangers seem to always be present to all ages due to past observations of teenagers around the age of 16 beginning to drink and take the huge risk.
ReplyDeleteI agree with I'm.a.PC.
ReplyDeleteThis is a problem I have encountered with my topic as well. If you think about it, those who are 18 could benefit from the age change, but those who are not yet 18 would probably still drink. At that point in time I look to countries like Israel that don't really have a drinking age. They don't have nearly as many problems with alcohol as we do here in America. Do you think completely abolishing the drinking age overall would be a wise idea?
I disagree with Im a P.C. I believe that lowering the drinking age will only greatly affect those at eighteen years of age. Some teens already drink alcohol at age 17 and 16. Lower the age limit will not affect those teens because it still means it is illegal for them but they will keep doing it.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for your feedback, as far as your concerns I'm.a.PC I am going to have to disagree with you and agree with WhyHealth. If I am correct you are concerned that lowering the drinking age to eighteen would have a trickledown effect to even younger underage drinkers. This may be possible, but my theory is that teens that are younger than 18 are drinking anyway and that is probably not going to change any time soon. 18equalsadult you mentioned that abolishing the drinking age all together might be an even better route. In other countries this is true, but I do not think that Americas drinking culture would allow for this to have any positive outcomes. A reason why this works in other countries is because it has been like that for hundreds and thousands of years. People in the United States are simply not ready for this extreme amount of freedom with drinking.
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