Many people argue that lowering the drinking age to eighteen would not be a good idea because it will cause underage drinkers to start drinking at even younger ages. Why do you think this will happen? What causes younger teens and underage drinkers to be interested in drinking? I believe that some underage drinkers want to drink because of the new youthful attractions associated with it. These new associations are called drinking games. Yes there are “games” that go along with drinking and there are many of them. I am not going to post a link to any websites that explain these numerous games, but I will tell you they are out there, and if you are looking for proof simply Google search “drinking games”. The only problem associated with these games is that the main goal is to get drunk. To be specific, this type of behavior and culture is what makes people want to keep the drinking age at twenty-one because it could be considered irresponsible or immature behavior with drinking, and I can definitely understand this side of the argument. The only concept that I think that people do not seem to accept is that underage drinking is happening and is going to continue happening for a long time. According to this website, “By the time they reach the eighth grade, nearly 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink, and over 20 percent report having been “drunk” (1). Approximately 20 percent of 8th graders and almost 50 percent of 12th graders have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days (1). Among 12th graders, almost 30 percent report drinking on 3 or more occasions per month.” A major issue with this is that these underage drinkers are trying to take this drinking more underground, and in unsafe places.Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Underage Drinking is Inevitable !
Many people argue that lowering the drinking age to eighteen would not be a good idea because it will cause underage drinkers to start drinking at even younger ages. Why do you think this will happen? What causes younger teens and underage drinkers to be interested in drinking? I believe that some underage drinkers want to drink because of the new youthful attractions associated with it. These new associations are called drinking games. Yes there are “games” that go along with drinking and there are many of them. I am not going to post a link to any websites that explain these numerous games, but I will tell you they are out there, and if you are looking for proof simply Google search “drinking games”. The only problem associated with these games is that the main goal is to get drunk. To be specific, this type of behavior and culture is what makes people want to keep the drinking age at twenty-one because it could be considered irresponsible or immature behavior with drinking, and I can definitely understand this side of the argument. The only concept that I think that people do not seem to accept is that underage drinking is happening and is going to continue happening for a long time. According to this website, “By the time they reach the eighth grade, nearly 50 percent of adolescents have had at least one drink, and over 20 percent report having been “drunk” (1). Approximately 20 percent of 8th graders and almost 50 percent of 12th graders have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days (1). Among 12th graders, almost 30 percent report drinking on 3 or more occasions per month.” A major issue with this is that these underage drinkers are trying to take this drinking more underground, and in unsafe places.
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I think you are exactly right in your assertion that underage drinking is inevitable. No matter what the rules, we are going to break them. Do you think the binge drinking caused by these drinking games is because drinking is a "youthful attraction" or is there more of a social aspect to it? Do you think that this would be solved by lowering the drinking age or just cause there to be less time to have this rebellious stage where drinking is exciting because it is breaking the rules?
ReplyDeleteI agree. I Belive that it is completely inevitable and kids are going to be drawn to it regardless of it's legal or not. It definitely has to do with youthful attraction and the popularity of drinking games at every party.
ReplyDeleteI think that one of the reasons that younger teens want to drinnk is because they see their older peers doing it. The younger teens look up to those that are two or three years older them, so they want to be just like them. The younger teens may also feel that if they drink, they will look more mature like their older peers.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, drinking is definitely inevitable. The extent to which it happens though could be controlled if the drinking age were lowered. I feel that drinking games would not be so common if the age were decreased to 18. However, some teenagers will still want to partake in the games, so there needs to be a type of education that will teach the teenagers to drink in a responsible manner.
Thanks for your response 18equalsadult,
ReplyDeleteI believe that the binge drinking caused by these drinking games is caused by a combination of the fact that it is youthful attraction and because there is a social aspect to it, but I also believe it is caused for other reasons as well (like I mentioned before in previous posts, underage drinkers try to get as drunk as possible before going out because they cannot drink publicly). I do think that this problem will be helped if the drinking age was lowered because it would be less appealing.
Response to JellyBean:
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a great point that I have not really mentioned/explored yet in my blog posts. You mentioned the idea that younger drinkers want to drink because they see older teens doing it. They look up to these older drinkers, and want to be like them, so they want to try drinking too. I have observed this trend personally in recent years. I have noticed that at a junior or senior high school party where teens are drinking there tend to be more and more sophomores and even freshman showing up and wanting to drink alcohol as well. To me this is just a bit ridiculous to be occurring as much as it is.
I feel if the drinking age were lowered to 18 not as much underage drinking would occur because younger high school students will realize that they will be able to legally drink very soon, and that they have something to look forward to. I also agree with you that there needs to be more education with drinking.
I do agree with the point you've brought up, it does seem like there is a sort of "forbidden" or "youthful" attraction associated with underage drinking. When you think about drinking games, you usually think of college students participating, not middle-aged adults. I think that such perceptions make social binge drinking seem cool to teenagers, giving them more of a perceived reason to drink.
ReplyDelete