Binge Drinking Health Video

Here is a video that takes a more physical approach to binge drinking:

Binge Drinking And Your Health

Impact of Drinking on the Body

            We all know that a long night of drinking makes you feel like hell the next morning.  But even after the initial hangover, alcohol still has negative effects on the body, especially for a sleep-deprived college, binge drinking college student. 

            Partying is one thing most 18-25 year olds can relate to; heavy amounts of drinking, staying up all night and many other choices that are not beneficial to one’s health.  With this “heavy drinking” (around five drinks for guys and four for girls) comes many obvious health problems of which most people are aware of such as, but not limited to: alcohol poisoning, severe dehydration, and even respiratory depression (slowed down breathing).  Most people are aware of the potential problems mentioned above but there are even sexual health troubles which correlate with alcohol use, specifically binge drinking.

            Decision making is something that is easily affected when large amounts of alcohol are consumed.  When one’s mind is impaired by alcohol, they are more likely to consent to sexual activity, oftentimes without protection.  This leads to all kinds of diseases and many adolescent’s worst nightmare, teenage pregnancy.  Just imagine impregnating/being impregnated by a complete stranger whom you met drunkenly the night before; it is totally not worth that.  Another factor of bad decision making is death.  I read an interesting statistic while researching that said “the four leading injury-related causes of death among youths under the age of 20 are auto-accidents, homicides, suicides, and drowning” with alcohol being involved in a high amount of these.  So while there are known problems that come with binge drinking (manifest functionalism) there are also those problems that people rarely think of (latent functionalism).

            Death may be an extreme impact on the body because of alcohol but just because it is rare doesn’t mean it will not happen.  Always be aware of the number of drinks consumed and make sure to drink a glass of water after every few drinks.  Drinking in college may be the “in” thing to do, but it is always better if it is done in a responsible manor.

           

http://www.livestrong.com/article/569-facts-physical-effects-binge-drinking/

http://www.wwu.edu/chw/preventionandwellness/AODWebPDFs/PhysicalEffectsofAlcohol.pdf

Symbolic Interactionism And Inner Self

Symbolic Interactionalism – A society is created through interactions, values, and behaviors of individuals with others around them. In this situation, this society of college students bring life to the party by behaving in such manners, depending on their values, and all their interactions with one another which may include: drinking with each other, playing drinking games together, behaving drunk and careless. This is the basic idea of symbolic interactionalism when it comes to college drinking.

Inner self – To be a “self” wherever you are you need to be part of a community, or a group, or even part of a party when it comes to college drinking. You might go to a party thinking like an “I,” how you perceive your inner self; this includes your style, your mood, and your feelings. Once at a party you might perceive yourself as a “Me” which includes the ways you perceive yourself towards others, or how you present yourself. Many college students might present themselves as being down to drink and have a good time, because that is what happens at a party. These people skip the “pre play” and go directly to the “play” where they’re actually drinking, and then this attracts the “game part” where there are many players (college students) who are drinking as well. This creates a drinking self in a drinking community. 

Sociological View Of Binge Drinking

Below is a very informative video on the sociological perspective of college binge drinking.  This video was made by a group of Pharmacy students from Oregon State University College.

Underage Drinking Statistics

           There are approximately 79,000 deaths attributable to excessive alcohol use each year in the United States. This makes excessive alcohol use the 3rd leading lifestyle-related cause of death for the nation. In the single year 2005, there were more than 1.6 million hospitalizations and more than 4 million emergency room visits for alcohol-related conditions. 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall. In the year 2004 there were 16,919 alcohol-related traffic crash fatalities, overall there were 42,836 traffic crash fatalities resulting in 39.5% of all traffic crash fatalities having to relate with driving under the influence of alcohol. About 3,360,000 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 are caught driving under the influence as well. Joseph Califan Jr., president of the Nation Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University says "Underage drinking has reached epidemic proportions in America," as well he stated "Alcohol is the fatal attraction for many teens, a major factor in the three leading causes of teen death -- accidents, homicide and suicide.” Our society tends to accept drinking and look upon it as a rite of passage to manhood, or even womanhood. Something has to be done to help these young college students who feel invincible, and are peer pressured to making irrational decisions. Binge drinking is most common between ages of 18 and 22. Reports also say that 42% of college students binge drink.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/AA67/AA67.htm

http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/statssummaries/snapshot.aspx

http://www.abovetheinfluence.com/facts/drugsalcohol?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=college%20drinking%20statistics&utm_campaign=2011%20Top%20Performers%20Q1&utm_content=Paid&gclid=COCHhNCowa8CFWvktgodMBJgyA
Hingson R, Heeren T, Winter M. Lower legal blood alcohol limits for young drivers. Public Health Reports109:738-744, 1994.
Hingson R, Heeren T, Winter M. Lowering state legal blood alcohol limits to 0.08%: The effect on fatal motor vehicle crashes. Public Health Brief 86(9):1297-1299, 1996a.
Hingson R, Heeren T, Winter M. Effects of recent 0.08 percent legal blood alcohol limits on fatal crash involvement. Injury Prevention 6:1009-1114, 2000.
Hingson RW, Heeren T, Zakocs RC, Kopstein A, Wechsler H. Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 63(2):136-144, 2002.
Hingson, R. et al. Magnitude of Alcohol-Related Mortality and Morbidity Among U.S. College Students Ages 18-24: Changes from 1998 to 2001. Annual Review of Public Health, vol. 26, 259-79; 2005
Tan, Andy Soon Leong. "Through The Drinking Glass: An Analysis Of The Cultural Meanings Of College Drinking." Journal Of Youth Studies 15.1 (2012): 119-142. Academic Search Complete. Web. 19 Apr. 2012.

College Drinking And The Idea Of "Face"

Face – This is how a college student might come off or present himself/herself to others. This can be style of clothes, personality, attitude, first impression, body language, race, culture, and where they are from.

Face-Kinds:

1. Avoidance Process – This is when someone tries to avoid a situation. Any college student can decide to avoid peer pressure, or refuse another drink. Anything to avoid something you do not want to come into contact with. It is up to the individual to know when to say no and have the guts to avoid any type of situation they do not want to be involved in.  This can be anything from avoiding to go to a party by making up an excuse to avoiding taking another drunk by acting too drunk.  Many actions can fall under the avoidance process.

2. Studied Non Observance – This is when someone pretends to not even notice something that just happened. An example could be when one person sees a male student vomiting and pretends to not even notice because you don’t want to make him feel uncomfortable or because you do not want to help him.  Another example could be when someone sees a guy taking a girl out of the party who is clearly too drunk but does want to become involved so pretends to not notice.

3. Corrective Process – This is when someone tries to let another person know that they’re breaking a social norm. For sure many college students do this to help out their peers or help a stranger out to not look so bad in front of the others present at the party. An example might be that a guy tells his other friend that he still has a bit of puke on this mouth and shirt, or a girl letting her other girl friend know that her underwear is showing. Anything that might avoid breaking a social norm in the back/front stage.

Maintain Face – Anything to justify what you just did. Someone could laugh it off, pretend nothing happened, or just go with it.  An example could be when someone makes a very awkward comment at a party and everyone maintains social control and carries on as if nothing happened.

Wrong Face – When someone does something that is outside the social norm, or in other words, breaking the social norm.  This could come in a variety of forms at a party.  Any person that is clearly out of place or acting completely out of the ordinary could be considered to have wrong face.

Symbolic Interactionism And Dramaturgical Theory As It Relates To College Drinking

The dramaturgical theory in sociological terms refers to the backstage, front stage, and props of a certain situation.  The front stage occurs wherever an audience is present.  The actor is aware of being watched and acts accordingly, adhering to certain conventions and traditions recognizable to the audience.  The backstage is where an individual is present but there is no audience.  They can leave character and not adhere to their audience’s conventions.  A prop can be anything that assists the actor in playing the role on the front stage.

Backstage – The back stage is anything that happens before the partying begins or to a certain partier while others are not watching.  It can be for example:  Dressing up, getting ready, taking a shower, buying alcohol, and having something to eat.  Anything prior to the party that an “actor” does while the audience of the party is not watching.  In terms of binge drinking this can be:  taking shots alone to get drunk before the party begins, sneaking away from the party to throw up drink water.  As long as the audience is not present, it is backstage.

Front Stage - The front stage for college students will be where the party is taking place; it doesn’t matter where, as long as there is a type of active partying going on, and there is also a group of people. This is where all the drinking goes down, where all the people are displaying their presence with an alcoholic drink and actually drinking. This is also where the peer pressure or binge drinking can or will occur.  It is inevitable that an act will be put on by one or more students in the presence of the audience to conform to a certain convention or tradition about college partying (i.e. Shotgunning, chugging, taking shots, etc.). 

Props – The props can involve anything that can help, ease, or supply the alcohol. The props involve the following: Beer, cups, beer pong tables/normal tables, beer bongs, ping pong balls, kegs, liquor, shot glasses, etc.  Anything that facilitates the actor in the performance front stage can be considered props.