How Bingeing Became the New College Sport - Essay Example

How Bingeing Became the New College Sport The title suggests that the article is about the consumption of alcohol by students in colleges. The title is also suggestive of containing inbformation on the manner in which alcohol consumption has become rampant in colleges, and the depth of this practice by students in colleges. The topic of the article is the heavy drinking of students at college, especially with regard to students below the age of twenty one. The claim is that these students consume excessive alcohol within their rooms, in sessions called ‘pre-gaming’, prior to going out for parties in the evening.

The author’s point of view is that this excessive drinking stems from the legal position, where students below the age of 21 cannot legally buy or consume alcohol, and it is is this repressive legal issue that is the main cause of the binge drinking seen in colleges. My experience in this aspect of execessive drinking in colleges is second hand, as I do not consume alcohol. I have seen my peers and friends indulging in such drinking, confirming the claim of the author. I have not come across any incident of excessive drinking causing immediate and severe health problem.

Still I have seen, and experienced the consequences of this execessive drinking at parties in the evening.It is not uncommon to see some of the participants coming to parties having consumed a lot of drink in their rooms, in the belief that it would help create a more lively atmosphere at the parties, but exactly the opposite happening, with their inability to be a part of it in their inebriated state. Some pass out, and some others throw up, and the rest more a less making a nuisance of themselves.

I have heard of instances of unfortunate sexual experiences occurring, when it was not meant to happen, but with alcohol dulling the appropriate senses, inappropriate actions take place. Alcohol in small quantities may help in brightening up party atmospheres, but the binge drinking in the rooms of students is seldom light, and does create problems not just to those who consume it, but also to those who happen to be in the environment. Alcohol consumption by students below the age of twenty one in their rooms in what is known as ‘pre-gaming’, is becoming a common practice in colleges.

This execessive consumption of alcohol has even posed severe health risks to these students. Students below twenty one tend to drink execessively in their rooms, as they are legally not allowed to buy or consume alcohol. So in that aspect raising the age from eighteen to twenty one for legal purchase or consumption has not had the desired effect of dissuading students below the age of twenty one from consuming alcohol, and in fact it has done the opposite by causeing them to consume execessive alcohol in the confines of their rooms.

The administrative authorities have shown a tendency of vacillation with regard to the age limit for legal purchase and consumption of liquor. More than four decades back the legal age of consumption of liquor was twenty one years, which was reduced to eighteen years in the late sixties, and only to be raised again in the eighties back to twenty one years, in an effort to protect students from the consequences of consuming liquor. This has only led to greater covert consumptions of alcohol by the students, and even college authorities express this view.

By lowering the legally permissive age for the consumption of alcohol from twenty one years to eighteen years, initially there may be an increase in the consumption of alcohol, as students celebrate this new freedom. Over a period of time the consumption of alcohol among students will drop, as the fad passes away, and the thrill of consuming alcohol looses its glitter. The students would then gradually start acting like the adults that society expects them to be. (Seaman, B., 2005). Literary ReferencesSeaman, B. (2005). How Bingeing Became the New College Sport.

Time, Vol 166(9), pp 80.