<p>“How do we go from college drinking to wine sipping?”</p>
<p>There has been much discussion of college drinking on this forum, so thought this piece would be of interest to many readers here. From the writer’s perspective, drinking to get drunk is a normal part of college life, and switching to social drinking happens when people graduate and get jobs and become “grown ups”.</p>
<p>This is a wonderfully written article. The writer actually presents the situation in such a benign light that I - for the first time - thought college binge drinking seemed normal. That’s the power of beautiful prose. But really, the picture painted beneath the prose is not pretty. Alcoholism is progressive and many of those “get out of jail free” cards don’t work after awhile. There’s a lot of shame attached to what happens when people are drunk and behaving badly. Some kids can make a smooth transition out of college drinking but some get lost and some don’t make it out.</p>
<p>“Some kids can make a smooth transition out of college drinking but some get lost and some don’t make it out.”</p>
<p>Not to mention the burden plastered students impose on their social-drinking classmates. It’s the plastered kids who are (these are all things I witnessed during college) puking in someone else’s bedroom doorway, stepping on someone else’s birthday cake, dropping rocks on someone else’s car, and more.</p>
<p>Telling the society of people who see their own actions as socially acceptable that their actions aren’t socially acceptable doesn’t work; hence the continued problem with binge drinking in college. When was the last time you believed someone from California who told you New York was a horrible place (or vice versa)? </p>
<p>The author is attempting to examine why members of the college society view what they do as acceptable and at the same time view identical actions by people who are not members of the college society as unacceptable. Understanding why these views are held is the only possible first step towards countering these views. </p>
<p>“But I’ve gone to Vegas and seen the balding 40 year old who at noon is already sporting a foot-long margarita and a confused look, and I pity the poor soul for leading such a sad life. And then I go buy a foot-long margarita myself.”</p>
<p>WHY does she feel pity for someone doing the same thing as her, but her own actions don’t bother her?</p>
<p>You can’t find a solution to a problem without first understanding what caused the problem.</p>
<p>“Telling the society of people who see their own actions as socially acceptable that their actions aren’t socially acceptable doesn’t work; hence the continued problem with binge drinking in college.”</p>
<p>Funny. Traffic laws and signals work pretty well where I live, even though there isn’t a cop on any corners.</p>
<p>A student’s perspective on college drinking. That is a scary article, because the author views this behaviour as the norm for her age. Surely there must be some social drinkers in college who taste their drinks and don’t gulp it down?</p>
<p>No, it is not socially acceptable to ignore traffic signals.</p>
<p>The signals are put there on the authority of a governmental organization.</p>
<p>The governmental organization is given authority by the general public.</p>
<p>The general public has determined, therefore, that in their society, it is unaccaptable to ignore traffic signals. They are members of the society in question. They have the right to decide this.</p>
<p>HOWEVER…</p>
<p>You are not a member of the college society, the author of this article is. </p>
<p>You have no authority to tell HER that what HER society deems acceptable is, in fact, not acceptable to HER society.</p>
<p>Last I heard, colleges gave up in loco parentis almost 40 years ago. Government rules no less on colleges campuses than it does in the local bar and grill.</p>
<p>Mini, you live in Washington. I remember a few years ago reading an interview with the former Philadelphia Police Commissioner, who had resigned to take the same job in Seattle. He described having trouble sleeping the night before his big interview, and staring out the window of his hotel room at 2 AM. On the deserted downtown street below, a lone man was standing on the corner, doing nothing. Then the light changed, the “Walk” sign went on, and he crossed the street. The cop said, “That’s when I realized that Seattle could be a totally different experience than Philadelphia.” </p>
<p>(N.B. – If you were a Martian anthropologist observing human life in Philadelphia, you would quickly conclude that (a) red lights mean “go” for pedestrians and “speed up” for the next few vehicles, and (b) this works surprisingly poorly as a natural selection method.)</p>
<p>That Stanford piece is great. Not particularly morally edifying – just a little version of memento mori – but well-written, engaging, and honest.</p>
<p>“Funny. Traffic laws and signals work pretty well where I live, even though there isn’t a cop on any corners.”</p>
<p>That is because you don’t live in India where stop signs and lights are considered purely optional so long as you don’t stop at them too long when there is no oncomming traffic and putting your bumper on the car in front of you and nudging him into the intersection gets social sanction.</p>
<p>Traffic laws work in America even when there isn’t a cop around (except for the speed limit of course) because it is socially unacceptable to break them. That is not the norm every place. Trying to enforce traffic laws in India is near hopeless because the norms and expectations of society are different.</p>
<p>Since most people will conform to the rules of the society they are in it is probably safe to say that most college binge drinkers will become wine sippers when they move beyond the college years.</p>
<p>Higherlead has obviously never driven in Boston (are you old enough to drive? I can’t remember). Traffic laws, schmaffic laws. People in this part of the country scoff at traffic “norms and expectations”.</p>
<p>“That is because you don’t live in India where stop signs and lights are considered purely optional so long as you don’t stop at them too long when there is no oncomming traffic and putting your bumper on the car in front of you and nudging him into the intersection gets social sanction.”</p>
<p>Excuse me, but you don’t know me. When I am not in Washington State, I DO live in India. Want to know about what is socially acceptable and what is not? Live among Dalits. (I do.)</p>
<p>The reality is that, in the next 20 years, roughly a third (slightly more) of the college binge drinkers will become abstinent or moderate drinkers (the wine sippers), a third (slightly less) will become heavy (near daily) drinkers, but not alcoholics, and a third will become alcoholics, if they aren’t so already. (There’s actually some really good data from the Office of Applied Studies of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.) So she could have written the article in at least three different ways and still had a piece of the truth. BUT it is also true that the future alcoholism rates for those who do not binge in college is much, much lower. Let’s be clear - alcoholism is not in and of itself tied to binge drinking; it is tied to heavy (near daily) drinking. It’s just that many bingers head off in that direction. </p>
<p>And can “social acceptance” change bingeing rates? You bet - and I have dozens of examples and case studies to prove it.</p>
<p>This conclusion has been supported by several academic studies. Binge drinking in college is a phase, not a future medical problem.</p>
<p>I don’t think mini had any real support for the statement that college binge drinkers are more likely to become adult alkies. Most studies do not target only college drinkers. He is taking general data and trying to apply it to a unique subgroup. Dos not always work.</p>
<p>I think the author presents the view that social acceptance has a big effect on binge drinking. She assumes it will change once these kids graduate into a world where it is not the norm to drink to get drunk as rapidly as possible. She knows that life after college will be different, and expects the drinking habits to change.</p>
<p>“I don’t think mini had any real support for the statement that college binge drinkers are more likely to become adult alkies.”</p>
<p>I DIDN’T make such a statement. And never have. College "heavy drinkers: (near daily, or bingeing 3-4 times in a two-week period) are more likely to become adult alcoholics - for that I have LOTS of studies. College binge drinkers do so only to the extent that they become heavy drinkers. Depending on the college and social acceptability, roughly half, give or take, do not. At my alma mater, it is significantly more than half’; at other places, siginficantly less than half. We have a TON of studies of the evolution of college drinking behavior; I have no idea why you would think otherwise. </p>
<p>But, statistically, one-third of the college binge drinkers do indeed become alcoholics, although the reality is that many are already. And I have data from 31 years of studies from University of Michigan’s “Monitoring the Future” that indicate that college students are more likely to be both binge and heavy drinkers than their non-college counterparts. </p>
<p>Put it another way - among the current college binge drinkers, statistically about one third will either remain alcoholics or become alcoholics in the 20 years after they leave; one-third will become heavy drinkers; and one-third will become abstainers or moderate drinkers. Whether the alcoholics would have become so without college is unknown; all we really know is the link between alcoholism and early drinking behavior (usually well before college, and, for some, even before age 14.)</p>
<p>“Binge drinking in college is a phase, not a future medical problem.”</p>
<p>Only a “medical problem” for those who abuse in a binge situation to the point of choking on their own vomit. Or falling off a cliff. Not a pretty picture, but the reality for too many of our children. Every couple of weeks one of these reality stories is posted on CC.</p>
<p>I found the article thoughtful…but…like all self-reported stories of excess drinking in college…I also found it very disturbing.</p>
<p>I agree with 2boysima. College binge drinking is not a future medical problem, it is a current medical problem. So many sad stories of young people hurt or killed because of drinking too much.</p>