Disclaimer: This post will probably upset some people, however I feel it covers an important topic that deserves to be addressed now more than ever. If you have anything to say, please feel free to leave a comment.
Everyone’s heard it. Parents, teachers at school, at church, SADD, MADD, anywhere you go they always tell you “Drinking is bad, don’t do it”. To some people, this becomes very annoying, very quickly. Perhaps they find hypocrisy in this message coming from the people who tell it. Perhaps they want to be rebellious, but whatever the reason, people will always have something to say on the morality of drinking.
Is drinking itself really wrong or “bad”? No, not necessarily. Europe lacks a drinking age altogether. For this reason, drinking isn’t a novelty. However, the real issue here lies in the reasoning behind peoples’ motives for drinking. It appears that people want to get drunk simply for the sake of being drunk. “Isn’t that the point of alchol?” Not unless vomiting on yourself is your hobby. There are endless justifications people give for drinking. The validity of these justifications take a backseat the fact that the law still exists and will not change regardless on your opinion of drinking. The officer writing the MIP citation doesn’t care why you were drinking, the polices’ concern is the fact that you were drinking to begin with. It’s hard to realize how ridiculous things have gotten if you can’t see, as a bystander, how people act in such cirmstances.
The fact that people post pictures of these activities on sites like MySpace or Facebook just further evidences the assertion that most of this illegal drinking is prompted by the desire to “look cool”. If people really want to drink, that’s their choice and their business. However, nothing shouts “Look I drink! Am I cool yet?” like a Facebook picture consisting nothing more of bottles of vodka, and beer with a caption along the lines of “our collection”. At that point, people have transcended all maturity. There is no eaiser way to denounce your self-respect than to drink to the point where you can’t stand up, and almost puke (if you haven’t already). If you can’t respect yourself, why should anyone else? The honest thing to say most definatly not what people like hearing: the way a lot of the people treat drinking, is absolutely stupid. Not much else needs to be said aside from that. We’re all young adults, and we’ve all heard all the facts and statistics, but it’s about time some of us started acting like it.
If you drink, I don’t give a shit about that. It’s good times for the most part, but if you’re gonna throw up all over the place, pass out and fuck up the night for everyone you’re with just to look sweet don’t drink. Drink all you want if you can control yourselves and if not then don’t…or at least not around me.
It’s admirable that you brought this to the surface; it certainly needs to be discussed
i respect the expression of your viewpoint considering the social environment we all live in.
and congrats to anonymous
thank you so much to tell people not to drink around you, considering we know exactly who you are. you have done everyone a great public service
Good to bring it up. Personally, just to drink to get drunk is stupid to me. Youdon’t remember any fun you could have had. I know someone from out of school who once said that “they didn’t know how to go to a party sober” and were sad about it. That is ridiculous. And then on top of drinking just to get drunk (which I think is stupid but is what most people do) it seems that some people do it to look cool on facebook. How cool! I wonder how many more friends those people have now. I am so jealous… I want pictures of my drunk ass on facebook. Nothing spells popularity and more friends (specificly, “true friends”) then proving you can be a drunk retard. Wonder what will happen to these people in college when no friend who decides not to drink will be holding these kids hands…
So maybe I’m a hyprocite, but at least I admit it… I’ll call myself a reformed hypocrite. I’m suprised that one night can entirely change my view point on drinking. Or maybe, it was a series of subtle events, realizations, and people…. leading up to one night.
From a sober point of view, watching my smart, beautiful friends act like complete drunken idiots, I realized that drinking is in fact, stupid. And I feel stupid, knowing I’ve puked in waste baskets, drunk until I’ve passed out, and driven tipsy. I’M NOT PROUD OF MYSELF. I’m so ashamed of myself that it makes my stomach hurt… for giving up control of my actions to alcohol.
Girls – Drinking does not make you more attractive, rebellious, cool, whatever. It makes you seem easy.
I’m not one to lecture on drinking, it’s moral issues etc…. and I’m a big believer in learning from experience. The problem is, well…. miss your curfew by 5 hours cause you passed out, you’re fucked. Drink and drive, get pulled over, you’re fucked. Drink too much, go too far with a guy, and well, you get the picture. And you can’t take these, overly-dramatic but still within the realm of possiblitiy, situations back (once they’ve happened).
It’s your call not mine…. but Brian, the title of your article is very appropriate.
it seems everyone is getting drunk these days. I really don’t understand why people drink. People say its cool, but when i ask ppl that they generally never say that, they just go “um i dunno (change subject)”
i wouldn’t say many
and if it makes u cooler, how much cooler? As a guy, i understand sometimes u do stuff to be cool to get girls. But how many girls can u pick up by being a sexy drinker?
As a non-drinker, and with plenty of girls
I agree Christine. I think a lot of people think that drinking makes themselves seem more mature. But drinking to get drunk does the exact opposite, and then people are putting themselves in situations that they definitely should not be in while drunk. They’re making the most idiotic and immature decisions because they want to be cool and mature.
I decided not to get drunk or high a long time ago when I talked to my cousin who went overboard on these activities in college. She told me she never remembered what she was doing, that she knew she was having fun, but she had no idea why. Her college experience was just a blur for her and she couldn’t remember anything clearly. I want to remember when and why I’m having fun. And I can have fun with out alcohol, and I won’t forget what I did either.
And also, colleges and employers are using facebook to “see what you’re really like.” Having pictures drunk ass pictures is definitely not the right idea. At least lock your albums so only your friends can see it. Not only are the pictures on facebook sooo “cool!” but they also could have other serious impacts.