Alcohol And The Social Network

“80 percent of teen-agers have tried alcohol, and that alcohol was a contributing factor in the top three causes of death among teens: accidents, homicide and suicide” (Underage, CNN.com pg 3). Students may use drinking as a form of socializing, but is it really as good as it seems? The tradition of drinking has developed into a kind of “culture” fixed in every level of the college student environment. Customs handed down through generations of college drinkers reinforce students' expectation that alcohol is a necessary ingredient for social success. These perceptions of drinking are the going to ruin the lives of the students because it will lead to the development alcoholism. College students who drink a lot, while in a college

This study was developed in order to discover what university students saw as binge drinking.

In the article “Drinking over the Lifespan” By: Jennifer E. Merrill, Ph.D., and Kate B. Carey, Ph.D. They talk about how many college students drink heavily and experience myriad associated negative consequences. Most college student’s drink, they tend to drink more heavily than their friends who don’t attend college. Many of these drinking patterns have affected many environmental and temporal characteristic specific to the college environment, including residential campus living, the academic week, and the academic year. A study shows that about 41 percent of 18-24 year olds are enrolled in post-secondary education. When teens are emerging into adulthood, they are trying to find out their own identity, which alcohol use might come in while

Presidents of college campuses around the nation face issues of underage drinking and binge drinking on a regular basis and realizes that it is a danger and a problem. “Alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., a major contributing factor to unintentional injuries, the leading cause of death for youths and young adults, and accounts for an estimated 75,000 or more deaths in the United States annually” (Wechsler 2010). Binge drinking can be loosely defined as consuming five or more drinks at one sitting for men and four drinks for women. Binge drinking amongst college students is a social activity that allows students to let loose and “fit in”.

Studies have shown that social media has a direct correlation to a college students social life. Teenagers in this time

“Binge Drinking on College Campuses.” Center for Science in the Public for Science, Center for Science in the Public Interest. Web. 21Mar. 2012.

merely a recruitment effect" (Asel, Ashley M., Tricia Seifert, and Ernest Pascarella). The level of

Binge or excessive drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, health, and education on college campuses today. Binge or excessive drinking by college students has become a social phenomena in which college students do not acknowledge the health risks that are involved with their excessive drinking habits. Furthermore college students do not know enough about alcohol in general and what exactly it does to the body or they do not pay attention to the information given to them. There needs to be a complete saturation on the campus and surrounding areas, including businesses and the media, expressing how excessive drinking is not attractive and not socially

Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard by Thomas Vander Ven (2011) is about why college students are stuck in the loop of abusing alcohol on a regular basis. Getting Wasted in conjunction with The Sociology of American Drug Use by Charles E. Faupel, Greg S. Weaver, and Jay Corzine (2014) which explains drug use from a sociological perspective gives us the tools needed to analyze and form conclusions about alcohol use in America. The reasons behind alcohol use and abuse can vary greatly depending on the situation that the user comes from or is currently experiencing. The reactions of the people around the user can also be different based on each individual's opinion.

In the United States, binge drinking among college students continues to be a prevalent health issue due to the potential negative consequences that can impact their safety and wellbeing. While there are a number of factors that may potentially influence a college students’ decision to use alcohol, research suggests that social norms conveyed on social networking sites such as Facebook can have a strong influence drinking behavior. This paper will give an overview of the current literature surrounding this issue and propose a qualitative research project that will help expand our knowledge of perceived drinking norms and the use of online social networking sites. The purpose of this study is to explore college students’ perceptions of displayed references to alcohol use on Facebook and what presentations would cause them to worry for a friend’s health and safety. This information may potentially be valuable in the development of effective evidence-based intervention programs aimed at decreasing binge drinking among college students.

Social media gives the impression that alcohol usage is normative among young individuals. Adolescents may develop a perceived social norm of alcohol use among peers of varying ages because ages of individuals on social networking sites vary greatly. In an experiment conducted by Dana M. Litt and Michelle L. Stock, they examined the roles and impact of social networking sites perceived social norms of alcohol usage of adolescents. Their results show

Elaborating more on the drinking motives that were researched by previous studies, there was a connection between social anxiety and social motive. College students with social anxiety symptoms are most likely to have negative alcohol-related consequences (Cludius et al., 2013: Villarosa, Madson, Zeigler-Hill, Noble, & Mohn, 2014). Students drink more irresponsibly when they come across three of those motives due to having social anxiety symptoms. Enhancement, Coping and Conformity motives have stronger correlations with in drinking for those who have social anxiety. The strength of the drinking motives and higher alcohol consumption would most likely correlate with people that some types of anxiety and/or other psychological disorders or symptoms (Cludius et al., 2013).

The Social Alcohol Network: Exploring the competing roles of social stigma and the celebration of youth drunkenness through the use of social networking sites and the impact of alcohol brands.

Throughout history, society has engaged in taking substances such as alcohol, that alter our physical being or our psychological state of mind. There are many experiences and pressures that force people to feel like they have to drink in order to cope with life, but for many alcohol is a part of everyday life, just like any other beverage. Alcohol is introduced to us in many ways, through our family, television, movies, and friends’. These “sociocultural variants are at least as important as physiological and psychological variants when we are trying to understand the interrelations of alcohol and human behavior”#. How we perceive drinking and continue drinking can be determined by the drinking habits we see, either by who we drink with,

The audience will be asked to indicate weather they have been affected by alcoholism directly or indirectly. They will be asked to name the few effects they have experienced that they never liked about people engrossed in alcoholism and the extended effects that they have seen on the family.