Glorification of Alcohol Use in the Media Essay

Alcoholism is one of the most intractable and pervasive psychological disorders known. Though the negative health consequences of alcohol are widely understood, and, if anything, the social consequences of alcoholism are even more widely acknowledged, it seems that no matter what steps are taken by public health officials or private organizations, no strategy can ever be fully developed for eradicating alcoholism. There are a number of reasons why this is true. This paper will explore some of the social and medical problems created by alcohol, but in it I will also consider the role of alcohol in my personal life and the way I have seen the disease play out in the lives of people around me. The paper will also examine the social and political responses to the problem of alcoholism and attempt to determine where productive approaches have been taken and areas where mistakes have been made. Before discussing such wide-ranging questions, it is important to understand what alcoholism is and how it is manifested.

Is the media’s portrayal of adolescent drinking accurate? Yes, it is. To many individuals, Alcohol is only a drink, but it is a lot more than that, it's an addictive drug. 60% of young adults have tried alcohol earlier than the age of 14, and the numbers of under aged drinkers is rising. Adolescents begin drinking for a lot of reasons - given that they are bored, due to peer pressure, and quite simply because there is nothing else to do. The national Drug research Institute observed females aged 14 to 17 have been worse abusers of alcohol than 18 to 24-year old guys. In other records, it suggests that eighty percent of under 18-year-olds drink, 50 percentage binge drink. Also around 10 percent of 12 year olds drink.

The question, "Is alcohol advertising the cause of underage drinking?" seems to flow through the minds of many American families. The answer to the question largely depends upon the families view on drinking in general. Some homes encourage drinking every once in a while, for social purposes; while others condemn it all together. The topic is very controversial with several factors weighing in such as religion, family background, and health. Despite the differing views, statistics have shown that underage drinking has reached a new height this past year. What is the cause of this rise in adolescent

Alcoholism is a problem experienced in many societies and covers issues associated with intake of alcohol (Schneider, 1978). In most cases, it is used to refer to addictive and uncontrolled use or abuse of alcohol such that the health, relationships and social status of a person is eroded. Due to its negative effects on users, it is considered as a bad practice in the society. Alcoholism is contributed by many social issues concerning users as well as society and is largely accepted as a social deviance behavior. However, according to Schneider (1992), deviant drinking has been

“Alcohol is a manipulative bitch. If she was a person, I think she’d be a telemarketer or a used-car sales women who could persuade you to do just about anything(188)” ,Koren Zailckas once said in her New York Times best selling novel, Smashed: Story of a drunken girlhood, based society vs. humans. Society has captivated us with a stereotype image of who we should be; Therefore a high average of teens, seek alcoholism or drug abuse to fill the void of imperfection, such as in the case of Zailckas.

Children tend to absorb the contents with a sense of judgment. This is because their curiosity sometimes leads to terrible consequences, in this case, the addiction to alcohol. “A national study … concluded that greater exposure to alcohol advertising contributes to an increase in drinking among underage youth. Specifically, for each additional ad a young person saw … he or she drank 1% more. For each additional dollar per capita spent on alcohol advertising in a local market … young people drank 3% more” (Alcohol Advertising and Youth). Therefore, the commercials do have a great impact to the number of drinking adolescents, since the number of underage alcohol consumption rises as advertisement rates rise. If such commercials continue to display on the media without any types of appropriate-content filters, the number of teenage alcoholics will continue to rise as years pass by. As a result, we must greatly reduce the number of commercials referring to alcohol products, to minimize the possibility to create future drinkers under the legal age.

According to the Dual Diagnosis website, “In 2012, as many as 87.6 percent of American adults over age 18 were reported in a SAHMSA…study to have consumed alcohol at some point in their lives…The National Institutes of Health…estimated that 17 million adults in the United States in 2012 had an alcohol use disorder” (“Disease…”). Approximately one in every 12 people either are abusing alcohol, or they are becoming, if not are, victims of alcoholism (National…). Alcohol consumption is especially known in our society’s culture. There are numerous people who like to drink every now and again in moderation; however, there are far too many people who abuse the alcohol and may even be completely dependent on it. Several

Regarding this time period as well, teenagers of the 21st century rely on social media and advertisements in their decision making (Hopkins n.pag.). When a troubled teen has personal problems, they seek shelter on drugs and alcohol to get themselves distracted until they ponder about situations that they have seen on advertisements to help them forget or efface their problems (Hopkins n.pag.). As statistics show, those who are around the ages of twelve to twenty are more exposed to alcohol advertising than adults over the age of 35 (Hopkins n.pag.). Seventy percent of what industries advertise is more likely to be seen by teenagers instead of adults who are actually in the legal age to drink (Hopkins n.pag.). Multiple advertisements forget to emphasize the dangers of drinking in their articles or magazines.

Critical Thinking Activity #5-Alcohol and the Media The point of this Critical Thinking Activity is to show how the media subjects us all through brainwashing by using our heart, mind and soul to attract the demon alcohol into its life style to by and buy more. It does not care if there are alcoholics out there losing their homes children and or lives to the wonderment of alcohol. The point being the advertisements create more alcohol drinkers and the company’s will make money off from each one of the alcoholic beverages and alcoholics out there; after all, it is a growing industry.

Trying to fit in is not the only problem that causes underage alcohol consumption; advertising aimed at underage drinkers also contributes to the predicament.

What is alcohol? Is it just a drink? Is it the reason teenagers party? Does it bring a fulfillment into the body? Or is exactly a drink of a lifetime? From stories, movies, and novels, like F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby, alcohol portrays its own underlying character in today 's world. Realizing it or not, alcohol fills up the society and individuals are drowning in a seven letter - word - riptide. The understanding of alcoholism changes from day to day, subscribing to the idea that alcohol stays the constant variable in the picture as a whole. The symptoms, effects, developments, and causes may vary from individual to another, but the alcohol itself continues to lead the structure of a chronic alcoholic. While the symptoms of alcoholism may seem to disappear and one may no longer depend or abuse alcohol, an alcoholic will always be an alcoholic.

Exposure to alcohol advertising is an everyday occurrence. Alcohol advertising is persuasive not only to adults but to those who are too young to buy alcohol legally. Although parents and peers have a large impact on youth decisions to drink, marketing also has a significant impact by influencing the attitudes of parents and peers and helping to create an environment that promotes underage drinking. Alcohol companies focus billions of dollars on advertising their products and still claim that the effect is minimal. I pose a few questions that are; who are the targets of alcohol advertising? How does alcohol advertising affect the people targeted by alcohol companies? Finally what actions are being taken to

     Teenagers and young adults are constantly bombarded with alcohol. From the funny beer commercials with the beautiful women who drink and from

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,

Alcohol is the number one drug problem among America’s youth. More senior high school students use alcohol than any other psychoactive drug. Family doctors, pediatricians, schoolteachers, and parents know that alcohol is overwhelmingly the drug of choice among today’s youth, although trendier substances such as cocaine are often given more attention in the headlines (Carla Felsted, p. vii). Furthermore, it is widely acknowledged that drinking alcohol is a part of the youth culture in America; it may also be understood as a culturally conditioned and socially controlled behavior.