So here I am, taking a last parting stab at the age issue, even though it's not pertinent to my focus. But many of the readers seem to be pretty invested in it, so I shall address it for the last time. This is in part sentimental, because the age issue is how the blog began, although the blog didn't quite pan out that way. Yet, there is something poetic in ending the blog the way it begins. So here we go.
This post is meant to raise more questions than it answers, so I'm sorry if anyone reading it is looking for answers. I don't have any, especially with regards to the age. All I can say is that my contention with the age debate is with the way it is framed, and not that either age, 21 or 18 is better/worse. I think if the age is going to be changed, it should be changed for reasons better than the ones currently employed in the ongoing debate. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking that changing the age is going to fundamentally alter college students and change their drinking patterns.
Quite shockingly, the more I think about the age issue in terms of a specific number, the more I wonder why an age is necessary in the first place. If sufficient education measures are in place, both in the home and in public spheres, and laws against irresponsible drinking and its resultant actions are well crafted and implemented, then is a drinking age needed? I don't know. A proper investigation into such a question will require some delving into the purposes of laws and how they are formed, which I have neither time nor resources for.
But let's stop getting distracted and return to the issue of age. Honestly, it's somewhat of a mess, isn't it? Neither side seems willing to relinquish their positions and keep arguing for either 18 or 21. I suggest that a temporary solution should be to opt for the middle: 19 years and 6 months.
Joking aside, in the current legal paradigm, an age is needed. I don't think American society is ready for drinking to be completely legal, especially given its historical baggage with prohibition. But how to get to that, like I said, I have no good answer. My guess is as good as yours. Or maybe... we should just toss a coin.
At this point, it's time for me to blow my trumpet again. I know I said it'd be nice to end with the age. But truly, my solution to the fracas is for the disputing parties to channel their energy elsewhere and craft alcohol education programmes that work better than the current ones. In this respect, I think John McCardell, one of the motivators of the Amethyst Initiative, is headed in the right direction with his proposal for alcohol education. Now if only he could meet his opponents halfway, abandon the quibbling over the number, and focus on getting that plan on the road.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Self Analysis Post
I have to admit that when I first started writing the blog, I was leaning more strongly in favour of maintaining the drinking age, because lowering it in light of uncontrollable, irresponsible, unruly college students, and couching one’s reasons for doing so as in their (the college students) best interests, just reeked of giving in to bratty children. BUT, right from the start, I KNEW perfectly well that that is just my biased opinion, which is why, I initially didn’t commit to any particular stance on the age issue.
After researching the debate and looking over the arguments of the two main camps, as represented by the Amethyst Initiative and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I was all the more convinced that taking a stance on the issue of age was not the direction to take. As anyone who has read this blog should see, the two opposing sides are arguing over the number of the age in relation to two distinct drinking issues, binge drinking and drunk driving, with each party being concerned with one drinking issue.
Initially, upon reading their arguments, I felt that each side had good reason to argue what they did. It also didn’t help that the CBS video on the recent drinking age debate did a pretty good job at presenting both sides, although admittedly, it did give more time to the Amethyst Initiative as the new kid on the block. The point is, I was fairly confused as to why two completely reasonable arguments could reach diametrically opposed conclusions.
However, even as I was unable to twist my mind round the clash of two seemingly equally valid ideas, it was apparent that there was a problem regarding the issue of drinking. As this article highlights, college binge drinking is on the rise, and more than just newspapers were making the claim, researchers had the same findings as well.
Then the line in Robert Schlesinger’s blog post on the drinking age caught my eye: “There are larger issues we need to address as a society regardless of what happens regarding the drinking age.” That really got me thinking out of the box. What if the crux of the debate lay not in the age, but in the “larger issues” underlying the superficial debate about a number? If society could focus on solving the larger problem of irresponsible alcohol consumption, then the debate surrounding the age, as it is currently framed, would be pretty much moot.
I felt somewhat vindicated when I stumbled across Joshua Sharp’s (a USC student) blog post which holds the same sentiment as I do, that it was the attitudes towards drinking, not the age, that mattered. I view this source as particularly significant as it represents a voice of a student, someone in the midst of college drinking rather than someone standing on the outside and analyzing a detached scenario. Even then, outside researchers reached the same conclusion, as shown by the study on how attractiveness and popularity are associated with binge drinking in young adults.
I trust this sufficiently explains why I am not particularly interested in finding an answer to the current age debate. Instead, I hope that my interrogation of the issue has provided a way through which an answer to the current age debate becomes unnecessary.
In addition, my research into this topic also disabused me of some common misconceptions such as other European countries having less of a youth drinking problem compared to America, which this study debunks. Finding out instances where my preconceived opinions were erroneous is important to my development as a thinker as it helps to ensure that my opinions are grounded in fact rather than rumour.
As for my development as a thinker in terms of making arguments, a productive learning experience from this project would be the exercise in focusing an argument and at the same time demonstrating a consideration for other aspects of the topic. For this reason, I had two posts on adulthood, which many see as pertinent to the age debate, in which I explained why I did not see an argument on adulthood as being all that significant to the alcohol issues at hand as per the way the current age debate is framed. After demonstrating a consideration of that issue, I then began on my overall argument that the problems of binge drinking and drunk driving, as well as the attitudes towards alcohol, were the fundamentals of the current age debate and should be considered in their own right.
Ultimately, with regard to the issue of drinking in America, I learnt that alcohol is one of the big controversies in the US. As this chapter in a book on Controversies introduces the issue of drinking, "Drinking [in America] has been blessed and cursed, has been held the cause of economic catastrophe and the hope for prosperity, the major cause of crime, disease and military defeat, depravity and a sign of high prestige, mature personality, and a refined civilization.” This is new to me as a foreigner because back home, we give way less thought to alcohol on the whole. Consequently, it can be said that in some ways, writing this blog has been a process of discovery of not only an intellectual nature, but also a cultural one.
After researching the debate and looking over the arguments of the two main camps, as represented by the Amethyst Initiative and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, I was all the more convinced that taking a stance on the issue of age was not the direction to take. As anyone who has read this blog should see, the two opposing sides are arguing over the number of the age in relation to two distinct drinking issues, binge drinking and drunk driving, with each party being concerned with one drinking issue.
Initially, upon reading their arguments, I felt that each side had good reason to argue what they did. It also didn’t help that the CBS video on the recent drinking age debate did a pretty good job at presenting both sides, although admittedly, it did give more time to the Amethyst Initiative as the new kid on the block. The point is, I was fairly confused as to why two completely reasonable arguments could reach diametrically opposed conclusions.
However, even as I was unable to twist my mind round the clash of two seemingly equally valid ideas, it was apparent that there was a problem regarding the issue of drinking. As this article highlights, college binge drinking is on the rise, and more than just newspapers were making the claim, researchers had the same findings as well.
Then the line in Robert Schlesinger’s blog post on the drinking age caught my eye: “There are larger issues we need to address as a society regardless of what happens regarding the drinking age.” That really got me thinking out of the box. What if the crux of the debate lay not in the age, but in the “larger issues” underlying the superficial debate about a number? If society could focus on solving the larger problem of irresponsible alcohol consumption, then the debate surrounding the age, as it is currently framed, would be pretty much moot.
I felt somewhat vindicated when I stumbled across Joshua Sharp’s (a USC student) blog post which holds the same sentiment as I do, that it was the attitudes towards drinking, not the age, that mattered. I view this source as particularly significant as it represents a voice of a student, someone in the midst of college drinking rather than someone standing on the outside and analyzing a detached scenario. Even then, outside researchers reached the same conclusion, as shown by the study on how attractiveness and popularity are associated with binge drinking in young adults.
I trust this sufficiently explains why I am not particularly interested in finding an answer to the current age debate. Instead, I hope that my interrogation of the issue has provided a way through which an answer to the current age debate becomes unnecessary.
In addition, my research into this topic also disabused me of some common misconceptions such as other European countries having less of a youth drinking problem compared to America, which this study debunks. Finding out instances where my preconceived opinions were erroneous is important to my development as a thinker as it helps to ensure that my opinions are grounded in fact rather than rumour.
As for my development as a thinker in terms of making arguments, a productive learning experience from this project would be the exercise in focusing an argument and at the same time demonstrating a consideration for other aspects of the topic. For this reason, I had two posts on adulthood, which many see as pertinent to the age debate, in which I explained why I did not see an argument on adulthood as being all that significant to the alcohol issues at hand as per the way the current age debate is framed. After demonstrating a consideration of that issue, I then began on my overall argument that the problems of binge drinking and drunk driving, as well as the attitudes towards alcohol, were the fundamentals of the current age debate and should be considered in their own right.
Ultimately, with regard to the issue of drinking in America, I learnt that alcohol is one of the big controversies in the US. As this chapter in a book on Controversies introduces the issue of drinking, "Drinking [in America] has been blessed and cursed, has been held the cause of economic catastrophe and the hope for prosperity, the major cause of crime, disease and military defeat, depravity and a sign of high prestige, mature personality, and a refined civilization.” This is new to me as a foreigner because back home, we give way less thought to alcohol on the whole. Consequently, it can be said that in some ways, writing this blog has been a process of discovery of not only an intellectual nature, but also a cultural one.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Implications Post
So what are the implications if the issue is never resolved? That really depends on what the issue is.
If the issue is about the age in itself, then my answer is that it is, as a matter of fact, already “resolved” insofar as there IS an existing drinking age. Whether people are happy about it is another matter entirely. And even then, if the age were to be changed, I don’t think one can consider that to be “resolved” as there will be others around who think that the age settled upon is not entirely appropriate. As this article states, the proposed prohibition of alcohol in America has “provoked strong controversy and conflict.”
But the age, as I have repeatedly said, but which tends to be forgotten in a discussion about drinking, is not the issue. The issue which needs to be resolved is the issue of college students’ attitudes toward alcohol. Behavioural studies such as this show that attitude is one main component that influences one’s action.
If unhealthy drinking attitudes are not revised, there is likely to be a continued alcohol problem amongst college students. As it is, we see an increasing trend of college students binge drinking. The effects of such attitudes towards alcohol among college students are potentially horrific because these are the people who will become parents and future leaders. One can only hope that they will eventually learn and “grow up,” and most eventually do, but that just means that they grow up, have their own children, and the cycle repeats itself with more than 1000 alcohol-related college student deaths per year. Admittedly, in a country the size of the US what is 1000 deaths? Just 1000 children belonging to at least 2000 parents.
So the question is, can we change attitudes, and if so, how?
If the issue is about the age in itself, then my answer is that it is, as a matter of fact, already “resolved” insofar as there IS an existing drinking age. Whether people are happy about it is another matter entirely. And even then, if the age were to be changed, I don’t think one can consider that to be “resolved” as there will be others around who think that the age settled upon is not entirely appropriate. As this article states, the proposed prohibition of alcohol in America has “provoked strong controversy and conflict.”
But the age, as I have repeatedly said, but which tends to be forgotten in a discussion about drinking, is not the issue. The issue which needs to be resolved is the issue of college students’ attitudes toward alcohol. Behavioural studies such as this show that attitude is one main component that influences one’s action.
If unhealthy drinking attitudes are not revised, there is likely to be a continued alcohol problem amongst college students. As it is, we see an increasing trend of college students binge drinking. The effects of such attitudes towards alcohol among college students are potentially horrific because these are the people who will become parents and future leaders. One can only hope that they will eventually learn and “grow up,” and most eventually do, but that just means that they grow up, have their own children, and the cycle repeats itself with more than 1000 alcohol-related college student deaths per year. Admittedly, in a country the size of the US what is 1000 deaths? Just 1000 children belonging to at least 2000 parents.
So the question is, can we change attitudes, and if so, how?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Annotated Links Post
Report on the drinking age debate on ABC online:
This article presents a fairly comprehensive overview of the ongoing debate and the different groups involved: the Amethyst Initiative and its opponents in MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and Support 21. However, the focus of the article is clearly more on those who propose lowering the age, since they are, after all, the ones who have breathed new life into the drinking age debate.
Higher Drinking Age Leads To Less Binge Drinking – Except In College Students
This article from Science Daily gives an account of a study which shows a correlation between the raising of the drinking age to 21 in 1984 and the overall decline of binge drinking, even as binge drinking in male college students remained unchanged and increased in female college students. It presents an interesting conclusion that even as “There may be good, philosophical arguments about why the drinking age should be lower than 21, but our study demonstrates the higher minimum drinking age has been good for public health.” While the statistics are interesting, my contention with the article is that a correlation does not necessarily mean a casual correlation. In that respect, I think the article makes a logical leap which may not be wholly justified.
Alcohol Advertising and Youth: A Measured Approach
This study recognizes the influence the media has, in the form of advertising, on youth attitudes towards alcohol. It points out that there is an excess of youth exposure to alcohol advertising and suggests a 15% cap on youth audience composition for alcohol advertising. This study presents a practical way to address the alcohol issue without running into the age issue, thus showing that we need not quibble about age in order to do something about alcohol.
Theory of Planned Behavior/ Reasoned Action:
A summary of a theory in behavioral psychology that could be potentially useful in alcohol education.
It may seem de-humanizing to suggest that behavior can be planned, as though human agency and control is wrest from the individual. However, that is exactly what the theory seems to suggest, that behavior can be planned and conditioned. What is interesting is that it expands the model beyond one’s attitudes (which is what I’ve proposed throughout the blog, that behavior is influenced by attitude) to include one’s beliefs regarding others’ response to a particular behavior and their “perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior.”
Understanding binge drinking among young people: an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour:
A study that relates behavioral psychology specifically to the problem of binge drinking.
This follows from the earlier link explaining the theory. The study stresses the need to alter the current social environment of young people in “full-time education” to one that downplays alcohol in order to curb the incidence of binge drinking among young people. Some suggestions include both formal alcohol education and using the media to reshape social attitudes towards alcohol consumption.
This article presents a fairly comprehensive overview of the ongoing debate and the different groups involved: the Amethyst Initiative and its opponents in MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and Support 21. However, the focus of the article is clearly more on those who propose lowering the age, since they are, after all, the ones who have breathed new life into the drinking age debate.
Higher Drinking Age Leads To Less Binge Drinking – Except In College Students
This article from Science Daily gives an account of a study which shows a correlation between the raising of the drinking age to 21 in 1984 and the overall decline of binge drinking, even as binge drinking in male college students remained unchanged and increased in female college students. It presents an interesting conclusion that even as “There may be good, philosophical arguments about why the drinking age should be lower than 21, but our study demonstrates the higher minimum drinking age has been good for public health.” While the statistics are interesting, my contention with the article is that a correlation does not necessarily mean a casual correlation. In that respect, I think the article makes a logical leap which may not be wholly justified.
Alcohol Advertising and Youth: A Measured Approach
This study recognizes the influence the media has, in the form of advertising, on youth attitudes towards alcohol. It points out that there is an excess of youth exposure to alcohol advertising and suggests a 15% cap on youth audience composition for alcohol advertising. This study presents a practical way to address the alcohol issue without running into the age issue, thus showing that we need not quibble about age in order to do something about alcohol.
Theory of Planned Behavior/ Reasoned Action:
A summary of a theory in behavioral psychology that could be potentially useful in alcohol education.
It may seem de-humanizing to suggest that behavior can be planned, as though human agency and control is wrest from the individual. However, that is exactly what the theory seems to suggest, that behavior can be planned and conditioned. What is interesting is that it expands the model beyond one’s attitudes (which is what I’ve proposed throughout the blog, that behavior is influenced by attitude) to include one’s beliefs regarding others’ response to a particular behavior and their “perceptions of their ability to perform a given behavior.”
Understanding binge drinking among young people: an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour:
A study that relates behavioral psychology specifically to the problem of binge drinking.
This follows from the earlier link explaining the theory. The study stresses the need to alter the current social environment of young people in “full-time education” to one that downplays alcohol in order to curb the incidence of binge drinking among young people. Some suggestions include both formal alcohol education and using the media to reshape social attitudes towards alcohol consumption.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
