Is our student culture promoting alcoholism?

We all love a bit of our favourite tipple, don’t we? Although, there’s a bit and then there’s enough to leave you incredibly hung-over for around two days straight. I’ve got to admit, I do enjoy a good night out, which feels even better when I’ve got a fair few drinks in my system, but how do we know when enough is enough?

We appreciate the freedom university gives us, but at the same time we’re bombarded with the pressure to drink. It’s fun, yes, but not in the long run.

‘Freshers’ Week’, of course, is the perfect opportunity for students to get absolutely wasted. It’s the highlight of the year, with clubs and societies planning socials of initiation to start the year with the bang, which then continues with a yearlong booze bash anyway. For many, binge drinking is the student cliché; the hungover zombie stumbling into lectures being the definitive stereotype.

Some universities, however, don’t agree with this and are making plans for change in terms of the promotion and subsequent consumption of alcohol. For instance, Goldsmiths University in London chose to replace one of its student bars with a non-alcoholic art gallery. When I read this I first thought to myself that if people want to drink then they will find a way to do so; if a bar closes, there’s always a convenience store. However, according to topuniversities.com:

“Heriot-Watt University in Scotland’s poster campaign, which details the exploits of ‘Boozy Betty’, has positively influenced student’s opinions on drinking. Billed as the hard-drinking, hard-living poster girl around campus, Boozy Betty highlights the weight problems, poor grades, sexually transmitted diseases and strain on student finances often associated with excessive drinking. The campaign generally received a positive response from students on campus and encouraged them to think and act more responsibly when it came to drinking alcohol.”

One of the most common reasons for drinking at university is conformity; we drink to appear popular and sociable rather than to just drown our sorrows. This is probably also the reason why we drink more than we know we can handle – you can’t just stop drinking whilst everyone else continues to put away the pints, that’s just unrealistic.

For those of you who manage to, I honestly don’t know whether to give you respect and call you sensible or tell you what on earth you think you’re playing at – that’s just how brainwashed I am by our student culture.

Although, like every other student or individual who likes to drink, I know too much is bad, but still the motive of my night out will be to get plastered. We are walking contradictions, but mainly because we think it’s never really going to have an impact.

Well, here’s a slice of the not-so-tasteful truth: according to alcoholic.org, university students are one of the top groups identified as having a higher incidence of drinking problems in later life. They state that: “Peer pressure and cultural norms on campus certainly encourage some students to drink and engage in other risky behaviors,” and that “heavy drinking…both interferes with academics and puts young people at risk of continuing problems with alcohol.”

So, is our student culture promoting alcoholism? Most likely, yes. Are we still going to drink? Inevitably, but please, please, please – know your limits!