“More than 1,700 college students in the U.S. are killed each year—about 4.65 a day—as a result of alcohol-related injuries” (The Marin Institute). With a number as high as this, lowering the drinking age would only increase this ongoing problem of underage drinking. It has even been proven by the Marin Institute to be the leading cause of death among teenagers. Many adults feel as if the 18 to 21 age groups cannot handle drinking responsibly, then they should not be permitted to use it. Alcohol is a very serious depressant and one of the leading problems for death (Hanson, 2007).
Alcohol: Underage drinking in the United States is widespread problem. Alcohol is ranked the highest for most abused substance within the United States, posing many problems for the youth. Some of the reasons one under 21 might drink is due to peer pressure, increased independence, or stress. The numbers can be alarming as by age 15, already a third of teens have had a drink, and then by 18, 60 percent of teens have had a drink. What is more frightening is 11 percent of all alcohol consumed in the United State is by 12 to 20-year olds; most of the time these people can get a hold of alcohol for free.
This increased advertising exposes young consumers to several potentially harmful products and social stereotypes; such as, alcohol, tobacco, and sexually motivated content. The Effects of Advertising on American Youth Advertisers make billions of dollars every year by advertising their products by utilizing many different media outlets and networks. According to Committee on Communications (2006), “[c]hildren and adolescents view 40,000 ads per year on TV alone” (p.2564). These ads sometimes involve a professional athlete or celebrity advertising products that are of an adult or sexual nature. Children and adolescents see these icons and want to emulate what they see and hear, because the ideology effect they have on youth.
The popularity of MTV is directly proportional to teenagers and their ideas. If this station did not listen to its audience’s zeitgeist, there would be no MTV. Once MTV became a hip icon, it began to create a somewhat distorted image for boys and girls. The concept of the “Funhouse Mirror” declares the reflection of society is mirrored, but also distorted. Rushkoff described a “crude, loud, obnoxious, and in-your-face” character introduced on television networks like MTV.
And of those participating in the study, 44% participated in binge drinking in the 2 weeks before the survey. In my personal opinion I think lowering the drinking age would definitely curve the whole nature of college life. I think there are many people out there who drink, number one because they like how it makes them feel, and number two, they feel rebellious, like they are revolting against the system. If you watch college students sometimes, if they get desperate in their search for alcohol, many of them will go to great lengths to find a way to get it. You will never see a college student put forth that much effort to something ever again in you life, not even his schoolwork.
This month a Rand study that followed 3,400 people from seventh grade through age 23 reported that those who had three or more drinks within the past year, or any drink in the past month, were likelier to use nicotine and illegal drugs, to have stolen items within the past year and to have problems in school. In a report issued last December, the American Medical Association found that teen drinking -- not bingeing, just drinking -- can seriously damage growth processes of the brain and that such damage "can be long term and irreversible." The AMA warned that "short term or moderate drinking impairs learning and memory far more in youth than in adults" and that "adolescents need only drink half as much to suffer the same negative effects." This exhaustive study concluded that teen drinkers "perform worse in school, are more likely to fall behind and have an increased risk of social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts and
Anita Chandra, a behavioral scientist at RAND, states that the amount of sexual content on television has doubled in recent years, and there is little representation of safer sex practices in those portrayals (Aubrey). Representations of sexual content on television can drive teens to unrealistic impulsive behaviors that will lead to early pregnancy, sexual transmitted diseases, and disengage them from education. Studies emphasize the effects on the relationship between teen pregnancy and sexual content on television: A new study in the November issue of the journal Pediatrics suggests that sexually active teens who watch a lot of these types of programs are about twice as likely as those who don't to get pregnant or get a partner pregnant. Researchers from RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization, interviewed 2,003 boys and girls, aged 12 to 17 years old, by telephone between 2001 and 2004. The researchers asked specific questions about television viewing habits, including how often they watched more than 20 popular TV shows that were found to contain lots of sexual or suggestive content.
Thus, movie stars are perceived as “cool”, and become teen models that adolescents want to be. Thus, smoking in the movies is an initiation of adolescents smoking. The researchers found that adolescents are more likely to intend to smoke in the future if they view the movie with smoking. Everything that adolescents see in the media such as movies affects them in some way. Researchers have shown that movies smoking can cause behavioral problems to adolescents later.
Or if it is the parent’s responsibility to regulate what teens watch? And how about the rating system, Is it really effective? If limitations are imposed on this industry, would this violate their freedom of speech? When a teens watch a movie like Clock Orange or play a game like Grand Theft Auto does it affect their behavior or will they brush it off as a mere fantasy? Many people outside of the industry believe it affects teen’s sexual activities and violence tendencies.
The results for mean of sum for all academic year were surprising. In contrast to initial hypothesis: freshman in college will be relatively frequent smoker and against the smoking ban on campus, juniors were relatively frequent smoker. Effects of Difference in Academic Year on Smoking in College Smoking cigarette has been serious leading preventable cause of disability, disease and death in the United States. According to the data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2008, smoking causes about 483,000 deaths each year, with approximately 38,000 deaths a year attributed to second-hand smoke. It was also shown that smoking prevalence peaks in early adulthood including college students, with well over one-third of those aged 18-25 years reporting smoking in the past month.