7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1 Submit Assignment

1.  College students in the US have difficulty assessing their alcohol level and are increasingly appearing in hospitals after binge drinking because they lack the tools and knowledge to drink responsibly. 

2.  The who: college students in the US

       The what: they have difficulty assessing their alcohol level and are increasingly appearing in hospitals after binge drinking

       The why: lack the tools and knowledge to drink responsibly

3.  Testing the boundaries:

•   Who: Binge drinking does not only affect college students. Studies have shown that people ages 18-34 are the ones who participate in this type of drinking the most. I think that college students have more of a need for a solution because they are still relatively young at this time of their lives and do not have the experienced knowledge that other older people might have. 

•   What: Not every college student has difficulty assessing their alcohol level and are responsible drinkers. There are some people who do not even drink at all and are excluded from this problem. However, typically freshmen are more prone to end up in the hospital after a night of binge drinking for the reason that they might be experiencing with alcohol for the first time. 

•   Why: I think the majority of our society have reached a general consensus that binge drinking isn’t the healthiest or most responsible thing to do, however not everyone agrees on the reasons why certain groups are more prone to this. Some think that peer pressure, wanting to relieve stress, or to ‘have more fun’ are the reasons why this phenomenon occurs. Others believe that it has a deeper-rooted cause such as the age restriction placed by governmental law or that some parents did not raise their child adequately. 

4.  I interviewed 3 UF alums and 2 undergraduate sophomores, all were females of color.

- Interviewer 1: This UF alum had the general thinking that binge drinking overall was not healthy and that certain ethnic groups were more likely to practice binge drinking. She said she thought Asians and other students who have more stress due to harder majors’ exhibit binge-drinking behavior and do so in order to relieve stress.  Additionally, she thought peer pressure played a giant role in this event and feels that the only solution to the problem is to have someone (a friend) take care of them.

     - Interview 2: This other UF alum is working full time at a TV news station. She had the same concept as the other girl in which she thought Binge drinking is bad and that some people are more likely to practice it. She said that she envisions this to occur at high school games and college parties. Furthermore, she believes that peer pressure and the age limitative of 21, has a lot to do on the cause of binge drinking.

     - Interview 3: This UF undergrad is part of the College of Liberal Arts and believes that binge drinking is extremely dangerous and part of college culture. She believes that college students face the worse cases of binge-drinking. Also, brought up a new point of the why, they believe that college students believe there’s not a lot of time left. She believes that education is the best offender towards binge drinking.

     - Interview 4: This undergrad student believes that binge-drinking is extremely dangerous and people (teens and early teen pregnancies). For her, this type of event occurs most frequently in college host parties, pre-games, bars, and sports games. This person believes that the reason behind binge-drinking is due to emotional causes and not age. She thinks that lowering the age for drinking will not reduce binge-drinking among college age students.

     - Interview 5: This final person took a more holistic overview of why they thought binge-drinking was bad. They claimed that the medical reason (damage to liver) and all the repercussions that comes along with binge-drinking outweighs any good it may have. This person also thought certain racial groups were predisposed to this behavior. She believes that ‘white’ people and others who were not raised in strict households are the cause for this event. She envisions tailgating and college parties with binge-drinking. She states that binge-drinkers drink to get drunk and not to enjoy their drink. She believes that families hold the most power in reducing this by holding open dialogs on alcohol and its consumption and by promoting more education about this in college.

      

   5. Given your interviews, what do you know about the opportunity that you didn't know before?

   - Most of my interviewees had similar opinions about binge-drinking. Most stated that college students are the group suffering from this problem the most and that releasing stress is a main reason for drinking in general. Additionally, I came to realize that several people believe that there is a deeply-rooted cause for this problem whether it be the drinking age or family upbringing. I didn’t know that some people take into consideration certain racial groups when talking about binge-drinking. When interviewing people, I got to understand their opinions and believed that they all had valid points.