Another Opinion on Alcohol
By:
By: Mark Adleman
In the last edition of The War Canoe, there was an article discussing alcohol and its effects on social situations and sex. The article made some valid points and had useful facts about what getting trashed can cause, both short term and long. It is true that drinking is far from healthy, and can cause some embarrassing situations, but the article last week over-dramatized and exaggerated what the outcome of drinking on the weekends will be.
Regarding the effects discussed in last week's article, many were overstated and really do not reflect the way most college kids drink. The article does not seem to acknowledge the fact that one can drink without being absolutely tanked. One might talk more when they are drunk, but ?diarrhea of the mouth? probably will not occur unless the person gets wasted. I know the severity of my intoxication rises substantially if I have 14 drinks instead of 7.
The other article warns against drinking and sex, but many people will attest that mixing drinking and sex will not always be a treacherous experience, in fact it is usually very fun. It is true that inhibitions are lowered when drinking, and it is possible to wake up regretting sex, another thing many students could attest to. The lowering of inhibitions is not always a negative effect though. Alcohol gives many awkward young men the confidence to make a move.
Yes, alcohol does make you sloppy, however, trying to assert that the toll intoxication takes on motor skills vastly limits sexual possibilities and takes the fun out of sex is ridiculous; ask anyone who ever gets drunk with their significant other.
As far as the long-term effects mentioned, they are true. Heavy drinking over an extended period of time will definitely destroy your body and make getting laid very difficult, but most college students' drinking habits are not going to cause that. Getting drunk on Friday and Saturday night every weekend throughout college likely will not even cause these effects. Provided that you take a line out of alcohol ads and drink responsibly, the negative effects should be minimal, and some social environments will be much more enjoyable.
Drinkers might make an asses out of themselves, wake up hung-over, and make some decisions that will be regretted at times, but to take the idea of social drinking and bastardizing its possible effects into a scare tactic of getting raped in a jailhouse shower as the previous article did is simply irrational and entirely the wrong way to convince people to drink responsibly. Scare tactics are used in secondary schools throughout childhood to prevent teenage drinking; go to the grove on Thursday night and see how effective they are.
Drinking is not a healthy habit, but college students do drink, and while many do so irresponsibly, overstating the effects to scare people will not stop that. If people think college students have a drinking problem, then offer us accurate facts and let us decide, because nothing printed in this paper is going to scare me out of drinking.
In the last edition of The War Canoe, there was an article discussing alcohol and its effects on social situations and sex. The article made some valid points and had useful facts about what getting trashed can cause, both short term and long. It is true that drinking is far from healthy, and can cause some embarrassing situations, but the article last week over-dramatized and exaggerated what the outcome of drinking on the weekends will be.
Regarding the effects discussed in last week's article, many were overstated and really do not reflect the way most college kids drink. The article does not seem to acknowledge the fact that one can drink without being absolutely tanked. One might talk more when they are drunk, but ?diarrhea of the mouth? probably will not occur unless the person gets wasted. I know the severity of my intoxication rises substantially if I have 14 drinks instead of 7.
The other article warns against drinking and sex, but many people will attest that mixing drinking and sex will not always be a treacherous experience, in fact it is usually very fun. It is true that inhibitions are lowered when drinking, and it is possible to wake up regretting sex, another thing many students could attest to. The lowering of inhibitions is not always a negative effect though. Alcohol gives many awkward young men the confidence to make a move.
Yes, alcohol does make you sloppy, however, trying to assert that the toll intoxication takes on motor skills vastly limits sexual possibilities and takes the fun out of sex is ridiculous; ask anyone who ever gets drunk with their significant other.
As far as the long-term effects mentioned, they are true. Heavy drinking over an extended period of time will definitely destroy your body and make getting laid very difficult, but most college students' drinking habits are not going to cause that. Getting drunk on Friday and Saturday night every weekend throughout college likely will not even cause these effects. Provided that you take a line out of alcohol ads and drink responsibly, the negative effects should be minimal, and some social environments will be much more enjoyable.
Drinkers might make an asses out of themselves, wake up hung-over, and make some decisions that will be regretted at times, but to take the idea of social drinking and bastardizing its possible effects into a scare tactic of getting raped in a jailhouse shower as the previous article did is simply irrational and entirely the wrong way to convince people to drink responsibly. Scare tactics are used in secondary schools throughout childhood to prevent teenage drinking; go to the grove on Thursday night and see how effective they are.
Drinking is not a healthy habit, but college students do drink, and while many do so irresponsibly, overstating the effects to scare people will not stop that. If people think college students have a drinking problem, then offer us accurate facts and let us decide, because nothing printed in this paper is going to scare me out of drinking.
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