As I did some research, I came upon some interesting findings. I came across an article titled, "Understanding Why Students Love 'Getting Wasted' " which talks about why students enjoy drinking. In this article, I discovered that drinking is considered social and collaborative. Students get together to drink and look after each other. I find this interesting because it seems as though privatization has pulled people apart. Privatization isn't in students' best interests but it seems as though people find it easier to conform and essentially "privatize" themselves. They have internal motives and thus, privatization has made people become more interested in preserving their own interests. It's quite funny to see how drinking has the opposite effect. It brings people together and one can argue that there are less internal motives for this. In another article, "College Drinking is Liberating, and a Good Excuse ( in USA Today)," there is another point to be made with the fact that students drink because it gives them "liquid courage." It gives them the courage to escape reality. With privatization, I feel as though students try to escape reality as well. They try to distract themselves from thinking about the stress related with college. Students attend for-profit schools because they are convenient. It makes obtaining a degree a lot easier for them and the same goes with drinking. Drinking is favorable to students because it helps alleviate their stress. And so, this is why they accept, and actually embrace, it. I was hoping to also find some information about students who don't drink and their reasons for this, but I have yet to find anything. As of now, I think these two articles have helped me focus my interest on why drinking so appealing.
I like the way you are thinking about this topic. Remind me to loan you a fascinating article in The New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell on the way drinking is a culturally determined social act ("Drinking Games," Feb 15 & 22, 2010, The New Yorker, 70-76).
ReplyDeleteProbably the most important book is George Dowdall's College Drinking: Reframing a Social Problem (2009). But there are also lots of books on the topic, many of which connect to privatization or to the cultural issues you raise. I am especially intrigued by "Getting Wasted" by Thomas Vander Ven.
Oh -- and you should also look down the sidebar of our class blog and check out some of the other students who wrote on drinking. They may point you to some interesting resources and give you a sense of how this topic can get focused.
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