This review below is from The Straits Times, Monday, April 14 2008.
The picture above of a youth sleeping around the vicinity of the club is rather disturbing as I feel sorry for that particular youth’s future and many other youths like him as well. So what is this binge drinking all about? It’s the in-thing for many youths nowadays where they recklessly gulp down litres of alcoholic beverages in front of their peers to seem a strong drinker whom can hold their drink well. But the liquor does not hold long as minutes later they exit the premises to binge it out using their fingers so that they can return to load more. The reasons cited for this trend include peer pressure, escapism or a fanatic show of power.
When the straits times reporter interviewed one such youth a first year Singapore Polytechnic Student who was spotted near Zouk mentioned that he binges to “look cool”. Another youth mentioned that to binge a drink it allows one to explore and try more varieties of new drinks which have hit the market in recent times. Ironically club owners are doing their part to stop drinkers from over drinking. Psychologist Daniel Koh, 36 said youth who think it is not wrong to binge “are indicative of states of denial. No one can handle drinking because when intoxicated, reasoning power is over ridden”.
My personal opinion as a social psychology student of a binge drinker is that the affected youth’s reference group is not the right type. A reference group is a group that serves as a standard of comparison for an individual, whether in terms of attitudes, values or behavior. Individuals try to conform to the norms and values of their main reference groups. The most obvious way where people conform to reference groups is by imitating or by joining the activities they indulge in.
Another reason why youths who never binged before also binge together with their friends could be because of the social desire to conform and to be readily accepted by their peers and to feel safe in their in-group. The effect of alcohol on information processing is termed as Alcohol Myopia. It refers to the fact that intoxication reduces cognitive capacity, which results in a narrowing of attention therefore when attention is narrowed they do not feel or care about the public watching them that do absurd things like even sleeping in the streets..
The picture above of a youth sleeping around the vicinity of the club is rather disturbing as I feel sorry for that particular youth’s future and many other youths like him as well. So what is this binge drinking all about? It’s the in-thing for many youths nowadays where they recklessly gulp down litres of alcoholic beverages in front of their peers to seem a strong drinker whom can hold their drink well. But the liquor does not hold long as minutes later they exit the premises to binge it out using their fingers so that they can return to load more. The reasons cited for this trend include peer pressure, escapism or a fanatic show of power.
When the straits times reporter interviewed one such youth a first year Singapore Polytechnic Student who was spotted near Zouk mentioned that he binges to “look cool”. Another youth mentioned that to binge a drink it allows one to explore and try more varieties of new drinks which have hit the market in recent times. Ironically club owners are doing their part to stop drinkers from over drinking. Psychologist Daniel Koh, 36 said youth who think it is not wrong to binge “are indicative of states of denial. No one can handle drinking because when intoxicated, reasoning power is over ridden”.
My personal opinion as a social psychology student of a binge drinker is that the affected youth’s reference group is not the right type. A reference group is a group that serves as a standard of comparison for an individual, whether in terms of attitudes, values or behavior. Individuals try to conform to the norms and values of their main reference groups. The most obvious way where people conform to reference groups is by imitating or by joining the activities they indulge in.
Another reason why youths who never binged before also binge together with their friends could be because of the social desire to conform and to be readily accepted by their peers and to feel safe in their in-group. The effect of alcohol on information processing is termed as Alcohol Myopia. It refers to the fact that intoxication reduces cognitive capacity, which results in a narrowing of attention therefore when attention is narrowed they do not feel or care about the public watching them that do absurd things like even sleeping in the streets..
2 comments:
The youth interviewed about binge drinking could have used dissonance reduction to convince themselves that their binge drinking behaviour is rational by saying it makes them look cool or they are exploring more varieties of drinks in the market.
I think Binge drinking is something that's cool for the moment due to the social desireablity, but whatever after that, is an eyesore and it further damages the image of that person who tries to impress others.
They binge because of social influence. like friends taunting him to drink, if not he is a coward. SOmehow, there is this chip in men's head(literary man, not Man-human) that automatically switches on when someone challenges them. They NEED to prove to others that he is no coward and he is better than what you think.
I guess rash-tionality exceeds rationality. keke!
yeelee
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