The first thing most of us do when we get to college is take a drink. Whether it be beer, wine, hard liquor, and for those more adventurous types a 40 of Big Bear. It seems the the norm today is to drink in college.
According to the article by William DeJong, The Role of Mass Media Campaigns in Reducing High-Risk Drinking among College Students, most college students are unaware of how many of their peers actually drink. This is true, until something hits home.
When I was Binghamton University, I, like many of my fellow party goers was oblivious to what “Binge Drinking” actually meant. Let alone how it could affect one person, and an entire college community.
On a Saturday night like any other my girlfriends and I, dressed to impress, headed out to a frat party. We partied like rock stars, being in a sorority gave us that right. We went about our night not noticing much about the amount people were drinking. Came home, at pizza at 2:00 am (which does wonders for a girls figure), and passed out. Happy college life.
That was until we woke up the next morning. We got news that a very good friend of ours, who was at the same party, had died. A member of the frat who’s party we had attended, he drank WAY too much. After the party he headed out to the bars with a friend, along the way him and a friend we messing around at a bridge that overlooked the river. Being as drunk as they both were, he somehow managed to fall over the side of the bridge into the water.
The water was not that deep, nor was it a raging river by any means. Most people who had anytime of swim skills could have swam to safety. According to police reports he was so drunk that when he hit the water he was unable to swim to safety and drowned. They found his body the next day washed up on shore, a perfectly good life had been lost. Someone most of us had known for three years, who had pledged at the same time as us, sat in the Union with us, a nice guy that we all liked to be around. Our college community had lost a promising young man. Not to mention the devastation his family was feeling.
The loss of a life really puts things in perspective. It had not occurred to any of us that he had drank to much. But from then on we all reconsidered how much we drank on a typical Saturday night.
Wow.
Can I ask, do you think that affected the amount you drank at parties later? Essentially I am curious if that “changed your behavior.” And if so, how soon afterwards?
Also, it occurs to me that the goals of some campaigns can be to create a simulation of a traumatic experience such as this as a way to convey the severity of binge drinking as a problem. But, unless the viewer has experienced such a thing, the simulation could read as exaggerated. Things for me to think about.
Thanks for the post…