Youth drinking problem is more related to social insertion models than to what is or not forbidden. Of course, teenagers want to do the opposite they are asked to, but what they most desire is to feel that they are part of a group. The main question to answer in order to respond to the debate of responsibilities is who defines what's "inn", "cool", "fashion", "trendy"... TV, cinema and celebrities which associate fame with parties as celebrations where one can abuse of alcohol, tobacco or drugs play a great role. This attitudes influence the new generations behaviour. They copy what they see applying the formula: excess = success Botellon is nowadays an example of an outside party where the individual can show that has learnt this important life lesson, and at the same time makes possible to "minimize" the effects under the protection of the crowd.
Well,in my opinion since the begining, Britain have had a tradition of ¨Binge-drinking culture¨. During the year 1995-96 I had the chance to live in a litle village near to Liverpool and I used to go out like every young lad and I remember at that time the alcoholic drinks were much more expensive than they are now according to The Telegraph. Obviously I don't have the formula to stop¨Binge-drinking¨in Britain, nevertheless if the prices of the alcoholic drinks were rather expensive,the youth wouldn't get that drunk and could be able to be more aware of what they do to have fun.
In Spain, drinking alcohol is not cheap and that’s why people do “botellón” here, but it seems that in Britain they blame the high prices of drinks for what happens. In both cases, the result is the same. That shows that raising prices is not the solution.
What I suggest is offering alternative ways of entertainment, specially in places like Britain where the cold weather make the enjoyment difficult.
I think the upbringing is an essencial issue: if parents turn alcohol into a taboo subject, or even forbid it, teenagers become prone to disobey and tend to drink more.
From my point of view, the advertisement of alcohol companies is not the reason why so much people drink such a large amount of alcohol. However, I think showing the names of alcohol companies in children’s replica football shirts is completely inappropriate.
Maybe teenagers are currently being too much overprotected; In my opinion, they have to notice by themselves what is good and what is not. What is for sure is that before doing that, they have to make mistakes.
Drinking is a common problem around the world. Alcohol has been a constant feature in our cultures. However, it seems the problem is getting bigger. Nowadays we can find more teenagers completely drunk in the streets rather than before. In Spain young people tend to congregate at squares, streets near the clubs or even car parks in order to drink before party, that’s what we called “botellón”. I agree that prices for alcoholic drinks are expensive in Spain and also in Britain, but in my opinion this is not the reason why people get drunk. From my point of view, the culture of going out has changed from ‘I’m going out to meet my friends, dance a bit, drink something and try to flirt with somebody’ to ‘I’m going out to get pissed’. Therefore, no matter how many laws raising prices the government will dictate or even ban alcoholic advertisements onto football T-shirt or TV; young people will continue drinking unless they don´t change their minds. For that reason, parents need to re-educate young people and show them there are alternative ways for entertainment that you don’t need to drink alcohol. M. Sampol
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer in a future.
Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men.
In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell.
Furthermore, it seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives.
Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer i a future. Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men. In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell. It seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives. Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer i a future. Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men. In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell. It seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives. Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
Journalist presents a dilemma. In one hand we can not expect the government to fix every single problem with rules, prohibitions and punishments in a free and democratic country, especially if we talk about something as complex as the habit of drinking. In the other hand the writer describes with a good dose of criticism impunity for some companies when they target young people as consumers of addictive behaviors (alcohol or gambling for example) and the complicity of other social sectors (including government), in a scenario that is getting worse and worse (for instance women and youngest people in this insane dynamic). Even tough the culture is different, we have nowadays same problem in Spain with “el botellón” and the dilemma about what to cope with this.....more freedom? Or more control? It’s really difficult to me to opt to one of these alternatives. It should be another way related to EDUCATION AND VALUES. What do you think about? Mar del Pozo
Drinking alcohol is a big problem among teenagers and the solution is not easy to find. Before it was only a problem related to homeless people but the sad thing is that nowadays is referring to very young people.
It is nothing to do with the price. If it is cheap one can get it easily but if it is expensive they have invented the "botellon" to compensate the high prices of the bars.
It is nothing to do with sponsors, marketing, TV... As it is said in the article is a free country and you can advertised what you want.
The solution is at home. Parents must educated their children with another values: "To enjoy yourself you do not need to be pissed".
Binge drinking in Spain is also a big problem. But the main reason why they are trying to stop it it´s becouse it´s normaly the people that live arround where the teenagers get together for binge drinking,complane for the noice and the way they leave the streets dirty.It´s the neighbors that get together and ask for a solution. In Palma (Mallorca) the Binge drinking affects one of the most important and tourist parts of the Iland,Paseo Marítimo. Residents and tourist use these area for morning and evening family walks,cycling,rollerblading,and other sports and enjoing the Palma Bay views.As it is also one of the first views that tourist see when they arrive from the airport or the port.And these gives a bad impersion of Palma when on a Sunday or Saturday morning it´s imposible to go,due to all the rubish that binge drinkers leave from the night before. Residents complane becouse they have to pay throughout there taxes for cleaning up the mess they do. But these shouldn´t be the only reason why they muss stop with Binge drinking,they should also think of the problemen with youngsters drinking with no control!
In Spain it is very common after the weekends to read at the newspapers that there have been some troubles in any place because of the excess of alcohol, what we call "botellón". Some teenagers go out not to meet friends and have fun, they go out just with the only intention to get drunk. As a result, they leave streets and squares full of litter and stinking.
Which is the reason for this vandalism behabiour? because of the high price of the alcohol? because is it cool? becuse of the pressure of the group? nobody has the right answer, neither the teenagers.
Young people have more infomation than what we had, and they know how bad is for their health to drink every weekend so huge of alcohol, but still they go on drinking.
In my opinion, they have to change their mind by themselves, get consciousness about have fun without damage themselves and disturb other people.
I have been a teenager and I discovered alcohol and its effects, and I got drunk but I never reach that level. I grew up in a quite different society and I think this is one of the main reasons of "botellon". The usual excuse to do "botellon" is the high price of the alcohol in bars and discos but it isn't the real one. Teenagers feel better being part of a group and doing things like drinking because it is "different", "cool"... I think that would be made a great effort by government, by parents and by media to change this thought about drinking and made teenagers discover that there are a lot things that they could do, not so dangerous as get drunk.
In my opinion it is clear that the binge-drinking is not an exclusive British problem, it doesn’t have only one cause and it affects different groups of people so it would be very naive to believe that we can find only one solution.
At first, everyone of us try to blame the governments, the laws, the advertising campaigns or whatever in an attempt of not to feel responsible for this thorny problem, maybe because to find a remedy, as I said before, it is quite difficult.
Of course, I have no magic solution, but I’ve always thought that the education has a great power so perhaps the way starts at home. As the title says, the binge-drinking could be understood as a culture, and the culture is not instinctive but learned. Maybe we are no teaching the proper lesson, maybe we should consider that this problem starts even before one tries the first drop of alcohol. Sonia Abad
13 comments:
Youth drinking problem is more related to social insertion models than to what is or not forbidden. Of course, teenagers want to do the opposite they are asked to, but what they most desire is to feel that they are part of a group. The main question to answer in order to respond to the debate of responsibilities is who defines what's "inn", "cool", "fashion", "trendy"...
TV, cinema and celebrities which associate fame with parties as celebrations where one can abuse of alcohol, tobacco or drugs play a great role. This attitudes influence the new generations behaviour. They copy what they see applying the formula: excess = success
Botellon is nowadays an example of an outside party where the individual can show that has learnt this important life lesson, and at the same time makes possible to "minimize" the effects under the protection of the crowd.
Carolina Vicente Álvarez
Advanced I
Well,in my opinion since the begining, Britain have had a tradition of ¨Binge-drinking culture¨. During the year 1995-96 I had the chance to live in a litle village near to Liverpool and I used to go out like every young lad and I remember at that time the alcoholic drinks were much more expensive than they are now according to The Telegraph.
Obviously I don't have the formula to stop¨Binge-drinking¨in Britain, nevertheless if the prices of the alcoholic drinks were rather expensive,the youth wouldn't get that drunk and could be able to be more aware of what they do to have fun.
In Spain, drinking alcohol is not cheap and that’s why people do “botellón” here, but it seems that in Britain they blame the high prices of drinks for what happens. In both cases, the result is the same. That shows that raising prices is not the solution.
What I suggest is offering alternative ways of entertainment, specially in places like Britain where the cold weather make the enjoyment difficult.
I think the upbringing is an essencial issue: if parents turn alcohol into a taboo subject, or even forbid it, teenagers become prone to disobey and tend to drink more.
From my point of view, the advertisement of alcohol companies is not the reason why so much people drink such a large amount of alcohol. However, I think showing the names of alcohol companies in children’s replica football shirts is completely inappropriate.
Maybe teenagers are currently being too much overprotected; In my opinion, they have to notice by themselves what is good and what is not. What is for sure is that before doing that, they have to make mistakes.
Drinking is a common problem around the world. Alcohol has been a constant feature in our cultures. However, it seems the problem is getting bigger. Nowadays we can find more teenagers completely drunk in the streets rather than before.
In Spain young people tend to congregate at squares, streets near the clubs or even car parks in order to drink before party, that’s what we called “botellón”. I agree that prices for alcoholic drinks are expensive in Spain and also in Britain, but in my opinion this is not the reason why people get drunk. From my point of view, the culture of going out has changed from ‘I’m going out to meet my friends, dance a bit, drink something and try to flirt with somebody’ to ‘I’m going out to get pissed’.
Therefore, no matter how many laws raising prices the government will dictate or even ban alcoholic advertisements onto football T-shirt or TV; young people will continue drinking unless they don´t change their minds. For that reason, parents need to re-educate young people and show them there are alternative ways for entertainment that you don’t need to drink alcohol.
M. Sampol
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer in a future.
Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men.
In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell.
Furthermore, it seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives.
Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer i a future.
Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men.
In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell.
It seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives.
Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
The law is done, now it´s time to ensure that the law is upheld. If young people (under 18) continues buying and drinking alcohol is because something is wrong. Maybe, it would be a good idea to show them which effects could their body suffer i a future.
Some people don’t think about alcohol as a drug but the real thing is that we can find young people addicted to alcohol. These boys and girls are younger than a few years later when “alcoholics” were related to mature men.
In my opinion, something is getting wrong. If this is a fashion, I hope that it will be finished but meanwhile, young people are driking tonight and hurting themselves. If this is culture, the thing is worst because they do not notice at all the advertisement or they do no want to notice it. They prefer their “wonderful habit” set them apart from the rest instead of being the one who doesn’t drink but who can enjoy the night aswell.
It seems obviously but they need to learn different ways in order to enjoy their nights in a different way instead of risking theirs lives.
Maybe the idea about banning the sponsoring about drinking alcohol in t-shirts is good. Let’s take an example. The biggest football team in the recent championship world is Spain, a team sponsored by a famous beer brand. If footballers are sportsmen and healthy, why are still announcing beer? Why don’t they promote vegetables, milk or water? Could be because it’s not worth? They will continue being idols for young people without announcing alcoholic drinks and youngers will continue dreaming about being one of them.
Journalist presents a dilemma. In one hand we can not expect the government to fix every single problem with rules, prohibitions and punishments in a free and democratic country, especially if we talk about something as complex as the habit of drinking. In the other hand the writer describes with a good dose of criticism impunity for some companies when they target young people as consumers of addictive behaviors (alcohol or gambling for example) and the complicity of other social sectors (including government), in a scenario that is getting worse and worse (for instance women and youngest people in this insane dynamic).
Even tough the culture is different, we have nowadays same problem in Spain with “el botellón” and the dilemma about what to cope with this.....more freedom? Or more control? It’s really difficult to me to opt to one of these alternatives. It should be another way related to EDUCATION AND VALUES. What do you think about?
Mar del Pozo
Drinking alcohol is a big problem among teenagers and the solution is not easy to find. Before it was only a problem related to homeless people but the sad thing is that nowadays is referring to very young people.
It is nothing to do with the price. If it is cheap one can get it easily but if it is expensive they have invented the "botellon" to compensate the high prices of the bars.
It is nothing to do with sponsors, marketing, TV... As it is said in the article is a free country and you can advertised what you want.
The solution is at home. Parents must educated their children with another values: "To enjoy yourself you do not need to be pissed".
Monica Salas
Binge drinking in Spain is also a big problem. But the main reason why they are trying to stop it it´s becouse it´s normaly the people that live arround where the teenagers get together for binge drinking,complane for the noice and the way they leave the streets dirty.It´s the neighbors that get together and ask for a solution.
In Palma (Mallorca) the Binge drinking affects one of the most important and tourist parts of the Iland,Paseo Marítimo.
Residents and tourist use these area for morning and evening family walks,cycling,rollerblading,and other sports and enjoing the Palma Bay views.As it is also one of the first views that tourist see when they arrive from the airport or the port.And these gives a bad impersion of Palma when on a Sunday or Saturday morning it´s imposible to go,due to all the rubish that binge drinkers leave from the night before.
Residents complane becouse they have to pay throughout there taxes for cleaning up the mess they do.
But these shouldn´t be the only reason why they muss stop with Binge drinking,they should also think of the problemen with youngsters drinking with no control!
In Spain it is very common after the weekends to read at the newspapers that there have been some troubles in any place because of the excess of alcohol, what we call "botellón". Some teenagers go out not to meet friends and have fun, they go out just with the only intention to get drunk. As a result, they leave streets and squares full of litter and stinking.
Which is the reason for this vandalism behabiour? because of the high price of the alcohol? because is it cool? becuse of the pressure of the group? nobody has the right answer, neither the teenagers.
Young people have more infomation than what we had, and they know how bad is for their health to drink every weekend so huge of alcohol, but still they go on drinking.
In my opinion, they have to change their mind by themselves, get consciousness about have fun without damage themselves and disturb other people.
Myriam Ballesteros
I have been a teenager and I discovered alcohol and its effects, and I got drunk but I never reach that level. I grew up in a quite different society and I think this is one of the main reasons of "botellon".
The usual excuse to do "botellon" is the high price of the alcohol in bars and discos but it isn't the real one.
Teenagers feel better being part of a group and doing things like drinking because it is "different", "cool"...
I think that would be made a great effort by government, by parents and by media to change this thought about drinking and made teenagers discover that there are a lot things that they could do, not so dangerous as get drunk.
In my opinion it is clear that the binge-drinking is not an exclusive British problem, it doesn’t have only one cause and it affects different groups of people so it would be very naive to believe that we can find only one solution.
At first, everyone of us try to blame the governments, the laws, the advertising campaigns or whatever in an attempt of not to feel responsible for this thorny problem, maybe because to find a remedy, as I said before, it is quite difficult.
Of course, I have no magic solution, but I’ve always thought that the education has a great power so perhaps the way starts at home. As the title says, the binge-drinking could be understood as a culture, and the culture is not instinctive but learned. Maybe we are no teaching the proper lesson, maybe we should consider that this problem starts even before one tries the first drop of alcohol.
Sonia Abad
Post a Comment