So it's Wednesday - or as anyone between the age of 18 and 30 will call it, Mid Week Madness. I received an email this morning on facebook letting me know about 2-4-1 offers on a range of drinks in a club in town tonight.
It is no secret that binge drinking and under age drinking is a massive problem in the UK, we have the largest alcohol consumption in Europe and 1 in 4 adults are binge drinkers. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-302531/Special-report-Binge-drinking.html) A lot of people feel that cheap drinks are responsible for binge drinking but from my own experience I couldn't disagree with this more!
It is my opinion that even if the price of alcohol doubled in the UK we would still have a "binge culture." I come from Guernsey, where the average price of drinks easily double the price of alcohol in England, and this does not deter anyone from drinking in excess! In fact, it has been experience that teens from the channel islands drink far more on a night out than teens from other parts of the UK.
I used to work in a night club in Guernsey where a bottle of water cost £2.20 and alcohol prices were much higher then that and still every Wednesday night and weekends hundreds of people hit the clubs to go on a binge. The price of alcohol did not appear to deter many people from drinking until they couldn't take anymore.
I would argue that cheap alcohol prices are not to blame for binge drinking, I think that the fact there is little else to do in some areas is to blame. If there were other things to amuse teens and adults then I doubt so many people would choose to go out drinking.
In Guernsey there is hardly anything for teens and adults to do. There is an expensive bowling alley, a pathetically small cinema to keep people entertained, and of course there are beaches but these are not much of an advantage in the winter or at night! The result of this is that people choose to socialise in pubs and clubs for lack of anything else. I am not suggesting that this is the only reason why people drink but I would certainly argue that if there were other activities to do then fewer people would binge on such a regular basis.
This is not only the case in Guernsey, I have also seen evidence of this at my time at university. I am 18 years and am a first year so I am not going to try and convince you that I haven't been out drinking in my time here! But I have to admit that if I was not out at pubs or clubs then there would be little else to do on the weekend. The University openly encourages students to attend the student union bar and club, and we are continually bombarded with special student discounts by the clubs in town.
Why are we not being bombarded with offers from book clubs, museums or cinemas? We are not being offered many intellectual opportunities, so instead we go out and destroy our brain cells for a few hours.
So if you are reading this and know that you are going out tonight for Mid Week Madness it might be worth thinking about what you would be doing if you didn't want to drink. Are you being given enough options in your area?
Mid Week Madness (or Big Wednesday as it's known down here) may be a new thing but the idea of binge drinking certainly isn't. All you have to do is take a look at some of the less than formal history books and you'll find so many references to alcohol and drunkenness that it would make your head spin - and that's before you've even sniffed the cork! Drinking has been a part of English culture for many years. Certainly the majority of the twentieth century working classes didn't just live for the weekend or "Mid Week Madness" but drank every day. It was part of the culture at the time that you would go out, do a hard days work, clean yourself up (this stage was optional) and then take yourself off down to the pub for the evening. Yes, it was more social and more about relaxation and conversation than the alcohol, but that didn't stop them getting completely legless!
ReplyDeleteBinge drinking has only developed in recent times because now there are so many councils and boards and committees that deem it to be binge drinking. People have more or less drunk the same amount throughout the twentieth century, it's just now we have a catchy name for it and someone monitoring our consumption so they can report back with shocking figures.
I also don't think that binge drinking or drinking of any sort is because of a lack of a better option either. People who are of the age that do binge drink do it because of the excitement. It's the same reason you'll find more young people taking part in sport, driving too fast and doing just plain stupid things. As a young person, we are inclined to seek out the buzz, the noise and the adrenaline rush.
This fades as we age, along with our consumption of alcohol. We indulge in the polite conversation over a dinner with some wine and a few drinks after the meal. It all becomes more civilised. This is also the time when we start to think "A book club, that could be fun".
I'll concede that thus far I have over-generalised to a great extent but the trend for binge drinking does decline as we age. You certainly don't find many 50 year olds doing lines of tequila-slammers and straw-pedoes; but you could throw a stone into a university bar and hit someone that regularly enjoys drinking until certain bodily reactions occur.
The main problem is the amount we drink, that much is clear, but also the manner in which we do it. This has only recently been highlighted with layers and layers of bureaucracy shining a torch on the less than glorious parts of modern culture. I also think we do live in a 'Monday-to-Friday' culture where people live for the weekend and then over-indulge. The solution? Well, lets just say that when you find it there may be a big-fat cheque waiting for you because for the time being there seems to be little that can take the edge off out incessant drinking.
I appreciate where you are coming from and yes I agree that the term binge drinking has highlighted the issue - but this does not mean that it is not a massive issue!
ReplyDeleteYes it's true alcohol consumption has been a massive problem for the majority of modern history, although the huge problem of teen/under age drinking has not been on such a massive scale.
I am sure you cannot disagree that if you go back 50-100 years and went to a university that teh students would be spending their nights completely legless! Yes they drank, but their intelect was of much more worth to them than the countdown to a night out. Obviously this is not the case for everyone, much in the same way that excessive drinking is not the case of every student today.
I would still argue that having less to do results in alcohol consumption, although I also agree with you that a lot of younger people drink for the thrill of drinking rather than out of boredom.
I know you are from Guernsey - so can you honestly tell me that if it was a Saturday night your decision to go to town would never be based on having nothing better to do?!
I agree with you that we live in a 'Monday-Friday' culture, and yes the weekend is something to look forward to but I was raising the point that is one of the biggest things to look foward to a night out?
*the students would NOT be spending their nights completely legless - quite an important word that I missed out!
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