What is your attitude towards binge drinking - agree/disagree with statements. Please read addition info.?

Question

For my sociology coursework I am trying to prove that different ages hold different attitudes towards binge drinking, this is not the actual study but background research, it would be really appreciated if you could take the time to fill this in.

Age:

There is nothing wrong with people participating in one off binge drinking (consuming half the recommended weekly units in one session) at the weekend - Agree/Disagree?

There is nothing wrong with people my age participaiting in binge drinking - Agree/Disagree?

Answer 1

1) Age: 40

2) There is something wrong with people 40 binging during the weekend. We likely have more productive activities to engage in for those we are responsible for.

3) Rationally, it doesn't matter when, there is still an opportunity cost.  I still participate occasionally (rarely) given situations like an old friend heading off to Iraq. When I think about it, we could really be doing something way more productive.

I was a binge drinker until I got married and became a father. I was indifferent to others binging until I buried two friends over the past six months who died from alcohol related complications - enlarged hearts who were my age. Neither fit the definition of alcoholic, but were the exemplar binge drinker in that they did it every weekend.

  I know the previous answerer is right about maturity (whatever maturity really means) and changing tastes, but there is also a raw experience-with-mortality factor where the older you get the more you see the final results of earlier recreational behavior.

Since this is your background research, you might include a variable to account for people's personal experience from negative alcohol related outcomes such as accidents or of longer horizon health problems. This would give you more insight to whether the attitudinal difference is from youthful exhuberance, aging related zombification, or time related experiential driven attitudes.

Answer 2

Age is the most important factor in binge drinking. When you are below the legal drinking age it is an adventure to see if you can do something you are not supposed to and get away with it. When you are of legal age it is more or less a peer pressure contest as to who can drink the most or get the drunkest. Some look for attention and get hammered for an excuse to get away with something stupid they did while under the influence so they have a good excuse for doing it. When you are older, drinking is kind of like s*x. It no longer depends on quantity as much as quality. This is the point it turns from binge drinking to social drinking. And you no longer have excuses for strange behavior like wearing a lampshade on ones head. I guess its a process of maturing. Since everyone is different, I suppose rights and wrongs are best determined by each individual.