‘Discuss the social implications created by teenagers and excessive alcohol’
Teenagers are often seen, hanging around on street corners, in the local parks, and near local off licenses on a Friday and Saturday night. In their hands, bottles of cheap cider and alchopops (fruit and novelty tasting alcohol drinks) and a packet of 10 Lambert and Butler cigarettes. They are often loud, provoking and downright ignorant to law abiding citizen’s views and beliefs. It seems to be the case that we cannot even go to the local chip shop without being heckled and insulted by them.
So is this a new phenomenon in society? Well frankly no. In Bickerdyke’s novel (BICKERDYKE, J. 1886), it suggests how this type of behaviour where alcohol is involved has been happening for centuries. Just asking one’s parents, grandparents and one’s-self, you will probably hear similar stories about consuming large amounts of alcohol during the ‘teenage years’.
There are a number of reasons why society frowns upon on teenager’s drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. ‘Binge drinking’ is a term that has sprung up through the media and society to stigmatize those who consume a large amount of alcohol in a single sitting. Not a very complimentary term by any means, and
as suggested in the Home Office Research Study 262, (ENGINEER, R. et al, 2003) one that can have serious implications on one’s-self and society.
Using research and personal opinion, this writer will discuss how teenagers drinking excessive amounts of alcohol cause implications to society.
Social exclusion is a major implication that can arise from adolescents drinking alcohol excessively. Many factors arise such as mental health problems during teenage years (Department of health 1999a). Teenagers are more prone to anxiety, paranoia and clinical depression. As they don’t have the hindsight to look back upon events, and coupled with the unbalancing effects of hormonal changes, then a permanent ‘scar’ could be created...