Drinking, especially among teens, is a very popular scene in any movies and is usually there once or twice in movies. Researchers in Europe have found that the more scenes of alcohol use teens watch on the big screen, the greater their risk of binge drinking. Aside from movie watching, other well known factors go into a teens decision to drink. Researchers looked at a teen's level of rebelliousness or sensation-seeking, peer drinking levels, family drinking patterns, affluence and gender. With all of these factors in place, researchers still found that the amount of alcohol consumed in movies influenced teens to consume larger amounts of alcohol. In the U.S., youths with high exposure to drinking in movies are about twice as likely to try drinking and, among the experimental drinkers, twice as likely to binge drink. Statistics show that teens in the U.S. start drinking at age 10 to 11 and some progress very quickly to binge drinking. Drinking has been a part of American culture for a long time. More research is being done to conclude a very controversial question, whether teens seek out movies that have alcohol scenes, or it could be that seeing scenes of alcohol use in movies makes them more likely to binge drink. It is advised to parents to watch TV with their teens, go to the movies with them and discuss what you are seeing. What parents say matters more then what one TV shoe or one movie says.
The article pretty much confirmed what I thought about teen drinking and the influence of the movies on binge drinking. I've heard kids talking about drinking scenes in movies that have given them the ideas to binge drink. When kids see what they see in the movies then they assume it is acceptable behavior for teens. What i did find surprising was that kids 10 to 11 start drinking so early that their bodies have trouble metabolising the alcohol so quickly. I think it would be interesting to compare drinking at Gunn to the facts in this article.
ReplyDeleteI think that this new research is very logical. Teens need role models, and sometimes our parents aren't exactly what we're are looking for, so we turn to movies. Since the invention of cinema I think that has been the case - James Dean and Marlon Brando branded the tens of the 50s. But with the times I think that movies that young adults watch have gotten more outrageous, and influence them more negatively. Kids of any age want to seem cool, and alcohol intake is a surefire way to achieve that in our current society, at least at this age. As to the question of whether teens seek out movies that have alcohol, my response would be that I doubt it. I think that adults tend to think that all teens drink, and that that is what they like to see, so in order to make their movies successful, they appeal to what teens want. All I know is that something needs to change, before teen drinking becomes the norm.
ReplyDeleteI think that the new research presents and supports a theory that we are all aware of. It is important to conduct this research in order to provide society and teens especially with the consequences of the things they're exposed to, and maybe someday even teach them how to prevent these consequences without limiting the exposure.
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