Research Essay

Michelle Tapia

Professor Steven Dube

Freshman Composition

October 16, 2018

Raising the Drinking Age: Smart or Chaotic?

People thought that raising the drinking age was going to be helpful.  They thought that change would come with that.  The age should be brought down to 18 because at that age people are allowed to do so much already.  At the age of 18, people are allowed to “vote, marry, enter contracts, and serve in the military at 18…”, so would changing the age make that much of a big difference.  Raising the age to 21 didn’t bring much good, instead there was an increase in illegal drinking like underage drinking.   Much of the law isn’t even enforced.

Changing the age to 21 was something absurd to have done.  What had actually happened was there was an increase in illegal drinking with underage drinking and drinking on campus grounds at fraternity parties. In the article by Camille Paglia it says that “what the cruel 1984 law did is deprive young people of safe spaces where they could happily drink cheap beer, socialize, chat, and flirt in a free but controlled environment…in the 1980’s we immediately got the scourge of crude binge drinking at campus fraternity keg parties, cut off from the adult world”.  What that means is that since many people were taken away the chance to drink, they had to do it illegally.  Being 18 is being considered an adult but if you are caught drinking before the age of 21 then you are considered an underage person drinking illegally.  People felt the necessity to drink in private, so they wouldn’t get caught drinking.  But in reality, with them drinking this young is a good thing because they are able to do it as a group in. a more controlled environment rather than by themselves in a bar.  Most people think that they raised the drinking age to stop young people from drinking at a young age and getting into problems but in reality starting to drink at a young age helps them be more mature with their drinking because they have more experience.  My father was born in Mexico and grew up there; there most kids drink at a young age.  He started drinking at the age of 14, that’s pretty young considering how the drinking age there is 18.  He was a drunk when he was younger, but now that he is older with a wife and kids, he has experience and is no longer a drunk, he is able to drink without lashing out at people. He said that by having this much experience, he has learned to be more responsible when drinking. Most people that drive while being drunk are most likely to crash and cause an accident but with his age and his experience he knows what he needs to get him awake and alert.  Not that I am condoning driving while under the influence of alcohol but by starting at a young age, you learn how to be more mature and more experienced with it.  Driving while young teaches you how to drink and how to keep it controlled.

Starting to drink at the age of 21 isn’t the best thing because the first thing that most people do on their 21^st birthday and get drunk, why, because they craved something for so long and weren’t able to control the lust they had for alcohol.  A family member of mine got into a car accident last year that was caused by a drunk driver.  The driver was a 32-year-old man driving while intoxicated and with a suspended license because he had to many DUI’s.  As a result of that man driving when he was not supposed too, he caused the death of 2 people.  If he had learned to drink since the age of 18, he could have learned how to drink and how to drink more maturely.  The accident could have been prevented if the drinking age was 18 because as you grow up you have more experience.  The man was brought to justice, my family friend and his sister were okay except for their 2 friends that were in the back seat. They raised the age to 21, because they felt that was when people were most responsible, but if a man that was driving while intoxicated doesn’t seem that the law was very affective. But they changed the age to 21 because teenagers couldn’t control their alcohol consumption, but most adults are alcoholics. Raising the drinking age causes immaturity when they start drinking because they don’t know how to handle it.

A major issue going around is the danger of social media.  There are many kids on social media.  The minimum age to make any social media is 13.  But most kids make it before, I know because I made a Facebook at the age of 9 and my mom made me delete it because there are random psychos and predators on the website.  In an article by kidguard.com, they state how studies show how kids are more than happy to “friend” or “follow” people that they have never met before… and are more than excited to give their personal information to random people or make profile “with their picture, address, phone number, name of their school and their interests”. Social Media is the perfect hunting ground according to kidguard.com.  Social media is becoming more and more dangerous for kids because they have no idea what kind of person they are really talking too.  Most online predators find kids that they think are easy targets and studies their profiles to figure out what they really like, because they know that most kids are most trusting and open when they meet someone with the same interests as them.  Most kids get a sense of excitement and curiosity that 16% of people have considered meeting them, while 8% only went through with it, while 75% have met the people they met online more than once.  Once predators feel like they gained trust of their targets, they start to move in.  in fact, 50% of sex crimes committed against a minor involve a perpetrator obtaining information and/or pictures from social media sites. A majority of stuff that we can legally do is at the age of 18.  They should raise the age from social media from 13 to 18 because that could protect them even more and lower the drinking age to 18.  Changing the age social media could help keep safe kids and lower how many minors go missing and how many are raped.

Pornography is addictive just like alcohol.  But something that I want to say about that is that since they raised the age for alcohol then why didn’t they raise the age for pornography since porn does influence bad things.  For example, in an article it says, “promotes normalization of rape,” which means that people are more drawn to rape people to live out their sex crazed fantasy, that means that more people feel more inclined to rape because they can’t control the urge that they have to do it.  There’s no doubt that some people’s porn consumption gets them in trouble — in the form of maxed-out credit cards, lost sleep, neglected responsibilities, or neglected loved ones.  That means that people will waste however much money they want because they still want to pleasure themselves.  There isn’t much of an enforced law on porn because people younger than 18 watch porn even though they aren’t supposed too.  Porn is too unrestricted which means that anyone has access to it, all they have to do is search porn up on a search engine and click on a link and that’s it; they are free to watch whatever video they want.  A person that I asked was in middle school when they first watched porn and they felt compelled to watch it again. To this day she still sees it, according to her she watches it twice a week.  A person in middle school shouldn’t even be able to watch porn but she had easy access to it which she shouldn’t have had in the first place.  Someone else that I asked said that she has seen it but felt weird and doesn’t see it as much as the other person.  They should just take away the law of being able to watch porn at 18 since it isn’t even restricted.  But the age for alcohol should be lowered to the age of 18 because that law is actually enforced because an underage person can’t even enter a bar, and they can’t even purchase alcohol at their local deli.  That’s is why they should raise the age for porn and lower the age for pornography.

Something else that can affect the body the same way as porn and alcohol is smoking.  Smoking has very bad effects on the body.  The effects smoking has on the body is that it causes mood stimulation, early menopause, anxiety and irritability, poor vision, smelly hair, unhealthy teeth, lung cancer, bronchitis, heart disease… and more and those aren’t even half of the things that it can cause the body.  Smoking really affects your body in the worst way possible.  Smoking is just like porn and alcohol, ADDICTING.  Most people have to smoke at least 2 packs a day.  When I was on vacation, every time that we would go on the car he would have his cigarettes in his hands and would smoke while driving.  The reason why most people crave cigarettes is because it contains tobacco which is a mood-altering drug called nicotine, which makes feel energized for a while but after the effect starts to wear off you begin to feel tired and start to crave more which is one of the reasons why people can go through 2 packs a day.  With nicotine being in cigarettes, people find it hard to quit.  But cigarettes aren’t the only thing that people find addicting; alcohol is something very addictive.

They raised the age to have a change in how things were going.  With the age change there was a decrease in car accidents related to drunk driving.  The car accidents were still going on, but they started becoming more related to cell phones and driving while on prescription drugs.  Learning how to drink at 18 is better because “learning how to drink responsibly is a basic lesson in growing up”.  That means that by the age of 18 they are able to start understanding how to drink and if they do then they should have a reason.  When you’re 18, you’re usually fresh out of high school and you have a lot of responsibilities, so most people aren’t going to spend their entire time drunk, they are going to learn how to balance out their life and what they do on a daily basis.  Drinking alcohol or also trying it is a basic part of life.

Most people first try it out when they are younger, and they make their choice whether they like it or not.  When you’re younger than 21 or 18, you first try it out with your families because of you do drink young it’s better to do it with your family than with random people or out on the streets where you’re out there by yourself.  I know from experience because I have tasted beer, and do I like it enough that I feel drawn to it, no, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it; I like it somewhat; I don’t like the bitter taste, but I like the way it feels when it goes down.  The drinks that I tend to prefer are the Smirnoff’s, and juices mixed with any kind of tequila, but do I like tequila, no, it tastes horrible.  But I prefer to mix.  But the time that I do drink, I do it with my family when we go to family parties because 1. I’m with my parents, 2. I don’t take an excessive amount to the point where I’m drunk.  Since I started to drink this young, I’ve learned what I like and what I don’t like, and I’ve learned how to control myself.  But just because I like to drink doesn’t mean I always can, at parties I have to ask my mom if I can drink and if she says no then I can’t drink even if I want to or not.  I think that this is really helpful because I am learning how to be mature about how much alcohol I am going to drink.  I am planning on living life to the fullest by the time I’m 18, because I’m already able to do so much.  At clubs most people go to drink and get drunk, but you don’t need to get drunk in order to have fun, you can dance, hang out.  Learning how to drink in your teens is ok because you are being opened to something new.

If they change the drinking age to 18, it could help teach people how to drink and how to control themselves.  I recently went to a party and everyone was already drunk, and they decide to play Mexican rock music.  When Mexicans get their rock music they go all out with their dancing, but if their drunk it can get chaotic because people get in a circle and start dancing crazy like jumping and pushing themselves around.  At this party they were doing exactly that, and a man pushed another man, and that was where the problems started happening.  Men was starting to fight men, then women decided to stick up for each side of the family to the point where they fought.  Then my father wanted to fight.  Everyone was already drunk at this point.  If they had learned at a younger age and how to control themselves then they wouldn’t have been in that situation.  Fighting is just one of the major parts that come with drinking and getting drunk.  This is why people should learn how to drink at a young age.  It can be very beneficial in the long run.

All in all, alcohol does bring its baggage but so does everything else in life.  Life is never easy, there will always be challenges that come with it.  But the age limit is one thing that should be changed because when you’re younger you’re aware of the risks, compared to when you’re older, you tend to not pay attention to the risks because you think that you have lived long enough, and you’ve enjoyed life.  Smoking and Porn are just a couple of the things that are a major issue just like alcohol.  Alcohol, porn, and smoking are all flawed but they don’t want to change that.  Most people don’t like to change because they are afraid of it, but little do they know that change is actually good and beneficial.  Changing the age could help decrease drunk driving accidents, lower fights, and lower alcoholics because when you’re young, you tend to have more control and restraint, unlike when you’re older.  The age should be lowered to 18.  People would see how much change it actually brings.

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