How Bingeing Became the New College Sport

Drinking on college campuses has become a huge problem. For example, in the 10th century only old people used to drink, but now students drink more than their parents. Students see their parents drinking, so they may think that drinking has no effect on health that anyone can drink so why can’t the students drink? Therefore, college students have been drinking alcohol since the 14th century. Barrett Seaman’s article “How Bingeing Became the New College Sport,” appearing in TIME magazine on August 29, 2005, explains how binge drinking is affecting college students. It also suggests that lowering the drinking age might help solve the problem of binge drinking. This article has much information on how and where students get drunk. According to the article, alcohol is consumed by students in dorms or even at off-campus apartments. Students do not want to drink alone so they throw a party and mostly everyone who attends that party will drink and more than half are going to drink more than their limit. The students who drink heavily not only put themselves but also others in danger. If students drink too much at a party and want to go back to their own dorm or apartment, they are going to drive there and put others on the road at risk. This article states how binge drinking is hurting or even killing students. “By the Thanksgiving break of the year I visited Harvard, the university’s health center had admitted nearly 70 students for alcohol poisoning” writes Seaman and explains that students are drinking too much and getting poisoned by alcohol so that they don’t even notice when they reach their limit. Once they drink a lot, they can end up in the hospital. “While reporting for my book Binge, I witnessed the hospitalization of several students for acute alcohol poisoning. Among them was a Hamilton College freshman who had consumed 22 shots of vodka while sitting in a dorm room with her friends,” writes Seaman, explaining that students drink in their own dorm rooms