When Poppin' Bottles Goes Wrong.

   

    Most college campuses around the world can share a common problem; alcohol. In fact, this is the prime time of alcohol usage for young adults. But, why is alcohol such a big deal to young adults? It's the “thing” at college parties. Many students participate in flip-the-cup, beer pong, king’s cup and other games to have a good time and socially interact with others. These games are intended for social interaction as wells as to get drunk. Each of these games require alcohol, have rules, and some type of guidelines. Once the game gets going the more intoxicated and out of control you get, perhaps causing some type of negative outcome.


    The downfall to this good time is that some young adults can't control themselves, and their bodies don't know how to control the intake of so much alcohol. Often times after a game or two some students find themselves in situations they would never find themselves in sober. Some of these situations include but are not limited to: embarrassing themselves, sexual activity, and black-outs. In the journal, " Not Just Fun and Games: A Review of College Drinking Games Research From 2004 to 2013", researchers from different college campuses come together and survey the negative and positive consequences to these social drinking games.  Some of the research conducted found that some college students had regrets about their decisions when realizing they made some bad decisions but, others were proud of themselves.

    Zamboanga et al. said, "In fact, many gamers were even "proud of their extreme intoxication and regarded many negative outcomes, such as losing consciousness or vomiting, as badges of honor" (Polizzotto et al, 2007, p.472)". This finding indicates that some students are aware of the consequences and that's what draws them to do it. Lastly, another thing that was found was how alcohol affects women more than men. Zamboanga et al. included, “Women metabolize alcohol more slowly than men; thus, even if men and women drink the same amount of alcohol while playing, women will likely achieve higher BACs (cf. Cameron et al., 2010).” This insists that women are sometimes more intoxicated than men at these parties. The limitation to this research is researchers haven’t come up with a solution to help these students but, there is at least something being done. For now, research is still being conducted for these social drinking games and hopefully in the nearest future someone will discover a solution.
Abstract


Not just fun and games: A review of college drinking games research from 2004 to 2013.
   Zamboanga, Byron L.; Olthuis, Janine V.; Kenney, Shannon R.; Correia, Christopher J.;    Van     Tyne, Kathryne; Ham, Lindsay S.; Borsari, Brian
   Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Vol 28(3), Sep 2014, 682-695. doi:     10.1037/a0036639