Stop And Think Twice

Stop and think twice

Each year approximately 5,000 teens die due to drinking alcohol, which includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicle crashes, 1,600 homicides, 300 from suicides, as well as other injuries such as drowning, burns and falls. Teenagers drink because of peer pressure or bad influence from family members or a friend. I believe the influence of drinking towards teenagers can change the way they think of alcohol and think twice before drinking, which can cause death, violent crimes, child abuse and a lot of other problems to your family and the society

Parents and other family members should not be influencing their teens to drink, by saying its okay and drinking around them. They will think that it is okay to drink and not realize what is happening to their body. Once they get a little bit of alcohol they will get addicted to it and want more and more to start binge drinking. If they drink more they will get involved in fights and the place of intoxication. If you are a parent who does not drink chances are your kids will follow your attitudes. They will think twice whether they should drink or not. Most parent’s say that it’s the genetic is the reason why they drink, but actually it’s the environment they are living in that are making these kids think its okay to drink. Kids will not drink as much as the others if their parents are strict about it or if the parents do not drink themselves, they will get the right idea that drinking is not good for the human body and think twice before drinking. Children who come from strict homes where parents not are only strict about drinking but parents who monitor their progress in their academics and other activities also have less risks of having a drinking problem. Kids who also attend religious services who are religious also have less tendency of becoming an alcoholic. These kids will stop drinking and realize what is more important in life. Family members are not the only ones who influence teens to drink, but it’s also the alcohol company themselves.

Alcohol companies that make these drinks also give bad influence to teens. They say that is okay to drink which will make the teens think its okay and do more. Not only have the advertisements been attracting people who are of legal age to drink, but these advertisements have also been targeting the youth. It’s obvious these advertisements are targeting the youth because in most of the advertisements it uses sports and music stars to show young people that it is cool. These days’ kids watch television constantly which means they will see all these advertisements which sometimes include cute animals to be in them to make them watch more and more. People know we can't stop others from watching the television but the ads can be banned from T.V. Before students graduate high school, they will spend as much time as 18,000 hours in front of the television and will watch about 2,000 alcohol advertisements in U.S. Researches observed that exposure to alcohol advertisements was linked with an increased tendency of drinking, as were magazine advertisement and drinking stand at sporting events. Advertisements are not the only resource that tells the young kids drinking alcohol is cool, but it’s also their friends who encourage them to drink.

Your friends and school-life also makes a difference to your drinking life. Friends also make others drink. They will start by saying that is okay to drink and that it is cool which will make you think it’s also okay. This is called peer pressure, even though you don’t want to drink you are forced to, whether your friends are making you, or you just want to fit in with the group and seem cool. Most teens think it’s cool to drink alcohol, but in my opinion it is not, because it affects your body especially when you are growing up. Researches have discovered that the younger you start to drink your brain will be more damaged because that is the time when your body is growing, and when you intoxicate yourself with alcohol it can effect the way your body grows. Drinking with friends can also ruin the friendship because when you are drunk, due to too much of alcohol, you do not know what is happening and do not have full control of your body

If all these influences stop or if the teens think twice before drinking alcohol I believe the percentages of under age drinking will lower down in the future.

"It is critical that parents and other trusted adults initiate conversations with kids about underage drinking well in advance of the first time they are faced with a decision regarding alcohol." - Xavier Becerra