So I walk into my dorm room the other night and my roommate has the TV show Gossip Girl on. Yes, we all have our guilty pleasures- don’t judge. If you aren’t familiar with the pretense of the show, it is essentially about the “wealthy and fabulous” teenagers of the Upper East Side in Manhattan. This particular scene happened to be on the roof of NYU where there was a massive kegger going on.
“Aren’t these kids freshman in college?” I asked my roommate.
“Yep,” she nonchalantly replied.
So we all know drinking goes on in college. We also know that it is illegal. What I was unaware of is that it could be displayed in the media with such a casual presentation. Anyone with their wits about them could piece it together that these kids were drinking underage. I asked my roommate if that sort of thing is shown frequently on the show.
“Um, yeah I guess it is. They just like walk up to bars and order martinis all the time. Most of the places they hang out or meet up is in bars,” she replied.
So the media is presenting these 18 year olds with the idea that drinking is normal and easy to do. I can’t believe I’ve never considered the media’s influence on underage drinking; it’s such an obvious topic. Some people think that the media is a negative influence because it doesn’t tend to show the negative repercussions of overdrinking. On the other hand, from what I’ve seen this series doesn’t show the kids getting hammered and making awful decisions. Generally, they just have a drink or two at the bar and go home. This shows how drinking can be done responsibly. Do you think the media generally has a positive or negative influence on underage drinking? Yes, it can influence us to drink, but do you think it is positively or negatively?
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