Reality Vs Appearance Essay

Submitted By masonaucoin
Words: 2768
Pages: 12

Over the years, teens have gone from sneaking one or two drinks from their parents per month, to it becoming an "every weekend kind of thing", where teenagers have been continuously consuming large amounts of alcohol on a regular basis. Teen alcohol abuse has skyrocketed lately, due to many factors that can be viewed through the scopes of the three social sciences; Anthropology, Sociology, and Psychology. Teenage alcohol abuse is seen through these sciences in the particular ways of the culture, the social aspects such as; media, peer pressure, and availability, and also the mindsets of teenagers and how it affects the decisions they make in life. Teenage alcohol abuse has become very common worldwide, and has gone from a minimal to a continuous occurrence, in the lives of the teens around us. This topic can clearly be seen as a social issue due to the fact that it affects the nature of families, the health of the teenagers, and of course affects their ability to learn, as well as the day to day decisions that these young teens are making in their lives. (http://vibewire.org/2012/04/teen-alcohol-abuse-the-facts/)
Teenage Alcohol Abuse Linked to Anthropology

For many years scientists have studied the way people act in their cultures and what the driving forces behind these cultural acts are. This is known to us as Anthropology, which we use to look at how human beings and their ancestors function through their physical relationships and culture. These studies, or views as we see them, are ways for us as a species to relate to other cultures and compare our actions to theirs. Teenage alcohol abuse has be seen as a cultural act throughout the entire world, and continues in many cultures today.

Throughout Canada, we have witness and frowned upon what we refer to as alcohol abuse that we have seen in teenagers. Canada, being known as a sport filled and beer drinking nation, has been found to have countless teens who subject themselves to alcohol abuse, or in the cases of most teens, binge-drinking. Alcohol abuse in teens is a major topic amongst Canadians, where "heavy drinking is three times more likely to occur among those aged between 15 and 24" (in text citation, cited in bibliography). Most of these young adults who begin heavily drinking in their young ages are most commonly teenagers. Another point that affects the culture of teen drinking in Canada is that their is an age limit on the ability to purchase alcohol, meaning that even though it is illegal, many teenagers are still forcing alcohol into their systems in the hopes of having a "good time". Many teens who have suffered from alcohol abuse state that they mainly drank so they were able to interact with others with ease, meaning they described being under the influence as an easier way to communicate with their peers. Be that as it may, teen drinking still has a major affect on the culture of Canada and the way that our society functions based on the way the teenagers indulge in their alcohol induced weekend affairs.

As another culture that has also been seemed to have been affected by teenage alcohol abuse, South Africa has children that have started consuming alcohol at extremely young ages. Many children from Africa have been as young as the age of 9 when they are first introduced to drinking, and are found to have continued with excessive drinking throughout their teenage years. It is found that South Africa consumes about 5 billion liters of alcohol annually. The average child in South Africa is dependant on alcohol (whether that be the taste, the drunk they get, or the way it allows them to act in public) by the age of 11. This affects South African culture due to it not enabling teenagers to be able to learn to live and act on their own without the effects of alcohol, which creates issues in school, in their families and commonly their religion. Each and every year the age group in which teen alcohol abuse is seen lowers, and the