For many, college parties are associated with excessive alcohol consumption, which can have detrimental benefits to their overall health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), excessive alcohol consumption can cause violence, alcohol poisoning, liver disease, liver cancer, and memory and learning problems. On campus, the party culture, or the idea that one should go out often, drink, socialize and pay that ridiculously high coverage fee at Rounders, is more than accepted. It is encouraged and those who do not participate are degraded.
Just because something is culturally or socially acceptable doesn't mean it's not distracting at best or harmful at worst. Sure, going out once in a while is great, but the idea that someone is lame because they're not bombarding you with their drunken Snapchats at 3am While this isn't healthy behavior, it can be common on college campuses. More than half of college students reportedly drank alcohol in the past month, and many of those students participated in binge eating. College students are collectively stressed, dealing with new relationships and huge life-changing events, all at once.
With this new independence, alcohol and other drugs can be an easy solution. And while small memories of friendship are great most of the time, there's also a lot to be said for getting drunk and enjoying the recklessness you only experience in college. Party culture would follow this definition, except that it would involve the social group of people who attend parties. There are plenty of resources on campus to help you slow down and even stop your party so you can reap the positive rewards of college life.
Brooks said that, if you're thinking about college-age students and party culture, “it's still a time of development in emerging adulthood where there are many types of finding your own path and, therefore, sometimes decisions aren't fully thought out. Research shows that lack of sleep makes it harder for college students to concentrate on their studies. Somewhere during your college experience, there was probably an epic party that you missed because you had to study on a Saturday. You're like many of your college classmates, you want to experience all college life, including the party scene.
There may be times when you don't want to party, but then you find yourself in the college party scene, getting drunk or getting high anyway. Brooks said binge drinking in college may be just one life stage for some students, but for others, it could turn into a diagnosable addiction.
