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- Binge drinking is an effect of the growing media society
The issue of binge drinking has been getting a lot of attention recently and some commentators are beginning to think we are living through a generational change of drinking habits. With each passing year, young people are apparently consuming more and more alcohol on a regular basis. Even I, with my limited experience of pubs/clubs since 1998, am inclined to agree. Something has changed, but what?
Although there is no agreed definition, binge drinking is typically used to describe the act of ..exceeding the government's recommended limits, at least once a week, with the express intention of getting drunk'. This might surprise some of my peers because it's relatively normal behaviour for our age group. But what is the reason for this cultural change? Some have pointed to economic factors such as the supermarkets promoting cheap liquor or our city centres being dominated by nightclubs but whilst these may play a part I feel there is also a more subtle cause of this phenomenon.
I am beginning to feel that these new attitudes come from the same place that has given us louder CDs, social networking, stronger cannabis and hi-def televisions. Each day our culture grows more and more high-tech and experience- hungry, in the words of daft punk we live to become ever ..harder, better, faster, stronger'. What we need to realise is that we are moving towards a more alcohol based lifestyle partly because we now lead a more party-based lifestyle which actually represents a more media – based lifestyle. This is because media demands our experiences, it is nothing without them. With the advent of Web 2.0 (myspace etc.) and other comms technologies we have created new virtual lives to fill the vacant media of parties, promotions, txt messages, profiles and comments.
However, these new traditions are still very much dictated by the hegemony of the old media. Concurrent with the rise of binge drinking has been the increasingly massive dissemination of celeb culture and its pushy and open attitudes. Our future descendants will probably decide that we accorded someone's social status on how many images of themselves they were able to produce and this atmosphere pervades our everyday lives. We log on to check our email and are bombarded with the latest celeb partying antics; we flip on MTV and get shown around their homes. Even if you don't care about such people, their image saturation can still affect you and distort your perceptions of life. It's the same as the growth of body dysmorphia and the size 0 debate. Their reach is long and cruel, it's not our party but we know about it anyway. The question is how does that make us feel? To be left out? To be uninvited? And what's a quick sure-fire way to feel loved and appreciated? Go out, have a party, get drunk. Basically, everyone in the media knows where the party's at and now everyone else wants to get in too.
In the past, it must have been easier; we could mostly feel superior to them. Radio was background static, magazines were for hobbyists and housewives, cinema offered the occasional glitz but like the TV usually appeared simple, staid, cheesy, respectable and boring. In contrast every media outlet today screams out our own particular niche interests and – crucially – they are usually having a good time with it.
PARTY FESTIVAL AWARD INDEPENDENT FASHION LABEL WAG
Thus I believe the rise of the media and it's ..positivism' is a factor in the growth of binge drinking. When discussing itself, the media will invariably portray itself and material acquisition as inherently positive. Conversely, the viewer/consumer will usually be portrayed as negative – softened by it being in a down to earth and complicit sort of way with the media. (..Top ten things not to say on dates ', ..Look at Britney's cellulite). This sort of thing is hard on society at large. It discourages people from being miserable and serious in day to day life and it's dispiriting to keep this up 24/7. With other historical paradigms/zeitgeists you could be as sombre as you like, Victorian Christianity or 60s radicalism for instance. We don't yet realise the full pain of our predicament. Mark my words; the early 21st century will be likened to the 50s in terms of repression and pressure. But this is growth, this is competitiveness and this is why we drink. The more we feel we should unwind the more uptight we are, the more we need to unwind. And so on. Until we black out.
In contrast to the ever-liberalising world of Heat magazine, many young people's lives are getting stricter and more regimented. School children are getting tested more and more, more school-leavers are going into the service industry, often in badly treated temporary roles and the disappearance of unions has left some workers only able to rebel through demoralising tawdriness. Everyday, the city centre expands with its ..stressful' (re: bullying) cultures. ..Fun' in the workplace is increasingly delivered by the media. Television, mobile phones, video sites etc. But when we drink we escape all that; we escape work, TV, facebook, Selfridges. We escape from art, drama, etc (although we still reference them all a lot) but we just become an actual community again for brief moments enhanced by Booze's aesthetic/ inhibition-losing qualities.
But it's getting harder to have fun in real life away from the media. OK maybe it's possible if you have kids, enjoy sports/gardening/walking etc. But most of these options aren't open to young people. Their ..fun' is often some kind of media concoction concerning music, video games and film/tv. Naturally they need to escape from this or at least rise to it. Young people need chaos, they need to climb traffic lights and explore wastegrounds, as we grow up the only acceptable place to take refuge from the media, is, paradoxically, in the heart of it, when you face it on your own ground, with your friends, with your music, with 7 pints inside you. Surely it's no coincidence that the growth of the ..hire a limousine for the night' industry has occurred in tandem with the rise of binge drinking.
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Solutions?
Before we all die of cirrhosis we make ordinary life more tolerable, interesting and permissive. We need to get rhythm and thought into all the nooks and crannies of bad life. We need to accept we have a big hole where religion and community used to be and fill it with something new and imaginative (actually new versions of religion and community would be good). We need to give people something better to work towards in their week so that they are less tempted to lose efficiency at the weekend by getting ultra-trashed.
Please note: I am not calling for a ..fun' revolution, the mediaocracy seems to do that almost every month, and that's part of the problem. Their image needs to be altered, toned down, and controlled just like everyone else's. This way, our own self-images will have a lot more fun and control. Imagine radio 1 reading out some negative txts messages for once. I do believe in partying. It is every real artist's duty and in its greatest application it can change society.
And we should more make psychiatry more affordable. So many people drink just to get their emotions out there. A more emotionally balanced populace wouldn't need alcohol so much.
Plus everyone should be given part-time jobs in the media (or at least advertising) to allow our creative natures to be properly nurtured. If our visions are respected by our fellow peers. We won't need to drink. So we need a revolution, probably not now, but sometime in the future 'cos the problem is only getting bigger (alcohol and drug consumption is growing year on year).. Andy Warhol said that ..in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. This of course, is increasingly true but de he also realise that the media's attendant black hole of hedonism would be sucking everyone else down too? We should nationalise the media, before it's too late.