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Note from Tom: When I first started NG Lit, I had put together several documents to go with it. This was one of them. I dunno why I never posted it, because I made some damn good observations and it still holds true today. Check it out. Study Probes TV-Teen Drinking Link
November 3, 1998 by Eric Fidler CHICAGO (AP) - High school students who watch lots of television and music videos are more likely to start drinking alcohol than other youngsters while those who rent movies are at less risk, according to a new study. The Stanford University survey of 1,533 ninth-graders also showed that playing video and computer games had no effect. Watching TV and videos made no difference in the drinking habits of those who already drank. The findings are not surprising given research that shows alcohol is the most common beverage shown on television, the study's lead author, Dr. Thomas Robinson, said Monday. "The great majority of drinking on television is by the most attractive and most influential people, and it is often associated with sexually suggestive content," said Robinson, who works at the school's Center for Research and Disease Prevention. The study found that each increase of one hour per day of watching music videos brought a 31 percent greater risk of starting to drink over the next 18 months. Each hour increase of watching other kinds of TV corresponded to a 9 percent greater risk. Each hour spent watching movies in a VCR corresponded to an 11 percent decreased risk. Computer and video games had no effect either way. The study, reported in this month's edition of the journal Pediatrics, looked at 2,609 ninth-graders in San Jose, Calif., and followed 1,533 of them for the 18 months. They reported their activities - how many hours playing video games, for example - and were asked how many drinks of alcohol they had ever had and how many they had in the previous month. Over the next 18 months, 36.2 percent of 898 nondrinkers began to drink. Television habits had no effect on the 635 students who already drank. Alyse Booth, spokeswoman for the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said the results of the study did not surprise her. "There is a tremendous glamorization of the use of alcohol," she said. "Alcohol use is portrayed as normal and glamorous, never with the consequences."
Tom Fulp's Reaction: This has to be the dumbest thing I have seen all week. I can't believe people actually fund studies like this. There is one thing that I have learned in my college sociology classes: One should not assume that because there is a correlation between two things that one causes the other. One should consider the possibility of a common cause. Damn I'm smart. I'm smarter than these Stanford jerks who are so quick to jump to conclusions just so they can keep receiving funds. It's even worse that the media gives these boobs any attention. Listen - TV does not glamorize alcohol any more than movies that you rent from your local video store. Alcohol is glamorized and not glamorized in both. I'm not going to try to figure out exactly why kids who watch a lot of TV also drink alcohol. No one is paying me to. But I'll tell you this - if a kid lies around on the couch all day watching TV, he is quite possibly unmotivated, bored or depressed and thus much more likely to be tempted by alcohol. This is the type of person who might plop down in front of the TV and have a beer by himself... and then another... and another. If a kid is going out to the video store, he is obviously more "on the go" and is not just lying around waiting to see what's on next - he's going out and choosing what's on next. He's probably renting with friends. This sort of person has more going on, and is less likely to turn to alcohol as his source of amusement. He might be a social drinker, but he doesn't drink alone. So it is not a matter of TV causing kids to drink. The two are both caused by a greater underlying personal flaw. I hope this makes sense.
Posted November 12, 1999 by Tom Fulp |
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