I personally would consider "beer goggles" a waste of time and money
considering the audience (I'm presuming) you are most likely going to
target: people who have been drunk before, probably at least a number of
times. Therefore, people who know from first hand experience will
conclude beer goggles have very little relevance in context with realistic
situations in which binge drinking occurs.
While it is possible, of course, to become intoxiced enough to "see" in a
fashion perhaps somewhat similar to how the beer goggles might portray,
keep in mind that most students, when they get intoxicated, aren't getting
drunk enough so that their vision is impared this drastically.
Therefore, consider what exactly "these goggles" are: a scare tactic.
If I were in an opportunity where I was invited to "try them on," I would
probably make a more rational conclusion about the person and/or
organization asking me to try them on, and it would be negative. I would
perhaps consider it a threat. However, in a closely mediated situation
(such as the one Dr. Chapman just suggested), they could perhaps be more
effective. Likewise, I might suggest that they may be more relevant to a
younger crowd, perhaps younger high schoolers first experimenting with
alcohol.
Otherwise, consider the myth in which the manufactured version of
"beer goggles" come from. "Beer goggles" in common undergraduate terms
refers to the impact of alcohol-related social situations where one's
ability to look at a female or male who might otherwise be "unattractive,"
is altered, partially because of the alcohol of course, but also partly
because of the desire to become more friendly with a member of the
opposite sex that is associated with these situations. The manufactured
beer goggles being discussed have more relevance with the myth based
on the concept of "seeing double" which is, of course, clearly
alcohol related.
Therefore, I might suggest, so as to not draw unsuspecting negative
backlashes from undergraduates who are asked to try these goggles on,
clarify that they are more representative of typical alterations in
perception (perhaps use them as a tool to prevent drunk driving) as
opposed to trying to scare students into believing this is how
life looks when you are drunk.
Keep in mind that alcohol is a very touchy subject to college students. I
think the article two days ago from the New York Times did a
very good job of identifying how alcohol abuse, today, is a
considered a "right of passage" in college. Therefore, those who are
attempting to portray alcohol abuse as negative are allowing students to
consider these tactics as threat against their identity, and this "right
of passage."
I say this all with haste to perhaps allow some of you to understand the
reality of alcohol abuse on college campuses. I also suspect that some of
you may not be "in tune" with the concept I am talking about, therefore
I'll elaborate a little more below. Likewise, trust me, because I come
from a school where the student population has a tremendous backlash
against the administration, over 70% of the student population are
binge drinkers according to Welcher, and the common theme seems to be
"don't trust your government." Furthermore, as the administraion, drug
counselors, and campus enforcement places the topics of alcohol abuse,
racism, and other messages, at the top of their priority lists,
students (because of a lack of trust of the institution) are therefore
more willing to entertain messages which may carry racist and
sexists slurs, and consider serious alcohol abuse something "we can all
laugh about."
Here is an example:
Check out the below link posted by a University of Vermont Undergraduate
to GroovyUV.Com, the new undergraduate website run by students.
Last time I posted a link to this web page, I recieved messages back
channel saying "thank you for pointing out this web page. It is an
example of the kind of site that we should not allow to exist at our
University." While I can see why some administrators would want to take
this course of action, getting rid of the evidence hardly cures it, it
only makes it harder to identify.
Read the link and take in exactly what is going on.
To cure the problem you have to know what the problem is.
Go to GroovyUV.com
Click on "Student Showcase"
Then click on "A Day in the Life of a Catamount."
Andre Shoumatoff (802) 951-9532
The University of Vermont
On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Peter Smith wrote:
> We've used the goggles a number of times at events such as health and
> safety fairs. The demonstrations are run by the campus police so there is
> always a knowledgeable person to answer questions about impairment.
> The police ususally ask the participants to carry out typical tasks that
> would be conducted at a road side spot check: walking a line, picking up
> an object from the ground. The police don't really like to get into a
> game/play atmosphere.
>
> The one thing that should be remembered and communicated to the
> participants is that in the normal course of drinking, the changes to a
> drinker's ability are gradual. Unlike donning a pair of goggles that
> instantly change visual ability, changes from actual alcohol consumption
> are not always noted by the consumer.
>
> Peter Smith
> University of Toronto at Scarborough
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Oct 05 2000 - 12:13:45 EDT