The drinking age debate was a kind of culture shock to me at first. In China, young people can legally have fun in night club at the age of 18 and alcoholic drinks are accessable when parents say “yes”.
From a journalistic point of view, the content of the video is well-organized and i think it convincing.
Some images of college students drinking and playing are shown in the video, which well supported the argument: lowering the drinking age can really make young people safer.
In my opinion, the right way to have fun with alcohol is to play some games, and the losers drink as a punishment for losing the game. However, drinking itself is not a game, drinking is not funny. Too much drinking just makes people sick and it is painful. I do not see anything interesting after over-drinking. So, be self-controlled, act like an adult. I think people have the mature sense of right and wrong at the age of 18, which is another reason that i feel it is completely ok for people to drink when he/she is 18. If someone argues that alcohol is bad for young people’s health, i will say alcohol is bad for everybody’s health after all. Age makes no difference in this issue.
It is interesting for me to see that the drinking age is a legal matter in America. I did not see many situations like young people destroyed properties in common areas or behave violently after getting drunk in China. In addition, I really drink often in China, but I never get seriously drunk, most of my friends neither. Maybe the differences are caused by culture background so i choose to avoid this topic. Police won’t care the age of drinking people in my country, their duty is to make sure no one drives after drinking and causes public disorder after drinking.
About the drinking age, i think it is a personal issue. It should be noticed by the parents / family members first, not the police. I saw that young people who was not “old” enough to drink was caught by police, and then the police called their parents, made their parents informed. The order is wrong, as far as i am concerned. Maybe parents should care the youth more and talk about it with them, help them form a right attitude toward drinking.
The right attitude toward drinking is the only way can help. As we all can see, young people still drink although they are under 21, they still can not help get drunk although they used to be arrested, charged a fine, or educated by their parents after they have already formed a wrong attitude in mind, like they treat I-CAN-DRINK-A-LOT as a prove of braveness or something. I mean, those punishment are too late! Let alone they are all external factors.
Tell the youth what is the right thing to do and make the concept deeply-rooted in their mind before they start to have their very first alcholic drink. I had my first bottle of beer at the age of six, in a family occasion ( I was unable to finish it of course···）. My family members just showed me what is the right way to drink by their own action. Nobody rushed and drank too much.
Right amount of alcohol and right drinking attitude, no drinking problem again.
