Students + Energy Drinks = Risky Behavior

Go to any college campus and one can easily find a student carrying one of those trendy energy drinks: Red Bull, Rockstar, Monster Energy, etc. Hell, I went to a new media forum this past weekend and they had a case of Red Bull on ice. At a professional forum? I have to admit that for a moment I thought that they were trying to send a subliminal message about how interesting the forum would be; hence, the need for energy drinks. Needless to say, my coffee worked just fine and there was no need for sugar and caloric overload.

James Heggen of Inside Higher Ed has an article today about a study done recently from The Journal of American College Health in which their research shows a correlation between students who drink energy drinks and the risky behavior that they partake in.

From his article:

Of the 795 public university undergraduate students who were surveyed, 39 percent reported drinking at least one energy drink in the last month, and 26 percent had consumed energy drinks mixed with alcohol at least once (about half had done so more than once). But of students who scored highly on the risk-taking scale, 49 percent had consumed energy drinks, and 39 percent had mixed energy drinks and alcohol.

The findings emerged from a larger study of “toxic jock identity,” which is characterized by “sport-related identity, masculinity and risk taking,” according to the report. Kathleen Miller, the report’s author and a research scientist at the Research Institute on Addictions at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said she included a question on energy drinks because she had observed individuals with this type of behavior consuming energy drinks.

Miller called energy drinks and risk taking behavior a “natural fit.” Energy drinks are marketed to people who engage in “extreme sports” and other types of risky behavior, and the physical rush associated with the drinks appeals to risk takers, she said. Miller clearly notes, though, that while energy drinks may signify risk taking behavior, there is no evidence that the drinks actually cause such behavior.

Experts on college health say the study raises intriguing issues, but they are divided on whether Miller’s findings resonate with what they see on campuses.

Ok, agreement here. For some reason I don’t see students hanging off of their dorm railings with a Red Bull in hand or streaking through the quad while pumped up on Monster Energy. Can you just see John Belushi chanting, “Toga, Toga, Toga!” with a Rockstar in his hand? I think the key here is that these drinks would have to be mixed with some sort of distilled spirits to make you act like an idiot.

The only risky behavior I see is from this Red Bull commercial about a male college student (who should be studying) and female student who is feeling quite amorous. Notice that he actually grabs a handful of something after he turns the light back on. That’s what Red Bull will do for ya!

Can anyone tell me what the fascination is anyway with these energy drinks? I’ve never had the slightest inkling to even try one.

The Banning of Laptops Going Corporate

 

The Political Science Department at UST wasn’t the first to implement such a policy of “No laptops or electronic devices” on univeristy campuses. Now boardrooms are accepting the same policy.

From Inside Higher Ed:

More and more professors — hell, entire departments — are banning laptops from their classrooms. Now the business world’s doing it too, since people in meetings are using their laptops for the same reason, and in the same way, most students are using theirs:

[Meetings] can be quite a pain for many people involved. They can get pretty boring, so the participants start to lose interest. As a result, many people have started bringing their laptops into these meetings, presumably to entertain themselves… [Companies] are starting to crack down on the practice [because] most people are watching YouTube videos and posting comments on Facebook walls…

Along these lines, it’s a good moment to remember Joseph Weizenbaum, an MIT professor who died recently. His New York Times obituary notes that, although an important innovator in computer programming, Weizenbaum grew to regret the effects of screen-dependency:

[Weizenbaum] came to believe that an obsessive reliance on technology was indicative of a moral failing in society. [In one of this books, he wrote a] passionate criticism of systems that substituted automated decision-making for the human mind. [He argued that] computing served as a conservative force in society, by propping up bureaucracies as well as by redefining the world in a reductionist sense, by restricting the potential of human relationships.

Weizenbaum anticipated the lights-out classroom, where kindly PowerPointers shed valium rays over children adrift among their own images. In the tradition of Huxley’s Brave New World, Weizenbaum saw the way in which much of the technology he’d had a hand in would play into our infantile preference to be left alone, to blot out the world, to have nothing asked of us. These impulses are shared among professors, students, and business people, and if the technology’s there to indulge them, many will use it.

The brave new classroom’s anthem.

So for all of you students at UST who roll their eyes when you get your poli sci class syllabi and read the policy on the (non)use of laptops during class, realize that more professional people are in the same boat as you. I’m happy with our department’s decision, mostly becuase I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to see students sending IMs to one another while they’re practically sitting on each other’s lap.  Whether it’s MySpace, Facebook, or personal email, enough is enough.

If you think that you are that important that you must be connected to technology every minute, than you must also have that stupid bluetooth attatched to your ear and answer by the name of Jack Bauer.

By the way, I don’t care to see your personal party pics of your binge drinking from the weekend before either.

Is it wrong to see half naked women on someone’s laptop screen during Theology class? Just wondering…