Drugs and Alcoholism
Adolescence is much like a midpoint in one’s life; when a person is neither a kid nor an adult. At this period, teens have passed the age when they were called kids but are not yet qualified to be adults. Teenagers want to think like adults, behave like adults and also start to view themselves as independent beings in decision making. All this hormonal changes also come with the negativity of maturity such as drugs and alcohol. Why is this? The answer is that teenagers are under pressure by their peers, mass media and also the influence of parents.
Peer pressure plays a major role in the harmful behavior of teens. Teens who want to fit in among their friends are most especially prone to this. Of these friends there are the good ones who give them the good knowledge and information one needs to live a decent life and there are the ones who give them information about not too good things like drug, alcohol, parties, etc.
Let’s not put all the blame on teens and their peers alone. The mass media is also responsible in an understandable way. The media has proven to be a lot damaging than useful in the type of information meant for mature audience but end up with the immature audience. Soap operas and frivolous shows shown on TV contain immoral and untrue images of the world as it is more of the writer’s imagination or the way directors direct them to act. Most teenagers are probably old enough to watch these shows but not mature enough to comprehend with the fictitious nature of movies and soap operas. Though movies and soaps are rated, underage people are still able to access them. The responsibility then shifts to the parents whom are meant to control their children from getting misleading information about drugs, alcoholism and lots more. This can be done through the use of V-chip for TV and Parental Controls for Internet. In India most parents have and are taking care of their responsibility and it has worked tremendously.
The use of alcohol and drug usage among teens has decreased nationwide. This is apparently because the media, which is responsible for the frivolous information, has increased amount of information about drug abuse, alcoholism and their long and short-term side effects. There are plenty of social awareness campaigns going on in school and colleges to educate the youth regarding the bad effects of drug abuse. Thus if the media, government and parents join hand in hand then definitely the teens can be steered away from this social evil and their productive energy be put to much better use.
