I would like this blog to be the equivalent of a whisper. I especially want to keep this on the down-low while in the vicinity of any teenagers.
Gather
up. Here it is. Apparently, teenage binge-drinking may provide a key to success
later in life.
According
to Norwegian sociologist Willy Pedersen, young people who knock back drinks
together may be doing more than loosening up. They may also be wiring in
valuable social skills.
Two
asides here. First, drinking alcohol at any age has a host of well-established
downsides. Second, there is some wiggle room for distrusting a sociologist
named Willy. That said, Pedersen’s long-term study tracked more than 3,000
Norwegians from early teens into adulthood and found that the hard partiers in
their late teens and early twenties ended up with higher levels of education
and income than those who barely drank at all.
The
theory is simple enough: alcohol, in a social setting, acts like a kind of
glue. It helps the shy find their footing, smooths the edges of awkwardness,
and nudges doors open that might otherwise stay shut. Pedersen even points to
groups like Oxford’s infamous Bullingdon Club, a drinking society whose alumni
list reads like a political résumé.
But
before anyone hands out six-packs to teens to boost their prospects, a quiet
reminder: correlation is not destiny. As The Times of London noted, many of
these high-flyers may have already been halfway up the ladder. And it must also
be noted that some of my party-going high school buddies crashed later in life.
Still,
whispered or not, the idea lingers: maybe a little communal chaos in youth can
age into something surprisingly polished down the line.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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