Taking credit: Boasting about binge drinking
It’s everywhere. It frequents classroom halls, breakfast tables, dorm rooms and crowded streets. Some people do it in whispers, others make sure the whole room can hear. This phenomenon is called boasting. Though once in a while a singular voice is heard touting the highest grade in the class, the majority of this boasting revolves around a common theme: drinking.
The stories vary greatly, centering on anything from drunken exploits to intoxicated wipeouts ending with the usual three-to-five stitches. None of these stories are what would usually be considered flattering, yet they continue to flourish in the halls of academia, evoking a large range of reactions.
“I find this type of behavior very immature,” said Dominique Reid, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. “I don’t think that going out and drinking is wrong, but the fact that they have to talk about it afterward is juvenile.”
Matthew Mueller, a freshman in the College of Communication, holds a different view. “As long as it doesn’t affect me in any way, I think it is amusing,” he said. “People boast because it is entertaining. People like to make others laugh.”
Making people laugh is a large part of drunken storytelling, and this is not a new phenomenon in the college world. Images brought forth by the likes of “Animal House” forcefully demonstrate this idea. In a sense, drinking has become inexorably linked to college life.
“Unfortunately, drinking is often considered to be a social role of being a student,” said Stephen Franzoi, professor of psychology. “So when students talk and brag about drinking, in a sense what they are doing is letting others know that they are conforming to this expectation. There is some social status that people perceive they gain by talking about it. Unlike other behaviors that are illegal, (drinking) is not considered to be socially unacceptable in the student role.”
Bragging usually comes from a need for encouragement and acceptance from peers. In a college setting, talking about alcohol misuse and abuse brings students together.
“When people boast about drinking, it seems as though they are admitting to personal failings, but actually, in the student role, there is some prestige or status that can be gained through behaving stupidly,” Franzoi said. “In contrast, an adult behaving that way wouldn’t be viewed nearly as positively.”
Everybody loves a good “drunk” story, and telling anyone and everyone about it can help to foster friendships and bring old friends closer.
“The people that they respect are the ones who are approving of this kind of behavior and probably engage in it as well,” Franzoi said. “It helps them to feel part of a larger group. They get the social identity by that. If their group of friends met them with disapproval, it would quickly curtail this behavior.”
In the psychological sense, boasting is a social method by which college students seek acceptance. It is not merely a way to entertain friends, but it is also a technique used in colleges across the nation that aids students in forming bonds and living up to perceived social expectations. It is, in a sense, jumping off the common bridge and being proud of it.
Looking at this type of behavior from a communication standpoint differs from the psychological viewpoint. Lawrence Soley, a professor in the College of Communication, believes that bragging serves as a method to gain acceptance as it is an example of the evolution that is taking place in the way people communicate.
“Cultural standards have changed a lot from when I was young,” Soley said. “Clothes, haircuts and the language that people use have changed, as well as the distinction between the things that you keep silent and the things that you speak openly about. I think this kind of behavior represents a cultural change in what we speak about and how we speak about it.”
This shift has had a great impact on communication. Conversation topics that people used to reveal only in small, personal groups have evolved into mass communication. With the help of social networking, small scale communication has all but disappeared, giving rise to everyday mass communication.
“It is part of the norm that people speak about things that before would only be spoken about with loved ones,” Soley said. “With the Internet, with Facebook, with instant messaging, everything expands so that things we used to keep private become things that we disclose in public. So what’s the difference between putting it up on Facebook and saying it to the person next to you in the classroom? I don’t think there is one.”
Somewhere within the always changing realm of communication, in between blogs, Facebook and Skype, society has managed to misplace the rules of what was once considered social etiquette. Now instead of keeping embarrassing drunken faux pas to oneself as reminders of why 12 shots and six games of beer pong might not be the best idea, the highlights of the night are posted all over Facebook.
Social norms and communication theories aside, it is up to every individual to decide if this social act of bragging should be preserved through the ages.
Tags: boasting, college partying, drinking, psychology, psychology of boasting, psychology of drinking
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