Social Media Campaign: Discouraging Binge Drinking Among Teens
Problem Definition

Binge drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – CDC (2019), could be defined as “a pattern of drinking that brings a person’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08 g/dl or above… typically happens when men consume 5 or more drinks or women consume 4 or more drinks in about 2 hours.” As the CDC further points out, in every six US adults, one binge drinks a minimum of four times in a month. It is, thus, apparent that the problem of excessive consumption of alcohol is rather widespread across the nation. The issue becomes even worse when binge drinking is increasingly becoming common amongst teenagers.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – NIAAA (2020) observes that underage drinking is one of the main concerns facing the country at present. In the words of NIAAA (2020), “alcohol is the most widely used substance of abuse among America’s youth, and drinking by young people poses enormous health and safety risks.” The risks posed by binge drinking could manifest in either the short-term or in the long-term. Short-term effects include, but they are not limited to; memory loss, nausea, dehydration, and coordination problems. On the other hand, long-term effects could be inclusive of infertility, heart problems, stroke, liver disease, as well as brain damage. Binge drinking has also been associated with poor decision making and engagement in risky behaviors including irresponsible sex and abuse of hard drugs. It is also important to note that binge drinking has been linked to poor academic performance. Indeed, according to Karen, Wei, and Scott (2017), there is sufficient evidence indicating that binge drinking does foster academic underachievement amongst teenagers. In their recent study seeking to map the effect of binge drinking amongst teenagers in high school and their academic performance, the authors found out that high school students who engaged in binge drinking were more likely to not only skip class, but also ignore their homework or classwork. Thus, the authors came to the conclusion that “students who initiate binge drinking have poor school performance and engagement, which may interfere with achieving their future academic goals” (Karen, Wei, and Scott, 2017, p. 378). It therefore follows that the relevance of addressing this particular problem as a matter of urgency cannot be overstated. This is more so the case given that to a large extent, the future wellbeing and prosperity of the nation largely depends on the future workforce mainly comprising of those in this particular age group. In as far as this discussion is concerned, a teenager will be deemed to be any person between the age of 13 and 19 years.

Data and Statistics

From the onset, it is important to note that most teenagers are introduced to alcohol consumption at a relatively early age. As a matter of fact, according to NIAAA (2020), close to 30% of teens have their first drink by age 15. The situation is worse by age 18. NIAAA (2020) points out that...…(such as excessive consumption of alcohol), the benefits of avoiding the harmful behaviors, and the most effective strategies to assure behavior change. In as far as the harms are concerned, teenagers ought to be made aware of the fact that excessive consumption of alcohol is associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes including chronic illnesses (such as liver disease and high blood pressure) and cancer (specifically colon, liver, esophagus, and throat cancer) (CDC, 2019). Next, the benefits of harmful behavior avoidance that teenagers ought to be aware of include; better academic performance, improves chances of success later on in life, less anxiety and stress, better relationships, etc. Lastly, effective strategies to assure behavior change that could be applied in this case include; seeking professional help, avoiding bad company, and evading situations that predispose one to alcohol consumption (i.e. visiting a club).

Monitoring

Without monitoring of the success of the campaign, it would be impossible to assess the effectiveness as well as impact of the said undertaking. Thus, the success of the campaign will be monitored via: the examination of the click through rate (CTR), assessment of the reactions we receive from the target population, and follow-through of actual behavior change stories. In basic terms, our campaign would be deemed a success if the CTR happens to be high. On the other hand, positive reactions from the target population would be yet another success indicator. Lastly, the higher the number of verified success stories, the more successful our campaign will be considered to be.…