College Social Activities

As stated before, drinking in moderation is definitely best. If you're doing it purely for the pleasure of making a fool out of yourself, by all means, go for it? -shrugs- I drink only to loosen up, and it gives me a small excuse to act like an idiot for a bit. But I won't go beyond my own body's limitations.

This is pretty much the conundrum to me. Does socializing not lead to de-stressing in its own right?

See, this depends. If just regular socializing doesn't relieve you of your stress, perhaps alcohol is or is not the answer. I tend to chill a lot more when I have a real talk with my friends. The alcohol is only added to make things a bit more interesting. Is it necessary? Perhaps not. But we drink because we think it's fun. If others don't drink, that's their choice. We won't force them.

I assume alcohol is the exception, not the rule when you socialize and as you describe I wouldn't consider it the focal point of your occasion, but I wonder if the generalized case is that many students are stressed to the point where essentially a drug is necessary to let loose now and then.

Some people are so depressed that they need to drink, but some times, that makes things worse.

Or is it some massive conglomeration of peer pressure, social lubrication, and new-found freedom where things go haywire?

At the earlier teenage or young-adult years, yes. People will succumb to peer-pressure and drink, just to look cool and fit in. Everybody knows this. When I started drinking at the age of 15, I took small sips at a time because I always wanted to try alcohol. Not because of peer-pressure. And also when I drank, I would never let my own friends know about it. I always drank at night inside my own house. I had my first sip of beer at the age of 6 though.

Is there as much reasonable drinking going on as unreasonable drinking and I'm just oblivious to it?

Truthfully, most people are baboons when it comes to drinking. Most of the college students I know = drink to get wasted.

I suppose I'm out of the social-standard loop because I have different coping mechanisms. At the same time though, I've been conditioned my whole life to desire social involvement. However, given the nature of introversion, I really feel down right empty after leaving a large gathering. Which creates a funny little paradox, since I'd feel the same way if I got together with an equally sized group of like-minded introverts.

To sum up everything, drinking is not necessary in able to have a good time. Here's my opinion on it, if you want to have a good time in a different way, yes, perhaps try drinking. I wouldn't say it'll always be better, but it's fun for me when I play Super Smash Brothers Melee, Halo, Dead or Alive, and ... [insert more games here]! Especially with good friends, it can be great. With random strangers, you might end up getting yourself in deep sh't for all I know. You don't need alcohol to cope with anything. It's not required. Hell, some people look down upon you for drinking, while others will glorify you for it. It's up to you.