Break the Norm
Drugs and alcohol is something that’s present in the majority of ever college students life, whether they are using it, around it at a party, or even selling it. In a recent article titled “SVC fights perception that ‘all’ students abuse drugs, alcohol” a social norming campaign was launched for students to explain their own alcohol and drug use in college.
Southern Vermont College collaborated with Southshire Partnership for a Healthy Community and displayed the surveys that approximately 185 students took, about drug and alcohol use, all around campus for everyone to see. The director of counseling services of SVC stated that the idea behind this campaign was to address “students perceptions of what they believe is the amount of drinking and stuff that’s going on, and showing them the reality of it”. A social media consultant was also hired to make positive advertisements such as “Sober is Sexy” fluorescent signs, to place around the college. The coordinator of the partnership, Glenn Gross mentioned, “People are much more likely psychologically, to do the positive and to want to be part of the majority”. Here is where I would like to take social theory and use it against this statement. Yes, most people do want to do the positive thing, BUT I believe Gross is forgetting that people will ALSO want to be apart of the majority whether it’s positive or not. Theorist Pierre Bourdieu (1974, 1980) explains the idea of “habitus” and practices and that despite freedom of choice, people’s preferences are still strongly related to society. Habit, as described by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1966), is“ any action that is repeated frequently [and] becomes cast into a pattern”. Habitualization is something that is very much apart of every day life. Every one knows that drinking and drugs are highly associated with the many “activities” of college only because they become frequently repeated and cast into a pattern that college students participate in.
Because habitualization and the ideas of practices become so prominent in our society, many people fear the idea of “destabilizing” the norm. But, that is one thing SVC does not fear! They held this campaign to lay it all out on the table and show students the reality of drug and alcohol use, something that not very many people will do (putting their personal lives out for the public to see). Most colleges, Seattle U for example (as far as what I’ve experienced as a student here), will just send e-mails or what not telling students to be safe and to not participate in under-age drinking. But SVC decided to go against that normal habit of just letting students know, and they actually did a whole campaign for this issue. “In all viable systems, there must be an area where the individual is free to make choices so as to manipulate the system to his advantage” (Bourdieu pg.). Before the campaign 50 percent of students surveyed were binge drinking, and this spring that number had dropped by 12 percent! SVC definitely found an area where they were free to make a choice and go against the 445 system and they got positive results out of doing so.
Although this advertisement was not an advertisement for SVC during their campaign, I believe it perfectly depicts ides of habitual practices and going against societies norms. Clearly, drugs and alcohol are big practice during spring break, BUT this free event makes it so people can “Break the Norm” and not participate it was society usual does during spring break. What a great idea these people had ! :)
Pierre Bourdieu- “Structures, Habitus, Practices” (1974, 1980)
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann- “Society as a Human Product” (1966)
