Abstract

This study examines young people's discussions about alcohol in an Internet chat room. I study how alcohol is meaningful to the young people through specifically focusing their understandings of the concepts control/loss of control, conscientiousness and maturity. I also study what relations of power are constructed among them. The results point to four different lines of reasoning about alcohol: the "teetotaller argument", the "age-distinction argument", the "moderate drinking argument" and the "getting drunk argument". From each of these lines of reasoning to the next, there is a shift in the definition of "the Others"--of those who are said to be immature. In three of the lines of reasoning--the teetotaller argument, the moderate drinking argument and the getting drunk argument--the young people describe the characteristics of what for them appears as an ideal person with ideal views on alcohol consumption and intoxication: the strong person, the competent drinker and the authentic person. In the concluding section of the paper, I discuss and compare these different lines of reasoning with each other and with previous research on young people and drinking. (Contains 1 table and 16 notes.)

Citation

Bogren, A. (2006). The Competent Drinker, the Authentic Person and the Strong Person: Lines of Reasoning in Swedish Young People's Discussions about Alcohol. Journal of Youth Studies, 9(5), 515-538. Retrieved May 17, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/51026/.

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Keywords

• Age Differences
• Alcohol Abuse
• computer mediated communication
• Drinking
• Foreign Countries
• Individual Characteristics
• internet
• Power Structure
• Social Influences
• social networks
• Web Sites
• Young Adults
• Youth