Clearly getting dangerously drunk or becoming an alcoholic are things which young people should avoid. As such caution against drinking is good advice for lots of young people. However, young Less Wrongers are more likely to be lonely, isolated and not having as much fun as they should. Going through college without drinking is likely to make dealing with these issues dramatically more difficult as so much socialization revolves around alcohol.
However, young Less Wrongers are more likely to be lonely, isolated and not having as much fun as they should. Going through college without drinking is likely to make dealing with these issues dramatically more difficult as so much socialization revolves around alcohol.
My suspicion is that drinking buddies are generally a net negative, as they may stop you from looking for other friends. My fallacious guess is most LWers are satisfied socially once they have a few friends they meet with regularly- and so if you find drinking buddies to tide you over until you find solid friends, you may find yourself looking for solid friends less and less.
I suspect that advice is better given as generally applicable, than as generally applicable but there are caveats. For one thing, policy debates should be two-sided, and for another people are simply bad at telling when the rules don’t apply. Anyone reading this is hopefully clever enough to take my injunction against alcohol and weigh it against the other information going into their decision; if they aren’t, I think it’s a good plan for them to avoid alcohol entirely. You are right that adding the motivation behind my injunction helps make it more potent, and possibly limits it in a good way.
[edit] One more thing- if you need alcohol to warm up and talk to people, what you really need is to get better at talking to people. That is a skill you can practice and depends on confidence you can develop.
Clearly getting dangerously drunk or becoming an alcoholic are things which young people should avoid. As such caution against drinking is good advice for lots of young people. However, young Less Wrongers are more likely to be lonely, isolated and not having as much fun as they should. Going through college without drinking is likely to make dealing with these issues dramatically more difficult as so much socialization revolves around alcohol.
My suspicion is that drinking buddies are generally a net negative, as they may stop you from looking for other friends. My fallacious guess is most LWers are satisfied socially once they have a few friends they meet with regularly- and so if you find drinking buddies to tide you over until you find solid friends, you may find yourself looking for solid friends less and less.
I suspect that advice is better given as generally applicable, than as generally applicable but there are caveats. For one thing, policy debates should be two-sided, and for another people are simply bad at telling when the rules don’t apply. Anyone reading this is hopefully clever enough to take my injunction against alcohol and weigh it against the other information going into their decision; if they aren’t, I think it’s a good plan for them to avoid alcohol entirely. You are right that adding the motivation behind my injunction helps make it more potent, and possibly limits it in a good way.
[edit] One more thing- if you need alcohol to warm up and talk to people, what you really need is to get better at talking to people. That is a skill you can practice and depends on confidence you can develop.