Desperate Need to Redefine Fun

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JOYCE LAM
Editor In Chief

Teenagers in this generation need to seriously reconsider the meaning of fun. Being young and naive doesn’t justify stupid actions or poor judgements. The meaning of fun changes from one person to another, but should having fun entail harm and danger, or a trip to the emergency room?

Within the last few months, ABC News reported that six teenagers have shown up in emergency rooms in the Los Angeles area for alcohol poisoning due to the ingestion of hand sanitizers. About 2,600 cases have been reported in California since 2010, but it has now become a trend that is evolving into a national problem.

Hand sanitizers, which contain 62 percent of ethyl alcohol, in itself can cause one to become drunk. Just a small amount of this alcohol-based sanitizer can dangerously intoxicate students and it’s game over from that point on. Not only does it cause one to become drunk, it also has dangerous side effects, including heart failure, alcohol poisoning, unresponsiveness and possibly falling into a state of coma, which is common when consuming large amounts of alcohol.

So how can this be considered fun? For teens, the sensation of getting drunk is probably something that they may deem as an exciting experience. The fun comes in the form of being intoxicated and unaware of what is going on.

On top of that, many drink the sanitizer as dares, laughing as friends catch the situation on camera and eventually upload to websites like YouTube.

But this type of fun is far from worth it. These effects are painful, and death is definitely a possibility. Just imagine how sad it would be to die with people remembering you dying of hand-sanitizer ingestion; it’s not quite something you would want to leave behind.
Fun can be found in many different forms, but not at the cost of a life, or the cost of a trip to the emergency room. Maybe we need to spend some time thinking about the fun that simply comes when watching a movie, eating out with friends and wasting time on Facebook.

Injury and trauma aren’t necessary, so why choose to harm yourself? So much for having fun.