Why do some college students love to take pictures of themselves next to a beer bottle?

Because they don't yet understand how arbitrary and cruel the "adult" world can be in enforcing the fashions of the day.

Why shouldn't someone want photographs of himself having a good time? There's no particular reason that drinking -- even binge drinking -- should be associated with moral turpitude or unreliability. Just look at Mad Men (which, incidentally, is a pretty accurate depiction of how things are done in many other countries) to see how people felt about this sort of thing a while back. Alcohol used to be a staple in executive offices and newsrooms throughout the country, until the baffling premise was advanced that this was somehow tied up with male privilege and the glass ceiling. This may make some amount of sense in the context of cultures in which drinking is exclusively a men's activity, but thankfully America has never had such a problem -- just look into the life of Calamity Jane!

Of course in previous years there were other things that might cause trouble if photographed. For instance: kissing someone of the same sex, associating with people of different races, practicing certain religions, etc. Currently, there seems to be a major push to make eating unheathful foods the next big shameful thing. "If you're smart," we'll be advising kids, "you'll keep those photos from Wendy's to yourself."

What you learn from history is that these ephemeral standards of acceptability (as opposed to say, stable societal taboos against murder and theft) is that they're formed when a group of people sees an opportunity to gain an advantage by exploiting something recent to marginalize a different part of the population. This gambit seems to be pretty universal across human civilization, and in nearly all cases it's a transparent power grab.

And this is the mistake that a kid taking a photo with a beer in hand makes -- he recognizes how absurdly petty it would be to hold such a thing against him, and surmises that adults with good judgement wouldn't engage in such juvenalia. If you ask me, it's we and not him who are being the most stupid -- after all, we're the ones allowing our decision-making to be hijacked by moralizing opportunists.

Source: http://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-college-students-love-to-take-pictures-of-themselves-next-to-a-beer-bottle/answers/905673

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