Capturing Student Attention: Motivating Interest in the Uninteresting

Inviting students to give serious consideration to a topic like "alcohol" or "drinking" is a daunting task at best. That is, unless you are able to meet them where they least expect to find such information...at the corner of "Silly and Humorous."

A YouTube video clip from a friend at the PA LCB - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dzUOYTQtQ - got me thinking about creative ways to invite students to consider serious information that might otherwise be ignored.

This video is humorous and likely to be a useful “conversation starter” for discussions regarding drinking with students.

Although it goes by very fast, as you watch it be sure to note that in the clip we are reminded that ethanol is essentially yeast excrement.

NOTE: I have historically gotten quite a bit of mileage out of this analogy and similar “absurd” analogies when I set them up as a discussion about alcohol. By “technically” explaining what ethanol is and then launching into a discussion about alcohol by suggesting that students who enjoy partying are essentially declaring their fondness for consuming “yeast piss” generally has student nervously tittering as we begin to look at the serious side of alcohol but from a humorous or silly perspective J This may seem a bit “crude,” but mark my words…it gets student attention. As my grandfather used to remind me, “sometimes you have to give folks what they want to get the chance to give them what they need.”

From here—the use of humor or silliness to segue into a more serious look at alcohol and drinking—it is possible to branch off into other similarly “unexpected” topics for conversation, proffering a technical explanation and/or discussion of other alcohol-related  experiences, for example, “beer goggles”:

Although “shock and scare” videos and graphics are of little if any use in serious prevention programming, when used to “set up” a discussion, especially if used to infuse some humor or serve as a “visual anchor” designed to fix an idea in a student’s consciousness for further consideration regarding your intended prevention message, such gimmicks may be useful.

Related to these strategies are cleaver uses of technology that, by their very nature, garner shock, awe, or simply amazement - for an example, visit http://vimeo.com/56772409. Again, it is the ad hoc nature of such resources that is of value. None is going to cause students to drink differently when they next go out. They may, however, affect how students think about alcohol as a substance and drinking as a behavior, which, after all, may influence drinking behavior at some point in the future.

Remember: PSAs, video clips, photographs, and the like are not likely to translate into changed behavior, especially for a persistent high-risk drinker. What they may be useful for, however, is an “attention grabbing” prelude to a more serious point that you wish the viewer to ponder.

What do you think?

Dr. Robert