Today, the Huffington Post asked on its college main page, "Why is the nation obsessed with beer pong?" and then explained why in an attached video.
One of the suggested reasons was that college-age students haven't yet refined their "cocktail chatter" and need games like beer pong as an ice-breaker activity. A senior from Brown University reiterated that point, explaining the phenomenon as a bare-minimum solution to still developing social skills.
"During freshman and sophomore years, for me it was people hanging out in someone's kitchen, there was a table, and we didn't have anything to say to each other and had no social skills...," she said, to which an Australian skeptical of a game in which the winning team drinks less (not true, however, if the winners retain the table for the next game, as they usually do) said with a chuckle, "I love these images of these completely stunted 18 year-olds, yah... grunting at each other like caveman."
Granted, this is likely true. Most people would rather be engaged in riveting conversation than play a game that almost completely cuts out athleticism and height from the sport of basketball. But how often does such conversation actually happen, even amongst seasoned cocktail veterans?
Beer pong should be criticized -- not because it symbolizes a collective lack of social skills -- but because it's actually an inferior game (in the context of a party, that is; in other situations, if positioned correctly it has a place, or if you got M.I.T. and play on the table with a built-in ball cleaner, it has a place) that fails to include the entire party. Few things are worse for your psyche than having to stand on the side and watch a few guys play a simple, uncreative game with now magnified importance because no one knows where else to look. Playing or watching pong when the table is the main draw and it's a party's prime time hour reminds me of watching TV on the couch with a mixed group of friends and acquaintances. A commercial plays. People either lean in closer or recede deeper into their seats as they watch the ad with more intensity than they were watching the actual program. Some even feel the need to comment on a commercial we've all seen a million times.
There are many other drinking/party games available that include more of the party. They shouldn't be taken as a sign of poor social abilities, but as a complement to an enjoyable night. Because talking all night (unless you're the Sherminator in "American Pie") can be just as unfulfilling as playing games all night.
