Summer is less than a month away for many college students around the country, including the Ramapo community. It's time to get rid of those winter blues and seasonal depression and get ready to tan. Summer 2014 is coming quick and it's the time of the year where thrill-seeking culture becomes more prominent in young college-aged students.
With summer comes time off from school, more hours at work (resulting in more money), and warm weather. Some prefer driving around with the windows down, music blasting, feeling the warm air and the wind blowing through their hair. But some people need more of a thrill than that; they need more sensation-fulfilling activities.
According to "Psychology Today," there is a "sensation-seeking" personality trait found in many young individuals, especially young men. Teenagers and young adults supposedly don't truly slow down with these risk-taking behaviors until they're at least 25 years old.
Due to the fact that certain areas of the brain haven't fully developed even while in college, these risk-taking behaviors are displayed a lot more socially on campus along with thrill-seeking activities. Since hormones are up and down at this point in a student's life, there are plenty of wild and heightened emotions that lead to these type of behaviors, actions and decisions.
Marvin Zuckerman of "Psychology Today" said, "Risk-taking is not the main point of sensation-seeking behavior; it is merely the price people pay for certain kinds of activities that satisfy their need for novelty, change and excitement."
College is all about experimenting and finding out what one likes to do, which reflects on the extreme activities students like to participate in over the summer. These physical activities typically involve odd or extreme sports like skydiving, rock climbing and auto racing.
Dennis Heid, junior, said that he enjoys some types of "extreme" sports. Heid said, "I used to snowboard, but that's not that extreme. But I have bungee jumped and the main reason why was because I was in New Zealand and every town had a bungee jump. So, why not?"
This behavior of getting involved with thrill-seeking summer activities has its own sub-category according to "Psychology Today;" it is called thrill and adventure seeking. Plenty of college students are in search for new things to do to keep them and their friends entertained.
Though students look for extreme sports to participate in, price is still very important. Luckily, all these different activities provide services for a cheap price. Many skydiving facilities in New Jersey provide discount price packages for college students and the military, providing a cheaper outlet for students to get involved with thrill-seeking activities.
This is the point of a college student's life where they are at the peak of their risk-taking behaviors.
Heid said, "When we're in college we feel so separated from the real world. That when we go [home] for the summer, we still want to have those thrilling experiences we had [at school]."
Sports like rock climbing and bungee jumping are "safer" alternatives to some risky behaviors like drinking, smoking, and casual sex with random people.
There are sure to be plenty of Ramapo students who will seek something a bit more thrilling than just a dip in the pool this summer, like hang gliding and scuba diving.
This summer some students hope to immerse themselves in thrill-seeking culture that many of their peers are already a part of.
"I want to sky dive and parasail too. There are so many different things I want to do," Heid said.
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rblake@ramapo.edu
