Posted on Tuesday May 1, 2012                        by Staff WritersWhen someone figures out how to make an iPhone dispense Bud Light, civilization as we know it will pretty much be over. Until then, there are a number of new apps hitting the market that stand to redefine the way we think of drinking in college and elsewhere. Many developers have created programs that can take away many of the risks commonly associated with college-age drinkers, while others have focused on making the experience more interactive or easier on the wallet. Here are 15 apps changing the drinking game.

1. drinklobby

   With drinklobby, you never have to drink alone again. Creator Cesar Guinovart designed the app so that people could drink and interact with other fans of similar drinks via social media. Drinklobby lets you photograph and keep track of what you’ve been drinking, share that info with friends, and even receive trophies for unlocking certain drink combos.

2. Red Cup

   The eponymous beer container of choice for college students becomes a free app, courtesy of some University of Alabama students. Students in the Tuscaloosa area are able to check which local bar has boasted the cheapest beer or shots in the last 60 minutes. And they even made it free.

3. SecuraFone

   For parents who are concerned about their kids going off to college and drinking and driving, SecuraFone may provide some peace of mind. The app has the ability to track when a user goes over the speed limit, as well as monitor where they are at all times. It can also notify a third party when the user leaves a certain area, say, a frat house.

4. DrunkGuard

   This app is made available for free by professional breathalyzer company Lifeloc Technologies. An “all-in-one” BAC app, DrunkGuard gives users a sober-up timer, helps prevent drunk dialing and texting, calculates how much a user can expect to drink safely, and dials a cab service automatically. Users say the app is the next best thing to actually bringing a breathalyzer with them.

5. Show Me My Buzz

   Odds are, if you have to check an app to see if you’re too drunk to drive, you probably are. That’s the beauty of BAC calculator app Show Me My Buzz. Input your weight, how long you’ve been drinking, and how many drinks of beer, wine, and liquor you’ve had, and the app spits out your estimated alcohol level. The catch is it will recommend you call a cab, every time.

6. StreetSafe

   Though there’s a monthly fee involved, StreetSafe is another app that could take much of the danger out of walking home intoxicated from a college party. Activating the app connects the user with a live security advisor who will keep the user awake and calm and guide them home safely, or notify emergency personnel if necessary. It even has a silent alarm the user can trigger to dial 911 surreptitiously.

7. Get Me Home Pro

   The guys behind the Red Cup app figured they should create something to help drunk students get home. The result was Get Me Home, a $1.99 download that lets users bookmark a location like their apartment with one click and helps them call a cab. When they want to head home, a green arrow points them in the right direction, turning red if they get off course.

8. Untappd

   Do you consider yourself a beer connoisseur? Then you’ll want to download this free app to connect with your friends and other beer lovers around you. You can see what beers other people are drinking and what they have to say about them, as well as upload your own pics and thoughts about what you’re imbibing at the moment.

9. Social Drinking 101

   You won’t find this one on the syllabus; you’ll need to head to iTunes for this beginner’s course in college drinking games, from cards to quarters. In case you are wondering, all the games have been “extensively tested” in real-world social situations and have been given the thumbs-up from participants. Of course, it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: Please drink responsibly.

10. Webroot Sobriety Test

    Hopefully you know employers look at job applicants’ Facebook pages, which means you’ll want to keep incriminating photos of a drunk you off the Internet. Internet security company Webroot designed this app specifically “to prevent the loss of clothing, dignity, job, marriage or friends.” Although not technically a real sobriety test, it might remind you to drink responsibly at your next college party.

11. Mixologist

    If you’re a college senior, and you’re ready to put your days of shotgunning PBR behind you and raise your drinking to a new level of sophistication, try Mixologist. With nearly 8,000 searchable drink recipes, you can start learning now how to throw a party for your coworkers and mix anything anyone asks for.

12. iPint

    This app is the next best thing to getting beer to come out of your iPhone. Now you can enjoy a nice iBeer while sitting in class, courtesy of Carling Lager, a British beer maker. The lifelike ale on your screen tilts, pours, and splashes like the real thing, and disappears when you “drink” it. Have as many of these as you like; they’re free, and there’s no hangover.

13. Last Call

    Last Call is another free blood alcohol calculator, with the ability to view how much you’ve drunk on previous nights. Although it does not have the functionality to track multiple users, it does come with a directory of taxi services and even DUI lawyers in your area, which will hopefully not be necessary.

14. circleof6

    This app is a great tool for staying safe in college if you’ve been drinking. Harnessing the power of social connectedness, the app sets up six of your friends as contacts you can easily notify to come get you, say if you’re drunk and can’t drive. The app uses GPS to send your friends your location and guide them to you, even if you are incapacitated or otherwise unaware of where you are.

15. Stop Drinking with Andrew Johnson

    The name is kind of misleading. This app is not trying to get you to stop drinking with some guy named Andrew, it’s designed to get you to stop drinking period. If you feel your college drinking is getting out of hand, the app can motivate you to stop or cut back with motivational audio suggestions.

Related posts:

• Ways Colleges Are Coping With Underage Drinking
• 25 iPad Apps Changing College Prep
• ‘Drunkorexia’ Poses Danger to College Students
• College Students Design Their Own University’s Smartphone Apps
• 57 Hangover Hacks Every College Kid Needs to Know

April 9, 2012

It is easy for educators and parents to become overdramatic when warning young students about the dangers of alcohol. Flooded with extensive media coverage of seemingly every college drinking death, their genuine concern can become panic. The truth is, most college students who drink do not binge, and suicide may even be a higher cause of death among this demographic. Nevertheless, one alcohol-related student death is too many, especially since it’s so easily prevented. With that in mind, here are 10 sobering reminders why you should drink responsibly.

1. Nearly 2,000 students die from alcohol-related injuries each year.: Every year, an estimated 1,825 students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from injuries sustained by excessive alcohol consumption. This works out as nearly one death for every two colleges in America. Incredibly, another 599,000 are unintentionally injured due to the effects of alcohol. Out of 4,140 colleges in the U.S., both public and private, this factors out to 145 injuries for every single campus. (It should be noted, however, that the methodology for finding these statistics has been questioned.)
2. College drinking deaths rose 26.7% from 1999 to 2005: Deaths of students from alcohol poisoning or alcohol-related accidents are certainly nothing new. College administrations have been making strides in educating students about the dangers of binge drinking for years, but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be having a positive effect on the number of student drinking deaths. On the contrary, the number is actually rising. The 1,825 deaths calculated in 2005 were an increase of almost 27% from the 1,440 deaths calculated in 1998.
3. Freshmen account for more than one-third of college student deaths: When it comes to alcohol-related deaths, the first year of college is easily the most dangerous. A USA Today study done in 2006 found that although freshman account for only about 24% of the total population of college students, they make up much more than their share of the number of deaths. For example, they accounted for 40% of undergraduate suicides, 47% of undergrad deaths on campus, and half of deaths from falls out of windows and off rooftops. Of these deaths, one out of five was found to have been drinking.
4. Fifty-three percent of college students have experienced depression, and less than one-third seek help: With all the pressure, the separation from family and familiar surroundings, and the lack of sleep college students are faced with, depression is a very common ailment on campus. More than half of college students will experience some form of it, and the majority of them will not seek help. The answer for many is to drown their sorrows in alcohol. A 1998 study found as many as 1.5% of students tried to commit suicide because of drinking and/or drug use.
5. At least one student has died from drinking in college hazing rituals every year for more than four decades: Hazing goes back to at least the 1800s and possibly even before. It’s always been used as a way of putting a person through a trial to earn membership in a select group. But to put it bluntly, if the person is killed, what’s the point? Since 1975, thousands of lives have been needlessly thrown away in hazing rituals, devastating their families and usually spelling the end for the organizations they were trying to join.

6. In 82% of hazing deaths, a huge amount of alcohol consumed is involved: Alcohol is sometimes referred to as “liquid courage,” and it’s plain to see why the vast majority of college student athletes and pledges to fraternities and sororities would need to be brave when going through hazing. It can involve beatings, public humiliation, or simply being forced to chug copious amounts of alcohol. As one researcher, professor Hank Nuwer, put it, “We’re talking levels which would be approaching, basically half of your blood system being filled with liquor.”
7. Chico State University student Matthew Carrington died from binging on water : Because of the amount of negative attention hazing has received in recent years, many schools have banned alcohol from Greek functions. To get around this, many college groups have taken to forcing pledges to drink huge amounts of water or milk, either of which can be lethal in large quantities. In 2009, Matthew Carrington died after water absorbed into his blood after his fraternity mates forced him to drink from a five-gallon jug of water that they kept refilling.
8. Eighty-three of the college student deaths from 1999 to 2005 were of underage students: There is a reason the U.S. has a legal drinking age. Hopefully, at least, people over 20 are better equipped to handle peer pressure and know when to call it quits on a night of drinking. They also have two or three years of college under their belt and don’t need to hit the first party they see and get as drunk as humanly possible. But 83 underclassmen died in six years as a result of alcohol poisoning because they weren’t mature enough to drink responsibly.
9. At a 0.15 BAC, chances of a car crash due to drunk driving are 200 times higher: Although the number of deaths due to college students drinking and driving may have been overestimated in the past, there’s no shortage of students still getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. One in five students admitted to driving drunk in a four-year study that concluded in 2010. No states allow driving at a blood-alcohol level over 0.08%. Even at this level, drivers are still about 10 times more likely to be in a (potentially fatal) car crash.
10. A Colorado State University student died of alcohol poisoning with a BAC of 0.436: On a Friday in 2004, Samantha Spady started drinking at 6 p.m. and consumed an estimated 40 cups of beer and shots of vodka. When she was found the next day, her body had a blood-alcohol level of 0.436, an astronomical figure that the coroner said was probably higher earlier in the evening of her death. The most sobering part of her story is that her friends had no indication she had been poisoned by alcohol and was dying; they had left her in a room “to sleep it off.”