Energy Drinks

Strawberry Jam Is The Best Jam

Chapter 3 - Energy Drinks

A kid, let's say about ten years old, pesters his mam for an energy drink. "You won't like them," the mam insists, "they taste horrible and sour."

"Nor, I do like them."

"How do you know you like them if you've never had one?"

"I do. I like them."

Eventually, and reluctantly, the mam gives in. "Okay, I'll get you one, but just one."

She buys the can and hands it to the kid. He takes his first sip. His face wrinkles up as his natural disgust response kicks in when the initial taste hits his tongue.

"See," the mother states with vindication, "I told you that you wouldn't like it."

"Nor, I do like it." The child keeps on drinking.

This is kind of like with the Spice Girls earlier, only in the opposite direction. The child's tongue isn't impressed by the taste of the energy drink - the natural impression is that it tastes quite nasty - but his mind overrides this, as drinking energy drinks is seen as "cool", or whatever word kids use for cool these days.

The older kids or older brother drinks energy drinks. The YouTubers and other social influencers do. The drinks are full of sugar and caffeine and God knows what else, creating the sense that you get some type of drug-like buzz or rush from them. They're even packaged to look like alcoholic drinks. So it's all very edgy, adult and dangerous. A banana milkshake tastes much nicer - the tongue knows this - but the brain wants social status. It's much more important to look cool and credible.

So the child forces himself to gulp down the concoction. He pushes past his taste buds and convinces himself, "Yes, I do like these drinks." You could call this a lie, but in a sense it's not a lie, as he doesn't have the self-awareness to be fully conscious of the self-deception. What he wants is to fulfil a self-image. To mimic his peers. The drink and its taste isn't really that important, that's not why he's drinking it, it's just an inconvenience that gets brushed aside in pursuit of the more important goal. So when he tells his mam, "See, I do like these drinks," as he continues drinking, he believes what he's saying, in spite of his wrinkled nose. Though there might be a slight feeling of cognitive dissonance at the back of his mind somewhere as he says it.

This dissonance is quickly forgotten however. Once he pushes past that initial sourness it becomes an acquired taste. He perhaps tries all the different flavours and finds one he likes the most, "My favourite is the blue one", or rather one that's least disagreeable to his actual sense of taste. With the self-image fulfilled it then becomes habit. Consequently he might go on to spend the next ten or fifteen years of his life drinking energy drinks ..and believing sincerely that they're his favourite drink. That they're an essential part of who he is as a person. Regardless of the fact that his actual taste buds once upon a time told him otherwise. Or that, if he'd been born on a desert island, free from all social influence and need for social status, he'd have chosen the banana milkshake over the energy drink every time.

So who has the happier life? The person who sticks with the banana milkshake and forgoes social status? Or the person who pushes past their taste buds to make friends and have a social life?