With students at the University of Houston-Downtown undergoing tests, quizzes, exams, finals, projects, and weekly assignments – it’s safe to assume that students go through a good amount of caffeine to keep them up. But is that really the case?
The UHD’s student café sits next to a Starbucks, offering that steady caffeine mix, while inside the café itself sells Gatorade, protein mixes and, most noticeably, Monster energy drinks. Even throughout the vending machines on campus, there is a noticeable availability of Monster energy drink consumption accessible to students.
With the drink provided readily, it can be considered that students consume a good amount of Monster energy drinks to cram in late-night study session or finish up that last minute assignment.
Yet, contrary to belief, after a random collected survey of about 100 UHD students asking whether they drink Monsters, and if so, how many in a week, the results show otherwise.
With more than half of the students saying they don’t drink Monsters at all and only a few saying they do, but not as frequently within a week. Here’s a pie chart as a visual.
Colored gray, 79 percent of the 100 students surveyed said “No” to drinking Monster energy drinks. That’s more than half of the response that dominates the entirety of the survey.
The green colored variety slices, on the other hand, are students that respond with a “Yes”. With 12 percent saying they only drink one monster a week, 4 percent saying they drink two monsters a week, 3 percent saying they drink four monsters a week, and 1% of responses saying they drink three monsters and seven monsters a week.
The survey was randomly asked to students that inhabit near the cafeteria, the second floor of the One Main building, and the Wellness And Success Center at UHD. With a broad time frame asked during random times of the day, the variety of students that are on campus vary allowing for unbiased results.
Some students who reported drinking Monster often comment that they consume the energy drink for those long days on campus, or just for the flavorful taste. But the majority regard the drink as an unhealthy consideration and prefer the alternatives, like coffee or sports drinks; Choices that offer milder caffeine levels and fewer jitters.
So, although energy drinks remain widely available across campus, their presence doesn’t necessarily mean they’re a go-to choice for most students. Instead, the survey suggests that students are more mindful and selective about their caffeine habits than stereotypes may imply.
