The hissing of an energy drink being popped open on school mornings is the new normal. As many notice within the classroom, the younger generations’ consumption of energy drinks is rising like never before. The overall consumption of soft drinks has fallen in recent years, but energy drink sales have increased 55 percent since 2006, according to The Association of UK Dietitians.
When giving it your all during the school day, it can be a challenge to find a balance within the chaos. To counter their excessive schedules, many teens turn to energy drinks when deprived of sleep. From someone who interacts with students five days a week, marketing teacher George Formicola has noticed a pattern.
“There’s a lot of pressure on younger people [to drink caffeine], especially in high school, as you’re getting ready for college,” Formicola said. “Consumption then ties into how much that individual is working toward getting the best GPA possible, doing the most extracurricular activities so that they are the best candidate for that university they are striving to go to.”
As younger individuals continue to consume energy drinks, they are blindsided by the ongoing list of negative health effects, including cardiac arrest, irregular heart patterns and even death. Evie Mclean ’25 argues that the lack of knowledge needs to be recognized in today’s society.
“I choose not to drink energy drinks because I have seen multiple articles that it can cause heart attacks and they can cause severe illness, and I don’t want to risk anything,” McLean said.
Constant change surrounds the lives of teens, and they rely on those who they admire for guidance. Oftentimes, observing others’ actions within the real world can often shape new habits and Cassie Summerfield ’26 is one of those affected.
“It was eighth grade, and I was finally starting to get tired. I couldn’t wake up early anymore, so I thought it’d be cool if I was like my sisters and started drinking energy drinks,” Summerfield said.
Posted right on the label, consumers of the popular Alani energy drink can find that one drink alone contains 200mg of caffeine, which is equal to about two cups of coffee. Reported by the Food and Drug Administration, 34 deaths have been attributed to energy drinks. At such a young age, the body doesn’t need noticeably extra amounts of added caffeine.
“Sometimes if I drink two energy drinks a day I think I’m having a heart attack,” Summerfield said.
Formicola has noticed when teens scroll through social media platforms, they are easily persuaded by influencers to buy specific goods, in this case energy drinks.
“With social media I think that the amount of ads are greatly increasing in different ways, which is a good thing for those companies, but does affect the younger people who use social media when it comes to energy drinks specifically,” Formicola said.
