With chaotic and work-filled lives, countless students drink coffee to help them stay awake and grind through their work and daily lives. But is it too early for high school students to become reliant on coffee? Are there caffeine obsessions that are happening in our school that will impact people negatively in the future? Talking to multiple students we can see the difference in the amount of caffeine consumed during the school year. All the responses varied tremendously. 

Some students like junior Margot Bergner drink coffee once in a while for the taste but limit their intake.

“I drink coffee maybe once every other week. Okay, so not too much. The reason is because I’m scared of caffeine addiction, like honestly. Are you scared of having a caffeine addiction?  Because I am, I’ve heard that sometimes people have a trigger to a lot of coffee and I’m just afraid of that. Yeah, I like to limit myself. I just drink it because it tastes good.” Bergner said. 

While some students don’t drink coffee at all.

“I do not drink coffee that much, I already am pretty energetic so I don’t really see the point of drinking a lot of it.” 9th grader Carlos Andres Adams said. 

On the other hand, there are some people who can’t get enough of it.

“I have a problem. I love coffee. It is delicious. It used to be a lot worse, but I have learned to control myself. Kind of. Coffee helps me wake up and it is almost like a daily pattern for me to drink coffee.” junior Gracie Tilney-Kaemmer said. 

Today, nearly four in 10 American teens drink coffee, according to the NCA’s research, which is a large amount. But it is known that nearly 50 percent of adults drink coffee on a regular basis. So is the early consumption of caffeine going to negatively impact teens in the future? Will  they not be able to function without the consumption of coffee? The impact that it has on teens is less clear than it is for adults. So it is mainly unknown what the effects of excess coffee consumption are. The amount somebody will love coffee greatly depends on a person, and the way that they see coffee, either as a good tasty drink or as a disgusting and harmful beverage. Students at SPA clearly have very different relationships with caffeine. But there seems to be an overall consensus that teens, especially those trying to stay awake throughout their daily lives, should watch their intake carefully.