College students often drink for social reasons, and because it can be exciting. I have often felt like a termite on campus, and I am constantly bogged down by heaps of work. The idea of escaping from this world and getting wasted has its appeal.
People also meet others while doing house parties and/or clubbing. It draws together a diverse group of people to interact with, and it often offers an opportunity to meet people of the opposite sex.
People ride motorcycles, too. They also get pamphlets in the mail requesting them to be organ donors, because riding a bike is dangerous. There is something exiting and thrilling about it. People do all kinds of ridiculous things on skateboards, and it could be dangerous. There is something exiting and thrilling about it.
I think that is the guiding idea here, as people just want retreat from life and do something more exiting.
There are other reasons people drink a lot, and it could be connected to depression.