The student news site of the University of Northern Iowa

Northern Iowan

The student news site of the University of Northern Iowa

Northern Iowan

The student news site of the University of Northern Iowa

Northern Iowan

The trouble with tanning

Summer is a much-needed three-month holiday among college students. It enables us to put money back into our bank accounts (only to watch it vanish as soon as the fall semester begins), relax from the stresses from school and party with hardly any restrictions at all.

I am immensely happy to shed my thirty-pound bookbag and become a couch potato for awhile. Strangely enough, some people might seek out other activities instead of seeing how long it takes for a human and a couch to merge into one being. Among the list of countless activities people could do on a gorgeous summer day, nothing annoys me more than tanning.

To clarify a bit, I am only talking about the type of tanning where an individual pays to use a tanning bed. I know some people that do this during the summer, and I boldly call them idiots. Most people want to look their best in accordance with what everyone else defines as what is “hot.” There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to achieve this goal, but what is the point of paying for it when it can be achieved naturally simply by standing outside?

Basic logic denotes that it would be unwise pay good money on various tanning sessions where you are placed in a coffin-like box and slowly burned until your physical appearance changes. I mean, if you want to be cooked for perfection, you might as well save a few bucks in the process.

To be fair, there may be a few good reasons to pay for a tanning bed. It’s usually cooler on the inside of a building, it takes less time to tan, there is less risk of cancer, no sunburns and you don’t have to worry about pests such as bugs or kids. Personally, I have never gone tanning, but none of these reasons are good enough to get me into a tanning bed. This is because I have seen the end result. I can easily spot people after they go tanning because they are the same color as a carrot.

I believe the use of a tanning bed says a lot more about an individual’s personality then their looks. I would classify it along with the decision to get a breast augmentation, change hair color or take steroids. People who do these things, in my opinion, are cheaters. Simply put, they are not real and whatever they paid for looks far worse than what could have been kept or changed naturally.

Some would say that a tanning bed can’t be grouped with these things because it is less serious and almost a novelty in comparison. While it is not as life-changing as breast augmentation or steroids, tanning falls into that category because it is a quick and easy fix that one pays for.

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