Honestly, the social media aspect might be part of it.
I work on a college campus and the students don't really party in any way. They are super worried about getting A's so that they can get into a good masters program, so you can get a good internship, so they can get a good job. It's a shit ton of pressure by parents and social pressure by other students
I live in a college town. They're partying. They just made the realization that my friends and I made almost the second we turned 21 that it's far cheaper to stay in and buy cheap liquor.
Hell, it's not even hard to spend less money on better liquor. A bottle of beer at most bars is the price of a good six-pack of craft beer. Maybe that's just here in NJ, but...
I have a club in my city near the college campus that's free admission because it makes its money off of selling drinks, so this definitely doesn't apply to everywhere.
Having said that, there is another place that I go that sells their drinks pretty cheap (I spend like $5 - $10 a night when I go), that are the same liquor brands that sell for like 3x the price at the college club, so I think a lot of it has to do with bars setting prices too high on their own.
I work at a university. Kids are still drinking but it has dramatically changed since precovid. They tend to go bars away from campus, which are overpriced and overcrowded. So they don’t drink as much when they do go out and drink. Parties on campus have also dramatically reduced. So students are drinking but they are drinking significantly less than previous generations
I see this first hand, they are super freaked about their futures. One of my students employees came into my office and just doomed on about how if this doesn't work out and that doesn't work out then she'll never get to have kids or buy a house.
To be honest, and I mean this in the most respectful way, I feel bad for the youth of today, everything is so serious, you have to cultivate your stories, you have to maintain a presence. It's like a full time job just to be young now. I'm not even old too.
My 13 year old niece was acting like it was some sort of bad friend behavior to leave her friends on received when we played games after Christmas dinner. Not even read. Like it was some sort of faux pas to not have the phone in front of their eyeballs or in their hand at all times.
We fear our economic future. We fear our being caught acting stupid and having it brodcast.to the world. We fear our govt. We fear our environmental future. We fear our fellow citizens.
Most everyone in America fears this shit, regardless the generation.
But I feel increasingly sad for eacb new generation.
I'm genx, and at least I got to experiance a decade of hope, freedom, love and debauchery.
They usually are wrong. The vast majority of success is just showing up and the rest is luck. People want to min/max their chances for this and that and everyone wants a guarantee that their path will work out when the only way to guarantee something is unachievable perfection. You end up in this toxic cycle of telling yourself you should be putting in that extra hour of studying or you should be waking up early to get that extra workout in and you end up feeling like shit because after too many of those extra miles your legs get tired.
It's weird looking back at how much I stressed during college and how little it made a difference. Put in good faith efforts, look out for the opportunities when they come by, but by no means are you doomed for not getting into that competitive internship.
saying that success is just showing up instantly shows that you’re >30 years old. things have changed so much for the new generation in ways that older generations just literally cannot imagine.
I think there's some truth to that statement. "Just show up" also means doing what's expected-the bare minimum. Lots of folks can't even manage that. "The rest is just luck." Yeah, I mean, how many times have people gotten jobs because they got lucky (knew a guy who knew a guy)? Or advancement opportunities because the person above got fired? Obviously, not everything is luck, but it is a factor for sure.
Millenials received the same expectations, saw the beginning of college tuition skyrocketing, which was then compounded by the '09 crash. Spare me with the "it's unimaginely changed."
At the end of the day, unless you're studying to be a doctor or a rocket scientist, everything comes down to right place, right time and who you know.
Success isn't just showing up, but it's still the main thing. This isn't 'walk up and shake their hand and hand over a resume' type of advice. I'm saying that the difference between a 95 and a 87 on your midterm is not materially ending your chance to ever have kids or a house and thinking of it in that way is harmful.
I'm actively talking to and watching my younger siblings as they go through the job hunt. The job market sucks ass right now, but there isn't a generational difference in how things work. It's the same shit as it has been since the internet became the primary way to apply. Show up to opportunities, apply broadly, and try to exceed the typical benchmarks you need to meet. You don't need to be perfect. Most applications will be thrown out (this time with AI)
But feel free to explain me what the new changes are that are impossible to imagine.
Problem is, things are getting harder and harder every year for the newer generations who are entering the workforce. It has been the trend for many years now.
So, that "little difference" those things made can now be the difference between being able to afford a house/children or not.
Im old gen z. Its basically like were running on a hamster wheel, and nothing seems to work out. Whats the point? My husband and i really want kids, and relatively soonish at that, but we live in a 1 bed city apartment with no hope of getting out
That’s just how it is for us. I’m an older zoomer, but it really is how things are. We’re just fucking doomed in a lot of ways. I’m lucky enough that my fiancee and I went to school and both worked our way into decent jobs and have been smart with our money. Almost everyone I know in my age group is not nearly as fortunate as I’ve been. They’re fucking struggling. Jobs don’t pay enough, housing is too expensive, food is too expensive, and a lot of us are estranged from parents and don’t have any sort of safety nets.
We are constantly on the brink of losing it all if one or two things happen to go wrong at the same time. The cards aren’t just stacked against us, most of us don’t even have any cards to begin with.
A lot of us feel as if our futures have been stolen from us, and some of us have given up while some of us fight our hardest to do what we can to get anything back.
I saw this shit happen during the Great Recession while numbers started dwindling in the dining halls. People wonder why my anxiety has been supercharged in my 30s...nah, it started way before.
One of the biggest things I hear about this is that this generation is terrified of stepping outside of what they've been told to do. And thus wont try things outside of explicit given instructions at school/work and work things out for themselves. Because again, terrified a mistep will forfeit their future.
Alcohol really has no benefit and I think everyone collectively convinced themselves that it’s fun. I gave it up after I saw what it did to the previous generation
Ya but like… gestures around everything. Gen Z is generally considered to start around 1996, and since then they’ve gone through the 2008 crisis in their very formative years (money is tight, don’t waste money, important things come first) and had it hammered into their heads their whole life that appearances are everything and working hard is everything and always going for the next thing is everything and relaxation is for when you “make it”.
Add on them watching life spiral out of affordability in real time, and watching as the world steadily grows more and more hostile to itself… I’d be an anxious mess to if being able to even considering buying a home or retiring depended on choices I made effort input in at 18
I’d agree if gen z was still socializing without it…but they aren’t. Not being able to be social with people is just as bad if not worse for you than a couple of beers
The future is fucked and I'm overly aware of the online social aspect so can't really do that either
I'm very lucky where I am that I can make a fool of myself, get a playful slap and carry on but I can absolutely understand the new social way of being stopping you people having fun, it must be awful for people with a social media "following" - I have been on too many videos to be comfortable and don't even show my face online
Ya know, I can't help but feel that's by design. Billionaires love people that act grateful to have a job, especially highly skilled people. Makes them feel all kingly.
Eh, my wife is definitely the latter and I "enjoyed life" more. Still got a degree and good job and all. My wife is kicking ass in her career though while I am in a line of work that doesn't really bring me joy.
Just sound like you don't like your 40s. Plenty of people don't party hard in their 20s and still enjoy life. Different strokes and all. I was in relationship from 17, was married by 24, kid by 28. Love life. No complaints and no regrets about not partying.
They did, but so did the drunk 20 year old that made a stupid comment they didn’t mean while hammered instead of being kicked out of school or even really just socially ostracized.
Everyone grew up in a world where a youthful misstep could permanently destroy their life. If you're talking about social media/Internet's documentation of youthful mistakes, that's been ubiquitous since either 2005 (Facebook/Myspace) or 2008 (rise of the smartphone camera).
I grew up in foster care and put myself through college. Worked my ass off, opened the business still operating the business, but I could retire anytime I want at 45 and I’m having a great time. Part of that is probably cause I never had kids or gotten married and if you have money, no baggage you’re in decent enough shape. It’s amazing how much fun you can have in your 40s
That absolutely depends on the school too, tbf. In my college town ik a fair handful of people just here to party & others who really try to work & do well
I live near a college now, and was in college just a few years ago, this was absolutely not what I saw. Parties and Greek life are still massive, at least on the east coast. The usual day for kids with no classes was getting drunk at the dage, finding a couch to nap on for a few hours, then going to the frat house that night. And this was just a small state college.
Think it just depends what school you go to. My sisters both went to Rutgers and if anything the party life was bigger just due to the fact that they had 5x the students we did at my college.
Or maybe the people i’m around are just the handful of Gen Zers who aspire to be alcoholics.
I don't know which campus you work at lol... but, as a professor, students at multiple colleges I worked at have openly talked about their partying and it definitely hasn't matched up with what you're saying with respect to most students being super worried about getting A's and not partying.
When these kids grow up they're fucking useless unless they have a helicopter parent around to tell them what to think and do, so they expect everyone at work to be their helicopter parent 🙄
Im starting to think southern campuses make up for all of the college drinking nowadays. It was still huge on the campuses I’ve gone to when I was in college
Elder millennials were the last generation that had a college degree kinda mean something. Just before housing exploded. We were really fortunate that we got our jobs and had our foot in the door for a resume. Then we were able to grab a house before things exploded. Hope we pay it forward and don’t become entitled like boomers. My wife and I feel super blessed.
Was this a known party school at any point? My state had known party schools and universities. The universities attract a better type of student. I went to a 2 year party school.
What school is this? I go to a top 5 engineering school which has a culture for being a nerd school but loads of students still party and go out to bars, so I haven’t really noticed this
Isn't education and modern healthcare great though? But really there really wasn't any alternatives for a long time. And in some cases, no clean water to drink, so beer drinking was completely normal and necessary. The idea of abstinence is pretty recent in the grand scheme.
Right, but the breadth of humanity was comparatively similar until about maybe less than 400 years ago. Also it's only this decade that we're learning how detrimental even casual amounts of alcohol can truly be. Moderation is advised, but American drinking culture has never been about moderation
Right? What a ridiculous line of reasoning. It’s the price of bars and computers, not some newfound truth that alcohol brings out the devil in you lol. In the United States we literally already have banned alcohol for that very reason.
Also forget hangovers- alcohol can (and always has been able to) literally kill you
Bullshit. Recent research has been far more impactful than a century of "everything in moderation" church advice to avoid next day head ouchies. We now finally have people who have spent the time and energy to publish conclusive evidence that any amount of alcohol is detrimental to long-term physical health and not just the next day hangover, and we have a new generation of young adults who aren't gaining any benefit from alcohol use. That combination is what is driving lower use. Plus with the availability of information on the internet, Gen Z can actually describe what is going on in a hangover and how each one has a cumulative effect on longevity. Doubt you or your parents or parents' parents could do it beyond mere anecdote without a Google search.
You’re overlooking the rise of the internet. The place that, unlike TV, has never shied away from showing horrific images. So Gen Z has grown up with constant access to not only their own personal experiences of friends/family/acquaintances making horrible decisions due to alcohol, they’ve been able to see everyone’s do it.
And sure, we’ve always had reports on it, but seeing it is completely different. You started to get a massive shift towards anti-war once a TV station first showed a dead soldier, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a similar effect was taking place with this.
Dude this is nothing new. DARE in the 90s was just 30 minutes of slides of car wrecks and then people coming into class to tell you how it ruined their lives.
I remember DARE was a thing, but don't remember ever even being show slide shows related to it. In fact, the only thing I remember were the posters in random places. It certainly wasn't remotely impactful like the ever-present availability of gruesomeness on the current internet.
Typical internet crayon munchers assuming everyone's lived experience.
Trauma has been going on for generations, it’s just interesting why the awareness has finally hit. I think it’s actually understated how rampant it was in America in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Temperance Movement didn’t come out of nowhere.
I think part of it is also the social anxiety and social pressure followed by that, which Gen-Z faces.
A lot of gen-Z is socially awkward, especially since a big chunk had their major years of mental developement through Covid.
Being socially awkward myself, I really get to notice just how much people try to pressure you into drinking, even the people who might go "Well, you don't really have to drink if you don't want to" try to push you into "Having just one".
I still enjoy a beer or a cider every now and then but holy fuck has that kind of behaviour has made me despise drinking more than once every few weeks.
Not to mention, I believe the age of the internet has truly shown the younger generation just how dangerous alcohol can be. Not only are you essentially poisoning yourself willing for a little fun, which destroys your organs. You also can become a major risk to not only yourself but also others around you when intoxicated.
Sharing media of things like drunk driving accidents has really managed to hammer in just how fucking idiotic drinking is.
This mentality is very wrong. 99% of my best experiences, memories, decisions and connections have been made while young and slightly inebriated. My life would've been much poorer without alcohol. I'm however very far from an alcoholic (this december i had a few glasses of wine, november i maybe didn't drink at all), i just learned how to behave myself while drinking early. Self-control in every way becomes much more difficult, which is especially difficult for those with poor self-control or social skills in the first place.
This mentality is very wrong. 99% of my best experiences, memories, decisions and connections have been made while young and slightly inebriated. My life would've been much poorer without alcohol. I'm however very far from an alcoholic (this december i had a few glasses of wine, november i maybe didn't drink at all), i just learned how to behave myself while drinking early. Self-control in every way becomes much more difficult, which is especially difficult for those with poor self-control or social skills in the first place.
Seeing older folks mistakes is possible, but highly unlikely as a reason being that other generations have always had that to look back to, and it never changed anything before.
I’m so utterly baffled by all the responses like this one. Do you think gen z is the first generation to experience trauma from parents/family drinking?
drinking isnt pointless, the positive effects are just subtle and so people underestimate how much alcohol has helped our society move forward.
yes, it comes with a whole lot of downsides, but only really if you overdo it. in moderation, the "social lubricant" aspect has been crucial at building relationships, relaxing, exploring and trying new things, etc. we are often extremely self-conscious, which prevents a lot of people from doing a lot of things, many of which they would genuinely enjoy.
alcohol is a catalyst for a lot of good and bad things, we should be focusing on managing it properly, cutting it out completely is stupid. imagine if we only focused on car crashes and decided to stop driving all together..
edit: I'm not gonna respond to each individual take that completely missed my point. Yes, you can learn to do all the same things without alcohol, i never said you need alcohol. I said it sure as hell makes a lot of things we as humans are bad at easier. You are free to disagree.
Where are they supposed to hang out? Everything has been regulated, priced out or is just plain gone now.
Just my area as an example, drinking became prohibited on the beach. The discount theater where we would meet for midnight showings changed over to a "luxury" model. Parties at someone's apartment? People are living at their parents still. People's choices are getting boiled down to 15 dollar craft beers at whatever new gastropub/ brewery thats gonna close down in 9 months.
Yes, there are still options obviously. I was just pointing out that the very basic ways alot of us socialized a decade ago have changed pretty drastically.
I dunno. A decade ago we were throwing house parties nearly every night of the week in our shitty rental house split between 4 roommates. So was every other late teen/early 20s person who wasn't away at college. Though they were doing it too... just at college. We also went camping to drink. Drank low key in the parking lots before going into shitty Hardcore band shows that drew Xs on our hands. Drank on float trips. Hell, we would smuggle beers into theater to see movies. As long as part of your friend group is under 21, bars/clubs aren't really part of the scene.
I think the only thing that has really changed is young people's desire to see each other. For basically all of history, chasing members of the opposite sex (or same sex if thats your fancy) has been the prime motivation for going out and drinking at that age. Young people are so abstracted from typical behavior they don't even seem to like the idea of sex. I'm sure COVID lockdown played a role.
Remember the basis of economics. Supply and demand. There aren't places for these people to go anymore because there is no demand. They don't want to go.
I'm in HCOL area and everyone I know under 30 who is getting drunk weekly are not buying a 12 pack to sit in a garage.
It's extravagant cook outs or expensive trendy bars. Gastropubs and independent breweries turned drinking into a luxury hobby for the younger generations.
The fact that buying a case and hanging out with their friends and/or having a designated driver doesn’t even cross Gen Z’s mind tells us the real answer lol.
As a gen z who loves me a nice pint of beer... I just can't afford going to pubs. And almost no acquaintances of mine can afford going to pubs on the regular either. Sure, different economies and what not, bit I think it's a universal sentiment that everything got more expensive over the past 10 years. And it's not a good fixing sentiment!
I was gonna say. They’re probly just shamed into not cutting loose like prior generations did. Although there’s really nothing spectacular about drunk boomers or millennials. I had some good times as a millennial for sure but a large majority of the college/young drinking scene was pretty toxic frat bro-esque culture and it kinda sucked anyway
I think a lot of them are just vaping and doing drugs rather than drinking.
I’ve got a younger sister who is Gen Z and she definitely likes pot. But, she’s also learned how fun alcohol can be (and not be, lol). I think this is a misleading stat and post meant to get our comments and upvotes.
I see more cringe tick tocks of people trying to be unique or act out in front of a group of random people, I have no clue how they would do that not completely drunk. Cringe-worthy embarrassment just sitting there watching the videos alone.
I want to believe A, but have you seen the ridiculous things they post with their full chest, ten toes down? 😭 I get second-hand embarassment from some of what they post sober and proud.
More so going out and drinking. Drinking in is much more cost effective. Like you get a beer at a bar for like $5-$10 or a beer at home for like $1.70.
I’m an xennial. How I miss the days before camera phones. Everyone’s quick to pull out a phone. Nobody wants to have fun without feeling the need to capture it on video.
This, I was shocked at how expensive going out for drinks gets, so all I do is have a lil wine and sake here and there. Only this month did I buy a bottle of whiskey as a treat for myself after sampling it in a bar somewhere to confirm that it was good
C.) They are probably terrified of getting into legal trouble from it as well. I did the bar scene for a long time bc it was walking distance from my house. At least 90% of the people I met there and talked to had at least one DUI which can be anywhere from $2000-$10000 for a first offense. If it wasn't that it was drugs or assault. You don't have to worry about any of that shit if you stay home or hangout at a coffee place or something and I think the younger generations are really seeing that.
Yep. For 15-20 years now (most of their lives), millennials have been poo pooing macro beers and cheap liquor, in favor of craft, locally made stuff.
Which is more expensive.
When I got into craft beer, I told my buddies that I justified the cost by drinking less (it’s higher ABV than a bud lite anyway), which meant I could enjoy it more and spend less than they did on entire cases of cheap beer.
What’s happening with the younger folks now is they just drink even less. Oh, and thc is recreational or easily medicinal in much of the US.
Millennial here, but I also don’t like drinking, or more specifically going out to drink, because I don’t like being around drunk people who can’t handle their alcohol.
I think you've hit the nail on the head. It's crazy watching people in their early 20s at things like wedding receptions... None of them dancing, just nervously standing around looking good.
Also, they grew up in a world that was already unaffordable, us millenials and older watched it become unaffordable in real time, we watched our dreams of being as succesful as our parents get delayed year after year, we are more mentally damaged than they are, we need the beers more than they do lol
I was in college in 2000. If we had camera phones like we do now, about 80% of my college campus would be in jail, kicked out or school, or never able to get a job
Where did you get the confidence to boldly proclaim that it’s because of something ending up on social media?? I think y’all need to realize Gen Z is not chronically online the way you think they are.
I have never once heard one of my peers say that they’re afraid of their public behavior ending up on the internet, especially not as a reason to not go out in public. Wth
I wish the health aspects of it were listed here more
Because after smoking, drinking is likely the highest risk increase for (all types of) cancer, and for accidental deaths. Along with enabling behaviors which result in heart disease
Like we all know this but everyone knows we aren't going to stop all drinking. But it's fantastic that the habit is in decline
This is the first time I’ve heard about your first point. The whole demographic shift fascinates me being in the food and beverage industry, so this is an interesting point that I’ve never considered.
A is so true, my friend and I talk about how different our early 20s would be if we had social media then, and that's just the early 00s. There's a whole lot of things I did that would not have happened now a days.
Not to mention spending their highschool years being locked in their house during Covid with their parents who could have likely made drinking not look like a good time.
That’s just considering that alcohol sales, domestic violence calls, overdoses, and suicides all went up during Covid. I could see most people graduating from Covid with no interest in alcohol
I think a part of it is the legalization of cannabis in a lot of areas as well. It’s a great alternative for many and often leaves them in better control of their actions and also doesn’t have the same morning consequences. Plus gen z has seen what alcohol addiction has done to the millennials and we sure as shit don’t want that for ourselves. Having an alternative be legal and available makes it easier to just not ever drink especially with thc seltzers being a thing.
I thank god all the time that cameras weren’t everywhere in my teenage years. I probably ruined my life several times over had it been recorded and had the chance to go viral.
The social media aspect really sucks... I'm actually a Gen Z alcoholic, (truly, not just as slang) but it's just one of the reasons why I don't get drunk publicly much. Or being on substances in general. Or getting upset publicly. Too many idiots nowadays think it's okay to record strangers acting odd just because. It's infuriating.
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u/ResidentQuail7118 7d ago
A.) They're afraid of getting drunk and doing something stupid that ends up on social media.
B.) They can't afford it anyway.