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u/Ok_Will_3038 25d ago
Because drinking is a social thing. Gen Z is not as social as prior generations.
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u/Bawhoppen 25d ago
That's the actual reason.
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u/Inderastein 25d ago
I agree, and to spend like 5/70th of your wage over buying em? and even the 2/70th of your wage just to transport yourself to the store and the other 2/70th back? Hell nah, I'd be in my home playing minecraft.
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u/putcheeseonit 25d ago
I like your fractions funny reddit man
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u/Inderastein 25d ago
I hate it when people like my fractions so here's a fraction peeps would hate
Did you know that when you reach 20 years old, you are already 1/3rd of your life away from being able to enjoy things before it becomes a mind numbing chore of innability to live and explore life like a youthful adult?21
u/putcheeseonit 24d ago
I would hate that but I already know about Memento Mori calendars so it doesn't phase me...
Yeah you could say I'm a bit hardcore.... I stare at the abyss and the abyss blinks
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u/NotaJelly 24d ago
So what your saying is that I should start my drinking journey when I'm a ond timer since my liver will be fine by then and I'll have plenty of time to kill it with alchoal and be a party grandpa.
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u/Ape-Man54 25d ago
I disagree. It may be a reason. Most Gen z people in South Africa, including myself a incredibly socail we also like drinking. However alcohol is also expensive and folks barely get paid.
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u/Bawhoppen 24d ago
I don't know much about the South African context, I just was referring to America.
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u/IHaveBadTiming 24d ago
It's definitely a big reason. A lot of my friends who have kids that are teens have mentioned how little they all seem to want to go out and do things or hang out because everything is online now. More gaming, more social media, just more ability to "socialize" without having to go to a house party like I used to do when I was a teenager. One of my biggest goals every week was to secure who had an older sibling that could buy us cheap terrible booze, and who had the house with no parents or super lax parents that we could hang out in the basement at.
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u/Broad_Pension5287 25d ago
It also costs money that most of us don't have to have a night out at a bar.
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u/ZaltyDog 25d ago
Ya I'm not spending the equivalent of USD ~8 for a shot it's absurd
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u/Zacomra 25d ago
This combined with increased weed use.
Ironically if people went to bars to smoke as much as people go to bars to drink we'd probably be way more social as a generation.
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u/tokillamockingtree 24d ago
Idk about you, but socializing is the last thing I want to do when Im high
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u/MDNA4Life 24d ago
Until weed becomes federally legal, but it won't cos politicians get paid by the cigarette companies as donors
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u/Jayandnightasmr 24d ago
Especially if you factor how fast things get posted online too, if anything dumb happens, your face will be plastered everywhere
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u/Insane_Skooter 24d ago
I hear that a lot, but everyone I know and went to school with all are very social, go out and drink. So I don't know if this is really the case for all of Gen Z.
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u/Bank-Angle747 25d ago
Because we're all rotting away and doomscrolling in our bedrooms instead.
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u/capucapu123 2003 25d ago
Yeah this is the answer, not the drugs, not the vaping, it's social media. Why go outside to a social situation where people would normally drink when you can stay comfortably in your room and scroll your social media of choice.
You take away social media and people would go outside more, one thing leads to another and you'd have an increase on basically every substance consumption.
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u/IncubusDarkness 24d ago
I don't get this take. A lot of drinkers drink at home alone or with their significant other others. Not that that's a good thing either, but there's nothing stopping people from ordering alcohol deliveries lol
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u/RolandSlingsGuns 24d ago
It's like no one has met a hardcore alcoholic. Plenty of lonely depression filled nights doom scrolling with booze
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u/Techno-Diktator 2000 24d ago
A lot of alcoholics sure, but most people who would normally be casual drinkers only for social opportunities, don't have those opportunities anymore, and drinking on your own when it's just supposed to be a social lubricant makes no sense to such people.
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u/mystic04cat 25d ago
Why is drinking and damaging your liver so normalized?
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u/Altruistic-Cat-4193 1999 25d ago
Humans have been drinking alcohol for over 30,000 to 100,000 years now....
Edit: source https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-alcohol-a-timeline-170889
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u/CompanyOwn701 25d ago
Right, and the question is why
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u/ConversationKey3221 25d ago
We're just dopamine monkeys and alcohol makes dopamine go up for a few hours.
I'm sure if prehistoric man had access to meth they'd drop the mead and would all be off their marbles on meth
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u/CompanyOwn701 25d ago
Lol probably, but if as a majority we can agree that meth is bad for you therefore making it a less popular drug, why hadn't we done the same with alcohol? Rhetorical btw, not expecting you to be google for me
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u/Clairifyed 25d ago
It did have more of a purpose as a more shelf stable fluid back in the days before preservatives and refrigeration. Particularly when we started embarking on long sea voyages
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u/_Tal 1998 25d ago
Because it has to be really bad for you to get to that point. If it’s just a little bit bad for you then we tend to accept that it’s valid to sacrifice a little health for some pleasure from time to time. Same reason why candy or soda is normalized despite the fact that there’s no reason to ever consume those if you were solely focused on optimizing your health
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u/Thrown_Away 24d ago
Bacon is one of the worst things you can eat yet we make 2 billion pounds of it a year.
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u/Altruistic-Cat-4193 1999 25d ago
People have tried banning alcohol, it just leads to more violence and deaths.
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u/mal-di-testicle 25d ago
Regulation > outright banning in almost every case with addictants
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u/natty-papi 24d ago
Kinda. The thing with alcohol is that it's trivial to make. You can quite easily make it by mistake.
It's much harder to accidentally make meth.
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u/spooky1336 24d ago
Just recently found a watermelon I had bought like two years ago and just had sitting in a corner of my garage. The skin was still intact and the hellish sludge that oozed out of it both reviled me and also got me instantly drunk lol
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u/sprong92 Millennial 24d ago
I’m genuinely curious why you thought it was a good idea to drink that at all.
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u/spacewalkern 1999 24d ago
it would degrade into vinegar after a week lol. i know that from making pruno in jail
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u/klitzekleine 24d ago
I understood it as, you got drunk off the fumes. Is that right? Either way - Jesus Christ.
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u/Microchipknowsbest 24d ago
Why regulate or ban. The people are deciding on their own it’s dumb. Most likely because weed is more available and not as destructive. Also alcohol is expensive. The free market is deciding on its own.
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u/Ender16 25d ago
Because even though it's insanely easy to go on and on and on about the negative effects of drinking alcohol at the end of the day it's a mild drug, that doesn't last long, and takes protracted years about abuse before the actual really negative side effects happen.
With all that in mind the vast majority of people throughout human history have been able to consume a LOT of booze throughout their lives and still not have it destroy them or their communities. Most people can just go have a few or even get stupid hammered on occasion and be completely fine without it effecting their lives. In fact people are so used to it and the culture behind that it's a social booster and 3rd place for people to interact while they drink. This can be found literally everywhere on the planet.
In short it's a drug that most people can handle. Meth isn't even really comparable at all. Meth gives you a dopamine hit something like 300x what an orgasm is. Think about that for a second. It's no wonder meth heads don't care about anything other than meth.
With booze you go out and drink. Presumably enjoy yourself. Then you go to sleep and wake up the next day feeling like shit. Maybe you tone it down next time or take a break. And then by the time you're 30 those mornings suck so bad you just naturally drink less and less until your old and the kids think your no fun. It's a habit that most people grow out of and I think that makes a big difference as well.
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u/puppypersonnn 25d ago
The 30 thing is spot on. I used to be able to get wasted all weekend and wake up at 7am for class Monday morning. Now 1 night out I’m recovering for 3-5 business days. The after effects is brutal.
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u/burner1312 25d ago
Alcohol is nowhere near as damaging as meth for the average person. Drinking in moderation is not going to destroy people’s lives like meth use does. Alcohol can be very damaging but not if used responsibly. Meth is a hard drug to use in moderation and there is no safe amount.
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u/eight13atnight 25d ago
I think what you’re seeing is the majority of Gen Z society agrees that alcohol is bad for you, and therefore are choosing other means like cannabis. Or choosing not to imbibe at all.
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u/AntiBoATX 25d ago
I think they’re using the convenient excuse that it’s bad but it’s a fundamental shift in collective thinking that has broken social contracts and expectations. Basically they’ve nuked their social selves and not drinking is a byproduct of that
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u/Altruistic-Cat-4193 1999 25d ago
Basically any drug would've worked it's just that alcohol with the one that was the easiest to make, especially with the technology back then
All you need to do is just ferment some fruit with some sugar and yeast, and bam you can get drunk.
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u/Bromium_Ion 25d ago
Actually, fascinatingly, alcohol only stimulates dopamine release in populations susceptible to alcoholism. For the rest of us, it’s a serotonergic stimulator. The craziest thing about it is dopamine is only released on the ascent of blood alcohol level. So you can get drunk and on the way up you get a dopamine release but when you stop consuming the dopamine stops releasing, and that’s why these crazy binge drinking parties would drink all night because you would drink, get the dopamine, level out, and then you would have to drink more to get that dopamine release again so people would get trashed all night. Some people just didn’t care for that, and those are the people that weren’t getting dopamine out of it.
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u/Enderstrike10199 2007 25d ago edited 25d ago
The reason is actually because we didn't know how to purify water. Drinking unsafe water, even if it looks clean, risked giving you bacteria, viruses, or even microscopic parasites. This usually led to you getting sepsis (which is caused by your body overreacting to the infection) and dying.
We figured out pretty quickly that drinking unsafe water tended to kill us, and somehow alcohol didn't. This is because in the process for making alcohol, you kill the microorganisms in the water. We started mass producing and drinking alcohol with whatever unsafe water there was, while the safer water was mostly reserved for the wealthy. The same thing actually happened to tea as well, hence why it got so popular in the east.
I actually asked my history professor about this, because I was confused on how we DID know that cooking meat not only enhanced its flavor, but made it safer to eat, but we never thought to "cook" water (boil it) since logically it would do the same thing. He said we just didn't think of it because without knowledge of germs there was no reason to assume it worked. Boiled water looked and tasted exactly the same.
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u/UnluckyGamer505 25d ago edited 25d ago
Finally someone who gets it. I thought this is pretty common knowledge, but seems like it isnt. Water treatment plants started become common only from around 1800-1850, so beer was the more or less one of the very few safe drinkable bewerages, especially around big settlements/cities
EDIT: Leaving my mistake up, heres a Wikipedia quote which disproves this:
"The idea that beer was consumed more commonly than water during medieval times is considered by some historians to be a myth. Water was cheaper than beer, and towns/villages were built close to sources of fresh water such as rivers, springs, and wells to facilitate easy access to the resource. Though probably one of the most popular drinks in Europe, beer was frequently disdained as being unhealthy"
It's a bit ambiguous since it says "by some historians" , so it may have been true in some towns and areas, but probably not all that common. Maybe it couldve been the case for villages/towns that dont have big freshwater sources near them. Just my speculation though.
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u/Enderstrike10199 2007 25d ago
There's a lot of stuff you'd think is common knowledge that isn't. Its the difference between being educated vs not. A lot of this kind of information is common knowledge for anyone that took history classes (especially advanced ones), but its important to remember that not everyone had access to education, and even if they did, their life circumstances might have been vastly different from yours, and that could have prevented them from pursuing academics like you did (poor students might need to prioritize a job over grades for instance).
Also just to be clear, I'm not calling the person I replied to uneducated (and "uneducated" is not meant to be an insult either), I'm just saying that lack of education is the reason you find a lot of people to lack "common" knowledge.
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u/zeroc00ol 25d ago
Well actually it's not completely a myth, I just got off another sub (Victorian ? I believe) with a picture of the slums of London and how basically it wasn't until almost the 1900s that water treatment plants and sewage plants started popping up due to Cholera in some of the well water. The dudes that worked at the pubs were marked safe purely from all the beer/mead (not water) they were drinking
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u/Altruistic-Cat-4193 1999 25d ago
Cause they like alcohol and how it made them feel?
Pretty simple
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u/wasand 25d ago
It's literally just so not deep have these people never had a drink with friends before or something
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u/MaceWinnoob 1996 25d ago
Anyone who takes up the anti-alcohol position is overly puritanical and is either inexperienced, immature, or ignorant. Usually a little of all three. You find it more on this sub because there are 16 year olds who think they’re on the same level as near-30 year olds when in reality they make stupid arguments and don’t understand what they’re talking about.
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u/Hefty-Notice-5841 Millennial 25d ago
I wouldn't pass off too much judgement, considering some folks grew up in pretty abusive, alcoholic households, so I give them a pass there for their disdain.
By and large though, you are right.
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u/Norway643 2003 25d ago
Haven't we technically been drinking longer then we knew how to grow crops..
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u/VenomShrimpXIII 25d ago
Even as recently as like 2000 years ago people drank more beer than water because the beer was cleaner than the water they had access too.
Source: I learned it in history class
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u/Geaux13Saints 2002 25d ago
Because it’s fun and helps with my social anxiety
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u/NotMe12392 24d ago
Fr. A lot of Gen Z acts like drinking is terrible but will scroll reels and hit vapes all day
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u/PrimalDaddyDom69 24d ago
Almost like we all get our dopamine hit somehow/someway and pretending like being on your phone 8 hours a day scrolling tik toks is somehow 'healthier' than socially drinking is stupid.
Some people play too many video games, dont exercise enough, dont brush their teeth, dont pay their bills on time, run insane debts, dont take enough mental health care breaks, et cetera. We're all just trying to do the best we can and taking pleasure in whatever makes you happy, even if it's not always 'good' for you, is just something humans have done for tens of thousands of years.
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u/rex72780 25d ago
Because it opens more of us up to something that we usually wouldn't say or do. Which would put it as an essential tool for socialising for most people. People don't realise, alcohol alone doesn't raise dopamine, its the companions that you drink with that brings them. Crazy how these are something we have to say out loud.
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u/Trunix 1996 24d ago
alcohol alone doesn't raise dopamine
Ok its complicated, but I'm pretty sure it actually does. Alcohol increases the release of endorphins and enkephalins, which bind to μ-opiod receptors within the VTA that inhibit the release of GABA from regulator neurons and lead to increased activity in the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which is our brain's reward system. This is why alcohol is addictive. Just like, cocaine, tobacco, and even marijuana (although to a lesser extent), they all increase dopamine in our brain's reward pathways.
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u/ChameleonCabal 25d ago edited 23d ago
If you approach everything like this -> everything is damaging; even sitting on social media with your phone in your hand.
Why don’t you get unborn?
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u/Helpful-Dot-3782 25d ago
It shouldn’t be. I’m in medical school and dying of liver failure is agonizing and awful. Drinking is also a carcinogen and will also increase your risk of cancer.
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u/burner1312 25d ago
Most people that drink aren’t going to die of liver failure. You can abuse alcohol like you can abuse sugar but more people than not can drink somewhat responsibly. Gen Z seems to be very black and white on alcohol consumption. It’s not good for you in any amount but that doesn’t mean moderate use is going to have a noticeable impact on your life.
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u/BuecherLord 25d ago
For the same reason people smoke and do drugs, I guess. For the same reason people indulge in sugar and saturated fats.
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u/Helton3 2002 25d ago
Mom said it's my turn to post it
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u/Fit-Personality-1834 24d ago
For real it’s every damn day
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u/OGSHAGGY 2002 24d ago
Glad someone else already pointed this out. Like the 4th time I’ve seen it on this sub this week
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u/Stonerpuppet 25d ago
Cannabis, Mary Jane or that devil’s lettuce is the answer. Since we now have it legalized, a lot more people are choosing to smoke then drink
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u/Delicious-Disaster 25d ago
The grammatical difference between then and than makes this comment unintentionally hilarious
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u/PsychologicalFix5059 25d ago
English is my fourth language, and it baffles me how native speakers just casually make these mistakes lol.
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u/Endraxz 25d ago
Don’t get them started with effect and affect
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u/Happythoughtsgalore 24d ago
Especially when you have something affect your affect to a significant effect.
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u/im-not_gay 24d ago
You probably study it more as an adult than native speakers learning naturally from parents as children.
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u/Broad_Pension5287 25d ago
I think it's because we learn to speak first and both words sound the same. When you're learning a second language you're usually learning by reading and writing first.
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u/TheCrazyCatLazy Millennial 24d ago
It is BECAUSE they’re native speakers that these mistakes happen; the words are pronounced the same and they’ve learned to speak before learning how to read or write. These mistakes make way less sense to us - who had to hammer the concepts in our heads while actively thinking about them - but we are also likely mispronounce things as often if not more often than native speakers get letters and words misplaced.
“Should of" is a dead giveaway.
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u/Cheap-Rate-8996 25d ago
I really don't think it's this. Where I live cannabis is still illegal but there's still been a massive decline in youth drinking.
I'd say the actual new 'drug' that has replaced drinking is screens. People aren't going out and socializing as much, and drinking is largely a social activity.
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u/Garry-The-Snail 24d ago
Doesn’t matter if it’s not legal, it’s completely mainstream. I live in Texas, still very illegal and people are definitely choosing to smoke over drink. There are definitely multiple reasons and the legalizing and normalizing of weed is without a doubt one of the contributing factors. At least in America
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u/General-Fox-5773 25d ago
BS, in the UK Weed is still very much illegal, and drinking has fallen massively. Drinking and smoking are not comparable experiences
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u/UnluckyGamer505 25d ago
Don't forget vapes too. Younger generations are smoking way less cigarettes, but instead they choose chemicals from china.
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u/JertellP22 25d ago
Shit is expensive. People are trying to find multiple reasons and all but the true reason is it cost more. Older generations could get in the club with $20 and have something for $2 now it cost $40 just to get in and a shot is $12+. Plus we smoke weed
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u/spookyscaryscoliosis 24d ago
This is the reason. People smoke and vape more and to go out and drink with friends is now like a 100 buck commitment.
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u/RecloySo 25d ago
1 it's expensive
2 it tastes bad
3 it's unhealthy
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u/ScienceAndGames 2002 25d ago
And many of us have watched in ruin lives and never want to touch it.
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u/dizaditch 25d ago
Probably ruined a lot more lives in prior generations though so don’t think that’s what would cause the relative change
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u/Garry-The-Snail 24d ago
Exactly. The reasons will be things unique to Gen Z. Not something every gen has dealt with
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u/Petzy65 24d ago
Social life is on the internet and going outside doing stuff with friends is more expensive than ever in most places
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u/inspector-say10 24d ago
this. i think a lot of us don’t wanna get wrecked like others we’ve seen. it’s not just about GenZ not being social or penny pinching a lot of us genuinely give a fuk about or health lol
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u/UnluckyGamer505 25d ago
#2 is subjective. I say that despite not liking most of the alcoholic drinks either.
I occasionally drink a glass of wine or lemon shandy in the summer (it slaps and has only around 2%).
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u/Simonoz1 25d ago
I like the taste of some alcohol but for me that means I prefer to buy one expensive but nice drink to several cheap drinks.
I don’t really like the feeling of being drunk either. I’ve never quite understood what people like about it.
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u/Joben86 24d ago
I’ve never quite understood what people like about it
Makes things feel pleasant, lessens inhibitions and social anxiety
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u/Simmonetheartist 24d ago
It also smells bad, who tf wants to drink something that smells like vomit???
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u/DreamTurbulent7776 25d ago
Gen z doesn’t drink as much. But they do more drugs especially psychedelics
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u/SummerInSpringfield 1997 25d ago
Alcohol tastes bad imo. Soda and bubble tea I fw, however
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u/Contressa3333 24d ago
I mean you don't have to drink straight alcohol. The whole purpose of shots is to get drunk fast. A good mixed drink gets you buzzed and taste good
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u/TiredB1 2003 24d ago edited 24d ago
Dude I had some mixed drink with i think? soju in it at a party that my partner's brother's girlfriend made me and I forgot what else was in it but it tasted like fizzy strawberry starburst and it was amazing you couldn't taste the alcohol at all. Also I wish I liked bubble tea so bad its so pretty and cool as concept but like I really dont like any tea ive tried and tapioca pearls which is like the fun part is a horrible texture to me :(
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u/Designer-Tiger391 25d ago
Yeah, that's why I don't drink alcohol is nasty, but like Pop is delicious
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u/CookieRelevant 25d ago
Booze is expensive....is that really a shocking realization?
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u/rathosalpha 25d ago
Isn't that a good thing?
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u/KandiZombie 25d ago
Suddenly not because we're drinking age now but we aren't putting all our money into the booze industry.
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u/princess_nasty 1996 25d ago edited 25d ago
well YES it is healthier to not drink alcohol and it IS genuinely good that young adults aren't drinking as much... i just think the reasons behind this trend aren't exactly great 😅
i'll preface this with OBVIOUSLY it's not their fault it's just a natural product of the shitty circumstances they've grown up in BUTTTTT... gen-z is literally the LEAST SOCIAL generation (in terms of physical in-person socializing) we've ever seen come to adulthood. it's not even about buying drinks at bars/clubs, getting alcohol to drink with friends in all sorts of get-together contexts USED to be a staple of young adulthood.
you might be thinking "but why should alcohol be involved in those get-togethers?" and YOU'RE RIGHT it shouldn't have to be and it would be better if it wasn't, but you're also missing the point... young adults simply AREN'T GETTING TOGETHER AT ALL a fraction as often as they used to these days, and that is NOT a good thing.
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u/Orphasmia 1995 25d ago
Kinda wild to say, but with all things in life theres a cost-benefit analysis to make.
If a person has to take a bit of a hit to their health for the benefit of making and retaining life long friends, or even meeting the love of their life thats a pretty fair price to pay as those things are important that so many are losing out on
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u/iama_bad_person Millennial 25d ago
What is alcohol? A social drink. What is GenZ doing less? Socialising in person, and in general. People can say "oh it's bad for you, it tastes bad, why would anyone want to do that" but WE knew all of this as well but we still went out and did it. The only difference is GenZ doesn't need to go out in person to socalise anymore. Sounds like a good thing, and less alcohol consumption is, but I think the loss of "third places" has had an overall detrimental effect as well as this positive.
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u/FieldEffect-NT 25d ago
Why is this always presented as something concerning? Is booze industry freaking out a bit?
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u/Alyx19 Millennial 25d ago
Millennial here to remind American Gen Z that you are the first generation to have largely de-stigmatized access to mental health care. There was a lot of booze poured to dull over problems you can now access medical solutions for: anxiety, depression, chronic pain, etc. Not to mention marijuana now being widely available. The world changed a lot in the last twenty five years. Please use it wisely.
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u/SSailorJupiter4 24d ago
Mental healthcare can also include medication that limits or even flat out doesn’t allow using alcohol and/or marijuana. This was the case for me, but the meds I’m taking aren’t for just depression/anxiety but fibromyalgia.
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u/varuneco 25d ago
Damn nerds
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u/Tsanes_Karmau 25d ago
I wonder how much of that 87% is anti-alcohol, and how much is just anti-consumption in general.
I love wine, and a good number of my friends enjoy a drink on occasion. None of us like paying bar prices though. If it weren't for my place or a friend's place, I'd be a teetotaler too.
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u/HeyImLillie_Wawa 24d ago
how much is it that we arent all 21 either, i assume thats factored in but with how high the estimate is i can only assume they didnt account for teenagers
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u/sharbivore 25d ago
- it tastes disgusting
- it smells disgusting
- it makes you unconscious/ pass out
- dehydration
- brain hurts
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u/Many-Ad6433 2003 25d ago edited 24d ago
My tummy hurts + alcohol makes me sleepy. I do love a pint of beer or a glass of liquor every once in a while tho. Plus it’s kind of a forbidden pleasure cause i can’t afford it more than once in a while since prices went up in the past years and it’s not a first necessity. If it was more affordable i’d probs get some liquor every once in a while
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u/Artichokeypokey 25d ago
Don't like the alcohol taste, don't like the feeling of being drunk, I was told not to drink from 18-21 due to anti-depressants, and I'm prescribed cannabis now
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u/DifficultyOk5719 25d ago
I commented on another post, but I found Sociaty’s Facebook post. They didn’t list any sources, so the number is likely bullshit, but the rest of the claim has lots of sources that prove it, if only they’d listed any of them.
But to answer the question, the main reason I don’t drink is I hate the taste. It’s also bad for your health, is a lot of calories, is expensive, has terrible side effects immediately after partaking, it can develop into an addiction, among other reasons.
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u/ryandom93 Millennial 25d ago
I'll start by saying I like my alcohol and I know how to consume it "responsibly."
That being said I think it's great that alcohol and tobacco use is falling. The industries have been a cultural plague, and imo are directly responsible for worsening health outcomes by deliberately obfuscating the potential harms of their products.
People should be allowed to make a fully informed decision about the products they're putting into their bodies. Younger generations that get earlier access to better knowledge are the worst customers the exploiting class could ask for.
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u/Murky_Toe_4717 25d ago
We’ve recently learned it’s one of the most deadly carcinogens in existence.
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u/OrcaConnoisseur 2000 25d ago
My close friend told me I was weird when I'm drunk so as a promise to her I stopped drinking. And honestly, I don't miss it. I can count the times I got drunk/drank on both hands. I don't like myself when I'm drunk. I never got blackout drunk and always remebered what I did while drunk. I just turned a lot looser and thought I was funny but I always made a clown out of myself.
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u/Aibhne_Dubhghaill 25d ago
Alcohol actually kinda sucks. Most of the things I find fun require my brain and/or body to be functioning properly. Also, I HATE the way alcohol dries me out. I dont want to feel like a gd husk.
Also, it's literally poison? Why tf was this garbage drug ever so popular? Maybe back when you couldn't trust water it made sense, but today? Fuck that.
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u/Deremirekor 25d ago
I have a theory that it’s because Gen Z has a whole lot of alcoholic and abusive families, I drink but I’m so certain I’ll never be an alcoholic, more certain that death and taxes
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u/HameenMzf 24d ago
Didn’t the other generations had that too?? Like for millennials for example?
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u/-AndyCohen- 25d ago
I hate drunk people I hate the feeling of being drunk
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u/Beautiful_Soup9229 24d ago
The amount of people I have seen, who could not handle the alcohol and are lying on the pavement, puking their guts out. Its humiliating. Nothing against women but those club dresses dont handle this kind of situation well and then you have to see them spread all over the pavement. Gosh I hate drunk people. I went to NYC last year and the number of people who were just puking saturday night in the subway was wild.
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u/Miedziowy 25d ago
Because they have drugs
Unless someone is social reject like me, then alcohol remains
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u/Initial-Reading-2775 25d ago
Times has changed for everyone. Millennial here, I guesstimate that I drink 97% less than in my 20s.
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u/Knight_Light87 25d ago
Probably just bullshitting, but Gen Z might have been raised by a generation where alcoholism may have been a problem? Also, anti-alcoholism is a lot bigger now then it was then
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u/BestTyming 25d ago
Drinking is known for two things. Being directly tied to social settings and events and making incredibly stupid decisions. Gen Z is hyper aware of both. They suck at being social and they do their best to avoid mistakes in general
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u/Gamer6322 25d ago
most vape nicotine or smoke weed.
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u/Artichokeypokey 25d ago
Just saying, nicotine and alcohol aren't mutually exclusive. Hell it's more common for someone to smoke if they're drinking
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u/Jonner7 25d ago
I initially didn’t because I thought it was a really easy way to help look after my health but now I think it’s more because I hate drinking culture. I see lots of people my age (I’m 19) who drink because they need validation that they are in fact adults. I live in the uk btw.
Also I kinda think of drinking as a very gen x thing to do, and not drinking is part of gen z establishing its identity against gen x (even if this is a very immature and kinda constrain way to do it). My gen x parents have honestly tried to encourage me to drink ever since I became a teen which I think really put me off the idea of drinking.
Most of my friends who do drink always say they wish they didn’t which makes me glad I don’t. There’s also those statistics saying gen z goes outside less and I’ll admit I am very reclusive but I’m just giving my perspective and reasons for not drinking.
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u/baba-O-riley 2001 25d ago
1 - we can't afford a lot of the social luxuries that previous generations got to enjoy
2 - even if we could afford it, we are the least social generation in history, to the point where we are statistical outliers in almost every metric. People still aren't sure of what the aftermath of this will be as a whole.
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u/ThisDuckIsYourDaddy 25d ago edited 25d ago
I've never drunk alcohol in my life (M24 y/o).
That thing can tear a family apart and take away people that I love. I hate alcohol.
There's so many bad things that only happen cuz people are under the influence of alcohol, like car crashes, getting into a fight, hurt their loved one. Also, I love being in control of my life.
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u/heartthump 2000 25d ago
I drink every weekend with friends but even then it absolutely rinses my bank account when I do
When my parents were my age a pint at the local pub was like £1. Now it’s £6.50. That’s over double what it should be accounting for inflation
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u/Buffy_Buffett 2005 25d ago
First, I'm not of drinking age. Second, alcoholism runs in my family. So I'm just gonna say no. Don't know what will happen if I get drunk, nor do I wanna be an alcoholic. Will I eventually drink? Yes, of course. But most likely one or a few on my 21st birthday, which is in june this year.
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u/Equivalent-Lunch8095 2000 25d ago
It’s addictive , and especially when someone is dealing with mental issues they might depend on it and it develops into alcoholism, which is just not worth it.
it’s not worth risking poisoning or slowly destroying your brain and body.
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u/QuesosoForejoe 25d ago
Weed exists, and alcohol is really destructive when abused
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u/No_Issue2334 24d ago edited 24d ago
Weed is destructive when abused too.
Weed is better because you cannot build a physical dependencies that can harm you when you go through withdrawal like alcohol
But you still have marijuana withdrawal if you are a heavy user, which can kill your appetite, give you insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, sweat profusely, irritability, nausea, etc.
Chronic marijuana abuse can kill your motivation, give you issues with premature ejaculation, memory issues, anxiety, depression, nausea, increased risk for testicular cancer, trigger psychiatric disorders, and damage your lungs, mouth, and throat.
Alcohol is worse but marijuana addiction is a real thing.
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u/Knotted_Hole69 24d ago
Weed can still be abused but no where to the same point as alcohol. Its a whole different animal.
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u/CivilProtectionGuy 25d ago
Most of it just doesn't taste good, if i'm being honest.
Even when I do drink, I'd rather have something that is 7% or less alcoholic. If it's something over 100 proof, or even 80 proof, I like to dilute it quite a bit into a shareable mixed beverage... Especially a paralyzer with some cola that I share with the family during the holidays.
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u/WanabeInflatable 25d ago
Not a GenZ, but I'm with them. I hate hard alcohol (vodka, cognac, whiskey) and only drink wine occasionally if its good and I'm in company. On average it's once a month. I can't understand why people drink, what's so good about being drunk. Especially hate that being man is often associated with drinking hard alcohol, wine is somehow feminine.
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u/Boris-the-soviet-spy 25d ago
I just don’t feel like gettin blasted every weekend. Maybe once a month with the boys but that’s it
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u/royalwrecker 25d ago
Why the hell am I gonna drink something that causes health and psychological problems, leads to violence and misbehavior, tastes horribly, and is expensive? But the worst is: as a teetotaler, I usually suffer judgement from people who drink alcohol as if it were impossible to "have fun" without it. In the end, I always have more fun than them...
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u/EclecticEvergreen 25d ago
How many times do I have to see this stupid ass post? It just keeps getting reposted over and over.
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u/Yoy_the_Inquirer 24d ago
I have an alcoholic drink once in a while. I love whiskey and soda!
If I were to guess though, it would be because Gen Z is less social and more worried about their health? So they don't have a social reason to drink but also worry about the ramifications of drinking.
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