To wonder why the young people don't enjoy drinking alcohol

The expense?

It costs a fortune, doesn’t taste that great, and everyone films it when you do something stupid.

Many at uni don't seem to drink it that much. They just don't seem that interested.

I don’t know where these kids are. My children are at university and they and their friends seem to do pretty well with drinking alcohol. And they have the tales to tell….🤷🏼‍♀️

My ds is 18 and doesn't drink. We don't so he wasn't brought up around it. We obviously gave him the choice and he's chosen not to. Some of his friends drink but none of them are interested in weed, pills or coke. They have full lives, jobs/education /interests and enjoy going to the gym.

Booze is expensive nowadays compared to 15 years ago.

can’t get a £1 drink anymore- it’s more like £8 for a drink so they don’t drink as much

My 20 year old does have a drink sometimes but doesn't seem overly bothered either way.

I very rarely drink alcohol, when I did drink a bit more at university it often used to make me feel depressed rather than happy so over time I just lost interest.

Plus I find the whole culture around it very strange. To not be able to enjoy a meal or an outing without it?

I’ve always thought it was because they look at my generation and think what a bunch of sad fuckers. My daughter’s partner is mid 20s and had to fly miles to be at his Dad’s funeral today which may be alcohol related, they don’t know yet Think DD is very relieved we don’t drink much these days.

Also alcohol tastes a bit shit when you first take try it and DS certainly can’t understand why people even try to get used to it knowing what it can do to you.

It's like smoking, it's seen as old fashioned

It's means you lose control

It's expensive

It ages you

It gives you a hangover

I can empathise, OP. Perimenopausal and my body seems to have lost its ability to process some things, one of them being alcohol. I've really cut back but it's the glass of wine with my dinner that I miss, or as I'm cooking. Once it's part of your routine it's hard to break the habit, even if it's not an actual addiction. My generation grew up watching Keith Flloyd swigging back the wine as he was cooking on telly. Everyone Corry or Eastenders seemed to have a pint after work. It was just normal but we had to overdo it, didn't we, not like our continental chums.

Young people now have grown up with influencers showing them the latest healthy eating or exercising fad (remember spiralisers?!), they're not watching videos on wine tasting, are they? But mainly I think it's cost.

People routinely used to chew tobacco in the early 19th century. We shrink back in horror at the very idea of that now. Young people now don't tend to take up smoking as much as when I was young, they can't believe that for their parents' generation smoking in workplaces and restaurants and on transport was routine, and even during pregnancy. I think that eventually it will be the same with alcohol. We'll look back and can't imagine that it was ever so commonplace to ingest such a toxic substance into our bodies, and that socialising revolved around it.

I spawned a rugby lad, unfortunately they love a drink. I used to have to go out to pick him up armed with towels and a bucket.

More to do now without getting smashed and making terrible decisions!

I studied this for an assignment for one of my MBA modules. Younger generations are embracing the sober curious movement. Gen Z and, to a lesser extent Millennials, are driving the increased sales in low and non-alcoholic drink alternatives. Millennials and Gen Z are not only increasingly health conscious but are also generally financially savvy with considerable purchasing power. Interest in non-alcoholic offerings has increased as flavours and options have improved and they tend to be very discerning as consumers and focussed on drinking smarter, drinking less.

The non/low alcohol drinks market is a huge growth opportunity for drinks manufacturers. Although interestingly, in August Manchester’s only alcohol-free bar announced its closure after being open less than a year. After lots of customers during dry January, once the warm weather arrived, along with the Euros, no one wanted to have their night out in a dry venue.

I routinely assess a lot of young adults and they generally dont drink or are moderate drinkers. They are definitely more moderate in alcohol & substance consumption than those older than them. Don’t have a binge pattern of consumption

It pretties it up doesn't it? A glass of wine sounds so elegant. Not so elegant for the liver 5 days a week.

An evening meal is so crap without a glass

Maybe you need to start eating meals that aren’t crap.

My son (aged 15) says it's a myth that young people don't like alcohol. He doesn't drink, but lots of his mates do, same as I did with my mates back in the 90s.

😂😂😂😂😂😂

An evening meal is so crap without a glass

Why, is your food really bad?

Well done on going sober for a while.

They are using drugs!!! My DH is a bus driver, brought late teens / early 20s to a concert recently. Usually he goes around with bin bags after collecting cans from whatever they had been drinking. Hardly any cans to be collected at all, but a number of little bags!

This.

I've had a love/hate relationship with alcohol (now drink perhaps 0-3 times a year now, which has been my status quo for the past 10 years), but I didn't initially start drinking until halfway through university due to being utterly repelled by growing up with alcoholic parents. (They weren't alcoholics though because they "only drank wine" 🙄).

The young people I know are more focused on health, they exercise a lot.

I don’t drink, I don’t get the fascination. Wine tastes of vinegar. Horrible stuff.

I'm a secondary school teacher and lots of things have declined since I started 20 years ago- fewer drink, smoke cigarettes, no teenage pregnancies for years. Fewer go out a lot. More trying to save for uni.

But- more anxiety, more computer time in isolation, more vape use.

Weed is probably easier to get hold of if you are under 18