Millennials think getting drunk is pathetic and embarrassing

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I read something about this the other day

metro.co.uk/2017/09/27/millennials-think-getting-drunk-is-pathetic-and-embarrassing-6958560/

I'm "late millenial", I presume this survey is more from those at the other end. Being early 30s I have friends on both sides of the bordering generations; I must admit, if I scroll down my Facebook newsfeed on an average weekend, I see more photos of my 37-45 year old friends getting hammered than I do of friends in their 20s. Drunken selfies, videos of them being raucous, pictures pretending to grope each other, blurry pics - it does come across a bit cringey at times.

I think that millennials get a hard time and called narcissists (and sometimes that's deserved), but I do think there's a generation in the "born in the 70s, with kids under 13, middle class" category whose decorum on social media could give millennials a run for their money at times
I realise that's a sweeping statement but that's based on my own personal experience so I hope it doesn't cause offence.

I was talking to a guy in his forties who travels a lot and he said he'd noticed that "kids" in their twenties these days all seem really homogenous.
This. I was a teen in the 90s and remember you had different tribes, Oasis or Blur, Dance or Garage, Nikes or Converse, etc... There was a clear distinction between teenagers/young adults & grown ups. They all look the same now.

Margaret Your point 3 is defo true. I was never a big drinker & very rarely got drunk but loved clubbing etc. At uni we would all roll out of bed into the greasy spoon at midday. I'm up early these days (young kids) & all I see on Saturday mornings are youngsters in lycra drinking green juices. 😒 My millennial sister is now a vegan, who wears leather.

But surely your early 20s is when you should be making mistakes/learning/letting your hair down but if your a tee total clean eater who works really hard & gets their 8 hours every night you will burn out by your 30s when the real responsibility of mortgages, careers, kids etc. hits.

Draylon I think to a certain extent uni's are becoming a production line factory of conformity. They seem to be increasing a case of tow the SU party line or get out. They seem to be less about exploring different perspectives and asking questions. Some subjects and uni's more than offers granted. I do feel sorry for millenials because it seems (granted for my perpective) a dull, highly (self) policed (especially in terms of speach and thought) and pressurised generation.

There has been a societal shift, with young people not drinking as much as older people. While it's easy to come up with anecdotes about young people you know drinking, recent statistics do show this is the case.

I feel sorry for millennials, not only do they have poorer job prospects/fewer opportunities for home ownership, they've also inherited a mess of a planet from a bunch of people who by and large would rather ignore calls to to eat less meat/drive less/change their lifestyles. Which is why (also borne out by figures) so many of them are actively trying to make a difference on this front.

Yes the 20's is a time to explore.You are right when kids comes along, various ways of exploring really go out the window, or become much harder. And stuff really does not make you happy.

They're nice kids, all of them, but there's something lacking, they're so afraid of failing, they seem neutered in some way.

I agree with this, but I think it's something we've really instilled in them and should take responsibility for. The university students I see are so incredibly scared of failure, but I think that's in part because they've been told endlessly that this is a critical (and very expensive) opportunity and that they will never ever get a good job unless they do everything exactly right, get a first and all the best work experience, etc., etc. I'm not that old (early 30s) but I feel like there was much more of sense that it was ok to sort of bumble along for a bit when I was that age. Now it all seems so cut-throat, so 'get it right first time or fail forever'. It may well be true, of course - I was doing my PhD when the financial crash of 2008 happened, and I noticed from email lists how instantly the graduate recruitment events for the undergrads dried up, and I think that massively changed the atmosphere for them.

It's actually quite sad & a lot of it driven by the cost of houses/living.

Millenials seem to be caught in an educational arms race that many of them can't win. With so many going to university these days just having a degree is no longer cutting it. Plus many of the low middle white collar pen pushing jobs that used to be a guaranteed post grad jobs have gone. So there is more and more pressure to not just pass but get the top grades. A university education is a commodity rapidly deprceasiating in value in terms of employment. But dispite this people are still being told it the way to a well paid job, like it was for baby boomers. Result a generation who have a degree, a mountain of student debt and a zero hours contract job in sports direct. At the same time the universities and landlords in university cities are making a mint. I think it's all a bit of a con and the millenials are the victims.

I'm sat here drawing two threads together and wondering if there might be a link.

Bringing up my children I always was aware of a pressure to be constantly praising. Because it is good for their self confidence. Always use positive language. Seek the good things and comment on them, and ignore the bad where possible.

I wonder, now, if that creates people who are afraid of not being praised. If the 5 year old was never told "actually, that wasn't what I wanted you to do" but was always instead told "Well, I can see you made a lot of effort on this"... How do we expect them to cope with getting things wrong as they get older? We haven't let them practise acknowledging they have made a mistake and moving on from it....

I know this is a little off topic, but the thread just made me think.

They're a generation who have nothing to rebel against. Their parents were ravers and they see the older generation as being irresponsible in many ways - with the planet, their own health. They're going the other way.

I wonder, now, if that creates people who are afraid of not being praised. If the 5 year old was never told "actually, that wasn't what I wanted you to do" but was always instead told "Well, I can see you made a lot of effort on this"... How do we expect them to cope with getting things wrong as they get older? We haven't let them practise acknowledging they have made a mistake and moving on from it....

My therapist says that this is indeed a thing (that I have). But there is also no known way of parenting that produces children with no issues whatsoever, so if you're about to start beating yourself up about it then don't! They fuck you up, your mum and dad...

When I was younger, housing was a massive issue in places. We had the squatting movement and people travelling around living in benders. I can't imagine people doing that now.

Not in my town they're not! They're getting p@ssed up and could do an entire series of Binge Britain on their own. Maybe it's just thatbthe ones who aren't are so bloody noisy about it - he millennials I know really do seem think the world owes them and is sooo interested in their latest detox or whatever - and are all over social media bragging about it. I had one 27 year old in the office the other day trying to share so 'life tips' with me that he'd found in a book that I'd read 20 years ago! Jog on fella, hell will be freezing over before I take life lessons from a man-boy half my age!

Just another example maybe of the more restrictive atmosphere the millenials live with is motoring. The only half affordable motor insurance is with using a telemetrics device. How many over 30s have car insurance with telemetrics? So even when driving the millenials are heavily pressured to drive far more conservatively than their predecessors. Not saying it's a bad thing and is probably saving life's but it is another example of how they are growing up in a more restrictive and regulated environment.

To be fair their whole childhood has been the most risk adverse, regulated and mollycoddled childhoods of any generation. I wonder if that has had an effect on the independence, willingness to take risks, sense of rebellion and sense of adventure of millenials?

They are more likely to be subject of poor terms and conditions in work. So much so they find them self in very weak possition to do anything about it. They seem to be being conditioned to be obideient little workers and consumers from all angles. I think in many ways they are being oppressed and neutered. Even in universities there is more pressure than ever to tow the political party line.

And maybe the milenials in general are more entitled. Despite the disadvantages of the world for them they are probabley more privaliged than any other generation in terms of their childhood. Whatever the perception of the baby boomers is they didnt have it easy. Atleast not my family. Yes university was free but the demographic was far smaller and the numbers going was far less. Grammar schools were still a big thing. Although they offered the possibility of social mobility of smart working class kids they genrally just reinforced the social structure. University was really not for the likes of working class families like mine. So free university's was mainly just a good freebie to higher earning families. It was not that long ago. I am 33 and my parents remember living in houses with a shared toilet for the housing block in the back garden. My mum would have to sleep upstairs with the hanging meat caucuses when she would stay at her grandparents. My parents secured a good future but it was grafted for. They had no expectations of their parents or state handing it on a plate. The where also a lot less driven by consumerism.

My mum would have to sleep upstairs with the hanging meat caucus

The food safety measures were a bit lax too.

Ime middle-aged adults need to think that they were the true free spirits and that their joie de vivre, in their young days, was real joie de vivre.

There's a bit in a Dorothy Sayers novel where Lord Peter Wimsey speculates sadly on the poor regulated and hygienic generation that is coming after him. What he means, of course, is that he resents being past it.

makeourfuture they clearly were in 1950s rural Yorkshire. I think any parent today would freak out at the prospect. But back then you needed somewhere to hang the swine you slaughtered. I suppose my generation and even more so the millenials have lived a sheltered and comfortable life. Don't get me started on my grand parents generation, they really had it tough (and that's without the war). One of my grandmas grew up on the barges transporting coal. A whole family living in a shoesboxed sized room on a barge, never staying put for long. Treated by people as the lowest of the low. Being refused education and being treated as scum by pupils and teachers alike at every school they attended.

The heaviest drinkers on nights out from my workplace are in their 50s upwards - they have less responsibilities & higher disposable income.

I don't drink myself but I enjoy being in the company of those who do as it's fun.

Afaik the doctors (of all ages) drink a lot on nights out and so do the younger student nurses.

It's the mum's in their late 20s up with young kids who don't drink much I find.

My sister is 38 and binge drinks on nights out but she's trying to cut down - she's now been alcohol free for 25 days!! I'm pleased for her.

Draylon that's an interesting point. A lot of the people I work with are in their 40/50s. I know a fair few of them who still go on holiday with their kids late teen/early 20s. My brother stopped going on family holidays at 14 because it was lame and I joined the forces as soon a I left school. Millenials seem to be very reluctant to cut the apron strings.

Millenials cannot drink and be silly because they will get filmed and it will be on the internet.
Agree there is a drive to all look similar and overly made up. Again they are photographed a lot.
It is a material generation so I am not surprised they are suffering since I don't know how they will pay for it all.

Here’s the report from which these stats were taken.

drive.google.com/file/d/0ByM0V4NkNyHsekJrWTNkaTZfUDA/view

Millenials cannot drink and be silly because they will get filmed and it will be on the internet.

This is bang on! My Niece is 21 and is - I think - the first generation to have grown up with everything online, with social media since they were children, with everything being followed, tweeted, hashtagged and streamed. I'm 36 and as a teen and at Uni very little of my shenanigans were online, if any. She's 15 years younger but her social media presence has been there since she started High School. That awareness and self-consciousness has led her generation to be far more cautious and far more limited. Children in her class while she was doing A Level streamed directly to Facebook in the middle of lessons; one video was of a teacher ripping a kid to shreds for something he'd done; the video went all over social media and the teacher ended up resigning her post.

Selfishly, I'm thrilled to have been able to be a typical teen/attend Uni without that added level of pressure and expectation.

This. I was a teen in the 90s and remember you had different tribes, Oasis or Blur, Dance or Garage, Nikes or Converse, etc... There was a clear distinction between teenagers/young adults & grown ups. They all look the same now.

I think that's where the identity politics kicks in.

Saying you're not really in to sleeping around makes you sound repressed and 50sesque but say you're "demiromantic" and you're sex positive and cool.

"gender non conforming" because you're a man with lip gloss on when in the 80s that wouldn't have got a second glance because the boys were dressing like Boy George.

It's like they're trying to look interesting without putting the work in.