To ask when did The Young stop going to DISCOS

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Lovely DD (16) is sat here beside us watching Netflix. When I was her age (in the 70s/80s) I would have either been at a disco or in the pub. Obviously, now young people have to produce id to get served, the latter is out but I think it's a bit sad the young don't go to discos.

Did you go? What do your teens do on a Saturday night?

@VioletCharlotte

My DS are 22 and 20. Neither can be bothered with clubbing anymore. They used to go pre COVID, but now prefer going to the pub or chilling indoors, having drinks with friends. It was different back in the 90s as you could get into clubs at 16, plus it was much cheaper to go out then. I remember when it used to be free entry and £1 a pint before 11!

Not a criticism of your kids but this whole 'chilling' thing I find really dispiriting. This is the age and stage where people should have loads of energy and verve. Chilling from what exactly? At their age I worked in a physical job and still had loads of energy for being in busy bars, clubbing etc. It all looks very dull to me!

Have just asked DD if all her friends spend their weekends at home, as she does, and apparently yes they do. She can see their whereabouts on SnapChat.
I have wondered in the past if she was being left out of gatherings, but it seems not.
I think that lockdowns and staying at home has become ingrained now and it will take a lot of effort on all our parts to undo this.
Discos/nightclubs aside, socialising in the 21st century is a world away from what we experienced.

@ManifestDestinee

'sDid nobody go to roller discos in the 90's?

Never in the 90s but I do 2 or 3 times a week now.

I am 50 and discos were always shit. I did very little until I hit 6th form and started going to pubs and clubs.
My kids have never liked school discos either - they said the music was rubbish and all they did was eat crisps in the toilets with their mates, for 2 hours, then be forced to do the macarena before hometime.

My 17 year old went to a rave last night in London 😬
he's just texted me to say he's alive

People also don’t need to go out to clubs (discos) meet the opposite sex others thanks to apps

How does that work then?

The thought of only meeting people via an app is just depressing

@milian

Haven’t they just been renamed “clubs”? Some 16 year olds are definitely still going to them, maybe it depends on your area …

No. We had the Youth Club Disco every Friday night at one YC, and every 2nd Thursday at another. Then there were various Discos in aid of certain charitable causes set up pretty much every Saturday night, some had Live bands - always local groups covering often quite appallingly the latest hits yet were almost always a sell out and we always had a choice of 2 or 3 to go to most weekends. Every now and then (summer months mostly as people on holiday) we'd not have one to go to.

I think it's sad for young ones today. My 16 yo DS plays football (in the dark quite a lot...kicking a ball round the unlit park with a couple of mates) and then they wander the streets of our small town and maybe get chips if the chippy is open.

Either that, or they shout at each other online from their bedrooms over Fifa/Call of Duty. It seems to me to be a 'virtual' existence and I'm not sure how they get to meet anyone for 'romance'.

We were down the local pub about 7.00pm every Friday night, drinking 'Red Witches' (Pernod and Black in half a sweet cider if you're not of my "sophisticated" generation) and then into the disco in the back room til midnight. I lived for my Friday nights.

In the winter we went to discos at a Country Club about 8 miles away and drunkenly blagged a lift home with a strange lad, usually. In the summer we went to discos at the hotel up on the beach and drunkenly blagged a lift home with someone who was going your way.

I really enjoyed my teenage years.

In the 90's when I was a teen we didn't go to discos we went clubbing. Disco was an incredibly uncool word and only something that a school would arrange.

1985!

I was a teen in the 90s. Drank and smoked regularly from the age of 14 hanging around the streets with my mates.. After school and weekends (i was never home). Then clubbing/raving from age 17 upwards. Im glad my teenager isn't getting up to the drinking and smoking but it makes me so sad that she's always home with me. She saw a friend from school in person once during the summer holidays. They are all at home on social media. And so many of them are suffering with mental health disorders. They should be out with friends, away from parents and having fun whilst they are still carefree

@nancy75

The thought of only meeting people via an app is just depressing

Isn’t it though.

I’m quite old, so my dancing heyday was the 70s and early 80s - genuinely the golden age of disco. From schooldays there was always something going on at a youth club, or a community centre or some social club so dancing every weekend from 15 years old I’d say. When we were older we went to what would later be called nightclubs every week, sometimes twice. This was also the advent of the pub with dance floor, so we’d go there on Sundays too. I had a great time. Someone up thread said it was joyous. It was exactly that.

@nancy75

The thought of only meeting people via an app is just depressing

I wish that the most of my dating experience didn't involve online dating.

Like had the opportunity to meet guys in bars & clubs more

I was 16 in 1996 and was not aware of any discos, other than those that took place in primary schools. At 16 we were dancing and getting drunk at house parties and the beach. Then at 17 we started going to pubs and clubs.

The closest I experienced to a disco was sometimes the village hall would put on a "disco" with a tuck shop and DJ. Wouldn't have interested 16yo though. More geared for 10-13 year olds I think. When I was 16 the choices were: house parties, get drunk in the park/a field, get hold of fake ID somehow (usually this was achieved by people with older siblings, I don't know how they did it tbh) and go to the pub or attend general birthday parties with water bottles full of vodka. I wasn't much of a drinker as a teen so I was often just at home on a Saturday. I didn't mind! Thoroughly enjoyed the clubs and pubs when I got to uni though

Valleys South Wales mid to late 80's. There was a disco in a club/social club nearly every night of the week, the best being on a Sunday. We danced (as girls) and the joy if someone asked you to dance, or even better walk you home.
Nothing better than ending the weekend with a snog.
My 2 DC's now early 20's spent their evenings out doing sport, seeing friends or watching tv in the house. They really only started going out once they'd turned 17/18.
My 18 SS plays (til all hours) on his Xbox and only now is going out to pubs. I don't think he's ever gone clubbing or to a disco.

I was 16 early 2000s; it was gigs, house parties or gathering on the beach or in a field. There were a few pubs you could get served in before they brought in the 'challenge 25' thing or we would get someone older to buy us some booze. I find it hard to believe teens spend all their time with parents now but admit I haven't a clue what they do as I don't know any

I think it's tempting to think we had better times than the youth of today... But I remember in the 1980s/1990s, people having definite nostalgia for the 1960s and thinking that's when times were really good...pity so many nightclubs have been shut down though.

There are plenty of weed smoking, vodka swilling teens hanging out around our village. That's not the youth I think my DD and her friends are missing out on. And nor do they. Hopefully, now they're at Sixth Form college opportunities will arise. If not then there's university and beyond.

But I do think they've been socially deprived by not having discos 1970s/80s style

I'm of a similar era to a few upthread (16 in 2000), and for us there were school discos, village hall discos for various events, and a local club offering