Is the tide finally turning on the British drinking culture?

[Moonpig82]

I’ve not drank in 6 months and I don’t miss it!

Article from the BBC today about Pryzm nightclubs but one of the factors surrounding their closure is how young people are spending their money and time differently, alongside the lack of interest in drinking.

When I was a student it was all about the £1 shots, VodBull, sessions before we went out! 🤢

Our poor livers! Really hope drinking is really not a thing at all when my DC are older.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68295306

They are all stoned instead of drinking.

@Hoglet70 plenty got stoned when I was at uni too! The only people I know who smoke weed now are in their 40s and 50s.

I really hope so!!!! We’ve (not all of us) been conditioned in this country for decades to rely on alcohol for a good time from a young age.

I hate the drinking culture in this country.

It’s expensive and shit.

They aren’t smoking weed. They are doing those canister things

It's been changing for some time, I think a confluence of a few things.

One is social media - in 'our day' some people might see a photo of you passed out drunk and fully clothed in someone's bath and laugh about it; you don't want that on social media.

Two is just I think it isn't seen as big and clever anymore, and quite right too, it never was (personally I was always too much of a control freak to get blind drunk). I don't think this means young people are 'boring', there's nothing inherently interesting about being drunk.

Three, because of all of the above, just not seeming socially necessary. My oldest is 15 and doesn't fancy the idea of getting pissed, nor like the taste of alcohol very much.

Yes but isn’t drugs/ vapes replacing it in young people.

Yes, but it's not stoned on actual cannabis, it's heavy use of cocaine, synthetic opiods, synthetic cannabinoids (which are nothing like cannabis in their effects on the human brain and body) and ketamine.

Not sure that heavy drug use is better for anyone versus alcohol.

I see the conditioning of a couple of nieces, starting with cocktails and Prosecco around 13/14 I don’t see the need!

I do hope so. I have to say I work at a university and live in a student area and students most definitely do drink. I see drunken students on pub crawls all the time! However if there is a general reduction in drinking amongst young people then that's good. My generation drank and still drinks too much. I have friends in their 40s and 50s who still drink to excess and can't have a good night out without getting drunk. I think it's sad and obviously very bad for the health.

I do think the tide is turning. I have a friendship group with a wide age range - typically the women mid 20s to late 30s opt for non alcoholic beers, 0% fizz etc or may have a couple of cocktails at most on a night out (well, afternoon out). Its the women in the group who are closer to their 60s who still want to do the big friday / Saturday nights out, skip the food and don't think it's a successful night out unless they roll into bed at 2am hammered.

I'm generalising; and obviously my circle isn't indicative of everyone circle, but my siblings circles are the same - there is a big difference is how/when socialising happens compared to our parents generation.

Young people don't need to hang around parks drinking cider anymore for social contact, they can stay at home sober and Snapchat instead.

I honestly think this is a massive factor

I hope so. My life would have been better if I hadn't drank through my 30s, habits learned from my teens. I think a lot of teens are quite puritanical and judges these days which is the down side. Thinking of teenage neices and nephews who spend most of their life offended or anticipating offence and judging over 25s if they drink, smoke or have an opinion about gender which isn't theirs 😀

With the onset of “fitness model” like instagram influencers, and “clean eating” diets and veganism… young people are now working out and eating plants, instead of starving themselves and smoking as they did in the 90s.

It’s become cooler to be healthy. It’s become socially unacceptable to have a beer belly, 6 packs abdomens and the gym have replaced 6 packs of beer and the pub.

I saw a student with a traffic cone on his head recently in my local uni city and felt nostalgic; they just don't do that any more, so retro 😂

My own teen isn't remotely interested in drinking, at their age we would get drunk secretly whenever possible.. Talking to other parents locally whose kids went to a festival, it was cannabis and ketamine that other festival goers were on, which seems so much worse to me than drinking.

Weekends seem to be about recharging in their own space nowadays, not wading through a series of pubs in a big group like we did in the early 2000's.

Wednesday night is union night at the uni near where I live, and I can report from the late night yelling, popped out windscreen wipers and pavement pizzas in the local area that young people definitely are still drinking - some of them anyway.

I think what's changed is everyone is brassick so most doing their drinking at home instead of paying over the odds in clubs. I suppose th diversification of musical taste facilitated by streaming services is at play here too - when I was young, we all went to Po Na Nas or Mercy and got battered and then leapt around screaming the lyrics to Mr Brightside and all the other hits of the moment we all knew - apart from the ubiquitous Swift, who is around now that all the kids love?

I do think social media does play a part though. Young folk curate their image so much on socials, especially young women, the editing of photos, the wearing of makeup that looks bizarre in real life but plays perfectly to a touched up selfie - who wants a shaky video of you with your hair mucked up and your eyeliner running, cackling and talking shite with your friends, to undercut all that performative glamour?

I think it's a bit sad though. Not that they're not getting pissed as such, but that there is so much focus on how they appear.

@LamonicBibber1 not to derail my own thread I shared a house with 3 rugby players at uni and the stuff that would happen and the number of trollies and cones we found in our student house back yard 😂.

I guess nowadays I’m finding my relatives in their 20s keener on yoga, strength training and saving to travel.

My early 20s DD has stopped going to clubs, 2 reasons the very real danger of being spiked
Random men filming young women even if asked not to.

Yes the lack of SM we could be ourselves!!!

I think what's changed is everyone is brassick so most doing their drinking at home instead of paying over the odds in clubs.
This. Drinks (and not just alcohol) in licensed premises are ridiculously expensive.

@Lilyhatesjaz that’s awful!

Many students live at home these days. Too expensive to live in Halls etc.

Harder to roll home shitfaced when M&D are waiting for you.

How on earth can you equate vaping to drinking?

The young people I know, in the 20-25 group do still drink. But house parties cocktail bars etc.

I think it's the COL and also new outlets to have fun. When I was that age, outside of major cities there wasn't much to do other than drink.

I think it’s the cost. My DD will sometimes sneak a decanted cider into a venue disguised as a metal water bottle because she can’t afford the £7.00 for a pint!

The rise in alcohol cost is a public policy choice to reduce drinking. Maybe it's working - good if so.

My DS doesn't drink at all, my DD very rarely. CoL has something to do with it too. DS is very much into being healthy.

Dh and I don't drink either, so maybe that has something to do with it. Prefer to spend my money on other things.