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

[OptimismvsRealism]

I mean I know some people have always not really liked it but why as a generation do they feel differently about it?

(Come to mind because I've decided to go sober for a few weeks and it's NO FUN and I want to know their secret).

Bad memories of drunk adults or prefer clean living and health

yanbu although my teenage sons didn’t seem to get the alcohol free memo. But generally I think you are right.
i think they live very different lives - more to do at home, more ways to communicate with their contemporaries that doesn’t revolve around bars/pubs, more conscious of their health? The gym seems quite a social focus.

Why should they?
Nothing positive about alcohol (taboo on MN, I know).

I mean I go to the gym and I care about my health but I just think a glass of wine is the bee's knees

Oh wine :(

They seem to prefer drugs: weed, pills, coke.

All mine seem to love indulging. Not met any that don't

I don’t know about UK, but where I live alcohol use has gone down with young people, but sadly drug use has gone up.
Could that be a reason over there too?
Or are they full sober (that would a really good and healthy choice, if they did).

An evening meal is so crap without a glass

Why am I giving it up if I don't think it's that bad u ask. Well I'm wondering if it's messing with my hormones a bit so it's an experiment really. I believe a little is probably healthier than none.

My YP don’t like the taste and can’t see the point in preserving to learn to like something that is a neurotoxin. They give me the side eye when I have a glass of wine (at most twice a week). My dad had a long illness and nasty death due to over consumption of alcohol which may be colouring their view (and changed my attitude). They may change in the future. I find when I drink my anxiety goes through the roof so that helps me moderate. YP also really hate unpredictable people (drunks) and are slightly phobic about puking so not so much appeal for them. Also very few in their social circles drink so no peer pressure.

Drinking alcohol is pathetic.

I wish my 18 year old didn’t like it.

i don’t drink am over 3 years sober now

I just never really enjoyed it personally. It's expensive and makes you feel like crap the next day. I was never bothered about going out sober, would dance longer and harder than the rest of them and be up fresh as a lark in the morning with money for breakfast.

I'm not teetotal. I guess I do drink a bit seasonally. I.e. a glass of Pimm's or a cold beer means it's summer, when it gets cold get the Bailey's out and maybe mull some wine!!! But one is enough.

Possibly because the generation above them enjoyed it a little too much.

I think there's an emphasis on self-care and healthy lifestyle, whereas drinking to the excess that previous generations did is the antithesis to this.

There's probably also an element of growing up under the glare of smart phones and social media, once recorded and uploaded it's there forever. I can understand why you'd want to avoid that embarrassment.

Camera phones everywhere on nights out mean any stupid drunken antics/snogs get posted all over social media. Young people can never really ‘let go’ on a night out because the evidence lives forever on the internet.

Thank fuck I did all my stupid shit before Facebook/insta/TikTok.

Some of them like it, but they're sensible about it, know how to have fun without excess alcohol, plus they aren't rolling in spare money.

I'm 32. I was tipsy once, I didn't like it and felt out of control.
I also don't like the taste of anything, not beer, cocktails, or vodka or wine
I don't see the point, but I'm a curl up with a book and some chocolate kind of person.

Most young people still drink alcohol. They very possibly drink more at home due to cost, and drink in different places to you when they do go out with friends, hence giving you the impression when you go out that young people don’t drink, but the percentage of young people who don’t drink at all has only increased by a few percentage points in the last few decades.

Anecdotally, among the people I know who have vehemently chosen to give up alcohol (other than for religious reasons) only a handful are people who I’d say were more or less completely “healthy.” A lot of them seem to have been sucked into the wellbeing movement, struggle with their mental health constantly, eternally focussed on trying to improve something about themselves and their lives and never seeming to quite reach a point of contentment - which ultimately also seems to be a fairly destructive mindset and way of living. Do stuff in moderation and learn to be happy in your own skin.

Weed has largely replaced alcohol for young people, so that's one reason. Socialising in the pub has also died a death and loads of clubs have closed down. So the places where fun revolved around alcohol have more or less gone. Many young people still live at home with parents and don't have their own flats (like I did) where they can throw parties or invite friends over for boozy evenings. They are engrossed in and communicate on social media which doesn't particularly lend itself to being tipsy and you might get filmed. Finally, they all seem to be gym fanatics (even the weed smoking ones). It's become the new religion.

Maybe you should be asking why you need it? Each to their own I say

It’s harder for them to buy it than it was in our day but all of the teens I know drink (apart from Those who don’t for religious reasons). I have two in their late teens.

I think it’s a myth that teens don’t drink now. Some don’t but the majority still do.

I don't drink either (45 yo) but I think because they are frightened of every little 💩, like "not feeling well".

It stinks tbh.

@OptimismvsRealism I'm pretty sure my children's primary school discussed the negative effects of alcohol in PSHE lessons, and that had the same impact on them as lessons about smoking (at primary school) and drugs (from Grange Hill and Blue Peter 🙂) had on me ... I never smoked or took drugs, but I did drink too much. My boys don't do any of the above.

Primary school lessons obviously don't work on everyone, but perhaps they sink in enough to tip the balance at societal level.