To think 16 year olds don't go out to clubs and parties anymore?

[Todayisaday]

I was in secondary for the 90s, and at around 16, we were all clubbing and going to raves, pubs, gigs and generally having a whale of a time. I know my parents generation were out a lot too by 16.

I know quite a few 16 year olds children of friends and relatives and they don't seem to go out very much at all like that.
Am I unreasonable to think that this generation are not party people??

Asking as so much culture and new music was created in generations past and fuelled by younger generations pushing boundaries. But either I am old and zi just dont know about these things, or youth culture is genuinly stiffled. They seem to all listen to 90s music atm 😂or mainstream music?
What do you think about it? What do you know that I don't as I am too old 😂

My 17yo has been going to some parties since 16, and she is fairly nerdy. I think parties still happen - underage clubbing and pubbing maybe not so much especially around here (cost, stricter about ID than in the past etc)

That is very sobering - thanks for the insight

Yup - one of the most expensive areas to live in our city is famously populated by trades people and shop owners who’ve just grown their businesses (plus a few crime lords). Not a degree among them…

I'm fortunate to have just bought my first place so I can now host but prior to that it was difficult.

There's also just a lack of cheaper third spaces I travelled Europe last year and I was amazed at the amount of free spaces to chill

Dd 17 would love to go clubbing but no chance she'd get in round here, she can drive, sit her a levles but clubbing or be in a pub without parents round here after 9pm no chance! She has approximately 8 weeks from turning 18 to get used to clubs and partying before we leave her at uni. If it's Notts I'm going to be more worried than if she ends up in lancaster! She had been to quite a few house parties for 18th's but patents normally around somewhere, alcohol served though. Ds back home post uni can't party at home as he's here and hates clubs, happy with the pub at the elderly age of 22! I honestly think as others have said they just can't do it now and do miss out especially if younger in the year. I do blame covid for alot.of the parent dependance in dd age group, interestingly the head of there 6th from said the same, there aim for there very large collage in years 12 to13 was to teach them how to socialise!

It's crazy, my neighbour who is probably one of the most well off people in the village is a contractor. And the other day my mum was chatting to the contractor who is doing a renovation for her in the city - he was off to a party that night with some of the wealthiest people in the city - people who endowed a whole building at the university.

No degrees there either, they both started off in trades.

I was clubbing in the mid 90's when I was 15 (using fake ID), I even took my 13 year old sister with me one night (she looked older than me to be fair)!

My eldest DD is nearly 18 and is desperate to go to the local nightclub's gay night with her GF, but neither of them have any interest in drinking or drugs, which is very different to me at that age!

I do think the availability of fake ID and the more relaxed attitude of door staff back in the day played a huge role in younger people going out a lot, and conversely the lack of those these days contributes massively to teenagers not clubbing/pubbing from a young age. Teens these days seem to be less interested in alcohol (which can only be a good thing), I started drinking at 14 which seems incredibly young to me these days. I had fairly absent parents though and we were pretty much left to our own devices once I hit 13.

My younger DD is 16, and she and her friends tend to go for a coffee, out for brunch or to the beach, again none of them are into drinking or drugs (for now, at least), and if they socialise in the evening, it will be at one of their houses, no hanging round in the park till the small hours like we did!

I’m older and didn’t partake when it was popular with my generation. I don’t think the current teens are missing anything. There are far more interesting ways of spending your time than in a club getting drunk.

Agree with the OP: I wasn’t much of a one for the clubbing, didn’t enjoy it much, but I still went every so often between the ages of 15 and 18. My parents didn’t seem to be too fazed despite being reasonably protective of us!

Whereas my niece at 17 barely goes out at all - she socialises at her friends’ houses, not clubbing or pubs. But my sister barely even let her stay at home alone for more than a few minutes when she was 14-15! At that age I was babysitting other people’s toddlers, looking after young kids for a week during the half terms, taking my younger siblings on train journeys alone across the country to visit relatives. Niece, in comparison, has had very little responsibility. I don’t think she even babysits her brother!

I notice it in my own students, too. At 16 and 17 I went by train round the country with friends to visit university open days, stayed in youth hostels, went to university taster courses for a week, with no parents. I went to university interviews on my own by train staying overnight. I would have been utterly horrified at the thought of my parents taking me at that age and putting me off my game/fussing around! Nowadays, though, pretty much every single student has parents with them at an open day or interview. It’s very rare indeed for them to come alone or make their own way there. I can’t help but think they aren’t quite getting enough experience of independence and that this is filtering through into the vast increase in anxiety and difficulties adjusting to university life that our students experience now.

I bet public transport was better when you were doing university open days @nyancatdays

Northern Rail's train strikes every weekend meant that I had to drive DD to open days. I wasn't glued to her side once we were at the university and she went on the tours and subject talks on her own.

Also, hardly anywhere will let under 18s stay in a hotel/B and B without an adult these days.

Parents are expected to make up the shortfall in student loans these days as well, so I expect they want to see what they are paying for, and I enjoyed our days out.

DD took a gap year and travelled around the country visiting her friends at university. She worked and volunteered at the hospital and a charity shop, so by the time she went to university she was pretty self sufficient.

She was pretty taken aback at some of the students not knowing the first thing about cooking - for example not knowing that you have to remove the packaging from a pizza before putting it in the oven!

I blame the parents here.

Her time at university was affected by lockdowns, but she and her friends were pretty resourceful at entertaining themselves. There were 8 of them sharing a house and several of them played musical instruments, so they would have musical evenings. They would have film nights and sleepovers in the living room of their houseshare. They had birthday parties where they decorated each bedroom up as a different bar or club and they had a halloween party.

They even had a visit from the police during lockdown because they thought that they had invited extra people into the house, and had trouble convincing them that all 8 of them lived there.

It strikes me that the "in my day" posters seem to be totally unaware of how much regulations have tightened up and how much more expensive everything is compared to when they were teenagers. There are so many more things you just cannot do until you are 18 - and that includes getting fake ID. Most establishments won't consider anything other than a passport or driving licence as ID now.

We were out all the time!

I work with a couple of young women in their 20s and their lives are as dull as dishwater in comparison.

And compare this to that recent post from a mum whose DD was almost £100K in debt training to be a doctor, and was having to immigrate to Australia as so many jobs here are now going to foreign doctors.

@nyancatdays I'm guessing in your day you didn't end up with £50K of student debt? It's a big decision for a young person to make and some of them appreciate their parents' (who are likely to also be throwing thousands of pounds at them) advice.

Not to mention that public transport is expensive and not as frequent as it used to be, and the number of places that will allow a person under 18 to stay there overnight is pretty limited.

It strikes me that the "in my day" posters seem to be totally unaware of how much regulations have tightened up and how much more expensive everything is compared to when they were teenagers.

Yes, there are clearly a lot of people on here who don't have teenagers (or young adults, so have recent experience of teens). Today's world is completely different to yours in the 90s, and even to that of a teenager pre-Covid.

Apparently the number of night clubs in the UK has halved in the past decade. If the closure rate continues they say clubbing will be extinct in the uk by 2029! I definitely think that decline is reflected in the younger people I know.

Yeah but you didn't have ID scanning machines and "ask if under 25" policy in place, did you?

It's a bit weird to insist on this "we were so cheeky and daring" attitude when if you were 16 today no matter how much confidence you had, you wouldn't be let into clubs either.

I agree that gen z is overall less into going out and getting wasted (it's not just an opinion there have been lots of surveys confirming this) but if you've ever been to reading and seen the post-gcse crowd there youll see there enough 16 year olds who would absolutely be up for clubbing if they could get in!

The cost is another factor - you didn't have to pay to get in in most places when I was going out out in the 2000s or if you did it wasn't much, and drinks were cheap. Eg I was on £3 an hour in my first part time job in 2004 but lots of places did £1 a drink - so working four hours on a Saturday would be enough for your drinks, 1/4 of a taxi home and hopefully some cheesy chips. Now the minimum wage is £7.55 and you'd struggle to get a pint for less than £6 anywhere other than spoons.

I was out clubbing from 14. Sometimes with my mum! Never had a problem getting in anywhere. I think everything is much more regulated now so kids probably don't even try.

When I was 16 there was a nightclub that was notorious for letting young people in. We all used to discuss how to make ourselves look older, but they just turned a blind eye really.

I always looked pretty young for my age, I didn't pass for 18, but they didn't ask for ID, they just didn't really care. That would never happen these days.

It's just not the same anymore. We could get away with it, our current 16 year olds simply can't.

My daughter just turned 18 and she loves going to clubs and pubs, when she can afford the ridiculous prices.

Bit off topic but working in the NHS we can't recruit doctors in most specialities, particularly in medical specialities, hence all the overseas recruitment and ridiculous ideas PAs to fill the gaps

Well what did we think was going to happen?

Saddle them with debt, unaffordable, cramped housing and a terrible job market - and then expect them to go out partying?

And give them phones they can bury themselves in rather than risk social rejection, while at the same time they can see endless pics of others' lives, always so much more cool, glamourous, successful than their own. Endless feeds telling them they're not smart enough, attractive enough, rich enough, determined enough.

The stories I hear from teachers, lecturers and parents of late teens/adults are truly despairing.

Yes some are fine - but a lot are not. I feel for them, they are coming to adulthood in a truly awful world.

And they've been sold a lie. They worked hard, did everything they were told to do - but there is little reward at the end for those without parental wealth. So yeah they might not feel like celebrating.

This!!

Working adult DS cant stand it. Too hot, too loud, not enough music he likes.

Uni DD prefers an early night and crocheting in bed with Netflix. She doesn't like the taste of alcohol, bar the odd white wine spritzer. Her friends are the same.

I'm glad they're happy, but I still go out clubbing and to pubs. I have been since I was 17. It's my happy place. I've got a ticket to an event next bank holiday that finishes at 5am.

Maybe I ruined them when they were growing up by playing faithless and chemical brothers too loudly to them.

I know this is a middle aged cliche but I swear the music has got louder.

Clubs were always loud of course but pubs and bars, it used to be possible to chat, in fact many pubs had no music at all. Now it seems they are all trying to create some sort of party/club atmosphere and nobody can talk any more.

I’m not surprised some young people can’t be bothered with that and choose to stay home

I don’t know why some posters think it’s sad that young people are not going out to clubs like they used to.
Im late 30s now but I never went to a club when I was growing up, I would rather be in my bed reading or watching a movie with friends than be getting smashed in a club with a group of loud people. There’s more to life than that. I wasn’t the exception because all my group of friends never clubbed either. We meet up for meals, plan fun and adventurous activities and trips, etc.
I know a lot of young people now who are so conscious about their health, their looks, etc that besides the cost, are not drinking as much as the older generation for health reasons so clubbing is not in their radar and they still find lots of ways to enjoy themselves.

Of course , it's got louder!. It's also in many more places, like pharmacies, every bloody shop, waiting rooms, museums, cafes, everywhere, so to give the 'fun' vibe, the pubs and clubs have to be even louder. I went to the V& A once on a Friday night, and as I walked into the front hall, I was accosted with music so loud that for a split second that the nuclear bomb had been dropped. There were people running to avoid it. Apparently it was to attract the young crowd. Plus the music is much, much crappier.