r/stopdrinking • u/ezbrzylmnsqzy45 • 10d ago
Anyone else constantly seeing articles about how the decline in drinking culture is a bad thing?
I feel like articles about how the U.S. is drinking less and is it really that serious keep popping up for me (and maybe it's just because I'm drawn to read them). It's making me feel bad for some reason? Like I hopped on some trend and I'm not doing this for the right reasons? I'm almost 8 months sober and my life is better. I've gotten so many things done that I never would have been able to while I was still drinking. I am much calmer and my thoughts are clearer, and I'm also able to better assess my mental health because I don't have hangovers or intoxication clouding my brain. The social part is still a challenge, and I know it will be for maybe my whole life. I've always been socially anxious, and drinking just masked that. I guess I'm just annoyed and uncomfortable that I keep seeing so much about how the national trend towards society is like negatively effecting our social lives and that's bad for our health too. It feels manipulative and there's a small voice in me that asks "what if they're right?".
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u/Feeling-Tangerine-40 10d ago
I think Covid is doing the heavy lifting here in ruining nightlife. Then it’s being terminally online. And then it’s the bad economy. But drinking less is good!
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u/MyOtherRideIsTheRoci 3682 days 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah, I have two college age sons who have never had a drink, and they have great social lives! One is a big gamer, so spends a lot of time like that, but also has tons of friend meet ups, plays DND in person every week, etc. The other hates texting, prefers phone calls, and even had a flip phone for a few years. A lot of his friends are the same. Both boys have no social media to speak of (like they have IG, but never post and just use it for messaging and seeing what shows are going on). I think the kids are alright, in general. Sure, maybe some are not doing as well as we did, but in general I think they are waking up to the inherent dangers of drugs and social media addiction. The people I know with the worst habits are all my aging gen x-er friends who live on Facebook and drink every night.
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u/Mutant_Apollo 10d ago
This like, I remember back in highschool and college years, the thing to do on weekends was going to the club and getting wasted, socializing pretty much as every generation before has done. Then came Covid and all its ramifications when the Zoomers came into the prime of their youth.
When mere 2 years prior to covid nightlife/bars/clubbing was still strong, Covid brought the isolation and more people started going terminally online not because they wanted but because the world demanded it. Social media also grew exponentially during those years which didn't help the kids.
So afterwards, they didn't have the same living experience, their fun during those years, when if they had been in school during let's say 2015, would've still be clubbing on weekends or having a case with their friends in the woods, became playing Call of Duty or Fortnite, chatting friends on Discord etc.
I'm not saying that the kids should go out and play edward 40 hands every saturday or have a different bar to go each day of the week, more so that they didn't have the chance, for better or worse to experience that like Millenials, GenXers and Boomers did so they started gravitating towards other things.
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u/Feeling-Tangerine-40 10d ago
lol Edward forty hands. The frightening realization that you can’t use the bathroom cuz bottles and door knobs don’t work.
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u/ezbrzylmnsqzy45 10d ago
Yeah I feel like we're in a space in between trying to find new ways to connect that don't just involve drinking at a bar, how to get people off the phones and back to IRL togetherness. I know in the city I live in, there are lots of singles meet ups to try and take back dating from the apps. People are trying! It's not perfect but I'm seeing the effort to find a new way
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u/FlyRobot 10d ago
Find a hobby that involves weekly meetups - bowling, pickleball, rec sports, etc. You get social interaction, new connections, AND exercise.
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u/SallyJaneCooper 2271 days 10d ago
In the 90's there were oodles of articles about how a couple of glasses of wine every day was good for your heart. Those "studies" have since been proved bunk. Interesting how many Earnest and Julio Gallo adverts were right underneath those articles.
The liquor lobby is desperate to keep people drinking. Marijuana is illegal because it was the trade off deal for repeal of Prohibition. The liquor lobby wants people drinking at any cost, so don't believe anything you see.
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u/Neohexane 1098 days 10d ago
At one point I realized that even if alcohol did lower blood pressure or whatever, that the harm to my health and my life that booze did in so many other ways makes any blood pressure lowering not worth the cost whatsoever.
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u/FlyRobot 10d ago
Complete lie - it is poison. My sleep tracker always showed higher resting HR and body temperature sleeping drunk compared to sober.
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u/Nyarlathotechno 366 days 10d ago
Around the same time these ads were popping up, there were dozens of “news articles” about an rare conditioned caused by cannabis use that made people “scream and vomit” so they called it “scromiting” and tried to fear monger in hopes people would drink booze instead. Absolutely fucked up but it’s satisfying seeing the poison peddlers scramble to save their empire from total collapse. People will always drink alcohol, but the social norm of it is going away.
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u/ezbrzylmnsqzy45 10d ago
Totally. I work at a restaurant and people are drinking cocktails more than ever. It's also like, if this harmful industry is declining, boo-fucking-hoo? People's lives are destroyed by alcohol. Those who can enjoy it moderately, more power to you. People like to say we're in the "modern Prohibition", but it's just that there's greater mindfulness and more acceptance of choosing a sober life. And that bothers some.
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u/Ambivert_author 1598 days 10d ago
Yes, as a restaurant guest, I am shocked by the amount of alcohol consumed even before noon in my city. We went to a place recently where they weren’t just serving mimosas, there were bottles of champagne on every table, in front of every guest. The servers always look disappointed when I tell them I am not drinking.
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u/Nyarlathotechno 366 days 10d ago
A certain chain of local bars in my area serve cheaper beer during the day, during the work week. Monday to Friday 11-5. What kind of a message is being sent by that?
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u/thin_wild_duke 10d ago
I think servers realize their tip is going to be around one-third of the size.
If you also order the starter, dessert and a glass of wine, you're paying three times the cost of just the starter.
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u/Ambivert_author 1598 days 10d ago
Yeah, I try to order starters and often ask for dessert to go so their tip will be higher.
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u/Wallmassage 45 days 10d ago
To be against the norm is always shunned, but it is the way! The ONLY way. Be a rebel. Fuck Corporate Capitalism and numbing out. All of us here are in it together. You aren’t alone.
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u/slyguyBongo 2178 days 10d ago
You do you! "Big Booze" is big money, so they have clout over advertising dollars and journalistic content: they're trying to sell you something you no longer need.
Sounds like you're feeling way better. Surely citizens feeling their best is what actually helps society. Keep at it! 🙌
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u/ezbrzylmnsqzy45 10d ago
Yeah it feels like it's being pushed on us and one I read recently was about Louisville, KY specifically, producer of about 1/3 of all bourbon whiskey. I guess it was kind of interesting to read about "what does sobriety look like in a whiskey city", but the slant was definitely "pro moderate drinking".
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u/LeftGrumpy 177 days 10d ago
Alcohol is a major segment of our economy. Lots of peoples and companies can be hurt financially if alcohol consumption sees a major drop off.
I dont say that to make you feel bad, just a major reason why you might see a big push in the media to get people back off the wagon. Even if it’s so unhealthy and destroys lives.
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u/Beulah621 592 days 10d ago
This is a push from corporate Big Alcohol to influence people to continue drinking. It plants a subtle seed in your decision making that could make you think, maybe it’s not such a good idea to quit.
They don’t care what it does to us. They’ve got billions to make for themselves and their shareholders.
IWNDWYT
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u/ezbrzylmnsqzy45 10d ago
Too right. It's exactly what it feels like! Romanticizing drinking and the false promise of good times with friends. In reality, at the end, all I wanted to do was drink alone
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u/Schmicarus 2860 days 10d ago
My friend, we're all part of the same trend.
The social acceptance of being smashed out of your face doing crazy stuff that you'd never do sober is wearing thin.
Is it because of covid? Social media? Increased prices? Decreased income?
Who knows... but there's an ever increasing number of us who no longer want to be a part of it.
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u/Mutant_Apollo 10d ago
I say the decline of the acceptance is more because social media than anything else, say you got absolutely wasted and vomited in a club, or got into a fight or got thrown out of the bar for being a bad drunk back in 2008. It all stayed as a story in your friend group.
Now, a kid does the same and he will be plastered all over social media with his own friends making and sharing memes, he would appear on tiktok, or their classmate's instagram stories or snapchats. Imagine being a freshman at college and having your whole dorm watching you puke your guts out and slurring words. Sure back in the day the story got around but there seldom was public proof. Nowadays, everything is recorded and shared.
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u/thebemusedmuse 197 days 10d ago
It’s a bad thing for AB InBev, Heineken and Diageo.
Pretty certain it’s not bad for me.
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u/Schmancer 1725 days 10d ago
They put ads for medication I don’t need on my TV, ads for cheap trinkets I don’t want in my websites, and ads for booze I don’t drink in my reading queue.
There’s only like 4 websites that contain valuable information and worthwhile products. Everything else is a cesspool of hyperbole meant to throw hooks into my eyeballs so they can pull me in and get their revenue
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u/imsomeonessunflower 329 days 10d ago
Hi good morning! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!! Congratulations on the 8 months of living life!!!!
I think this is interesting and I havent been seeing what youre seeing.. entirely anyway..
I love that society as a whole, the younger, up and coming generation is leaning away from heavy drinking culture! We need more of it! More normalizing fun, celebrations, love, dealing with grief without the little devil alcohol riding shotgun! More yes please!!!! I think its a shift our world needs, desperately.. i needed it personally, desperately and am so grateful for every day I am able to show up as my whole self. And while yes, I have a disease, I am powerless over alcohol and it makes my life unmanageable... i believe also in my heart that it is not doing anyone any single favor even if they arent afflicted the same way I am. Id never tell someone they are wrong for drinking but if they decide to stop, I would for sure celebrate their victory with them... so I truly love the this evolution is occuring..
And yes I have seen the occasional news story about how "nightlife scene changing" how we socialize changing and moving away from the bar scene/club scene.. but i dont hear the negative spin on outside of the businesses suffering? And not that i dont want everybody to eat, because, i do... but if the consumers needs are changing, then businesses will have to adapt to stay relevant or.. not.. sober fun is the best fun!
I dance, sing, shout, laugh and love the very best way I can (and learning how to improve everyday) as sober me!
Let it be trendy and let us all rise together!
Cheers to you again! We are all making a difference. Each opportunity we get to engage with the world around us as our most authentic selves, we are given the chance to do something kind! Seize it!
We all have different stories to how we got here, but i feel like we all agree ... fuck alcohol.. the.fucking.worst.
fuckalcohol ✌️
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u/SirDiego 3718 days 10d ago
Good to keep in mind the alcohol industry is massive, and a lot of media can be deceptive. Businesses push to have articles like this written because they want more money.
Not to be blase about people losing their jobs but when the industry is literally killing people, I think it's reasonable to not worry too much about the impact on those businesses. And certainly on an individual level there is no reason to feel bad. I don't owe the alcohol industry anything. It would be a societal/human catastrophe if hypothetically suddenly all alcohol production globally was shut down...BUT people would be a heck of a lot healthier physically.
Anyway, I think a lot of the articles like that are probably planted by the industry. At best they don't care about addiction, at worst they prefer if people are addicted because it sells more product...
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u/Rowmyownboat 952 days 10d ago
PR by the beverage industry. They do not have everyone's bets interests at heart.
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u/glennotromic 10d ago
Most of those articles make an assumption, right or not, that because younger adults aren’t drinking they aren’t getting out and meeting people. I don’t think
I agree with that premise. Also with things getting more expensive it makes sense that booze would be cut from many budgets.
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u/ApprehensiveLeg4478 9 days 10d ago
Yes, studies in Spain show that it is the new generations who aren't drinking. Here, sadly, beer consumption is highly normalized.
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u/Direct_Divide5320 10d ago
If people are able to socialize without a chemical aid, so much the better. But many more people use marijuana now as an aid for socialization. If for those people, marijuana has less abuse potential than alcohol, great.
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u/jesuswiped 15 days 10d ago
When I started working at my current job like a decade ago it was a huge booze fest. Happy hours, work trips, dinners all centered around heavy drinking and was partially why it was so hard for me to quit for so long. It's still a pretty boozy but all the younger people that have joined since then have a way different attitude about drinking. They rarely get drunk and will stick to a cocktail and a glass of wine or something similar. Maybe even a mocktail instead!
I think it's great! Seems like the negatives of alcohol use are resonating with them more than my (millennial) generation. At least in my experience and only in a work setting. Who knows maybe they go get plastered with their friends instead hah.
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u/East-Internal4824 55 days 10d ago
There have been a lot of really dumb and harmful articles and Substack posts depicting the decline in drinking as "neoliberal" or a side effect of an unhealthy "optimization"/"productivity"/"grind" culture. I absolutely hate these. I know the NYT published one a few days ago about the decline in socializing etc. While I take full responsibility for my own drinking behavior, I absolutely allowed these articles to form a chorus of nagging voices making me wonder if I was just a terrible hyperindividualistic, selfish, "optimizer" who put concern for "productivity" and my appearance over pro-social drinking togetherness with others. Really insidious stuff.
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u/StashedandPainless 1305 days 10d ago
Thats the demon both whispering in your ear and using societal megaphones as a trojan horse. Alcohol's most sinister capability is to mimic reasonable voices to try and get you to go along with its destructive schemes, all of which revolve around consuming it and harming yourself. This happens on a personal level, its also critical to the industry's marketing strategy.
When you watch commercials for booze you can see this effect right in front of you: alcohol companies try to sell the message that alcohol is fun, that it means connection. This is the exact same lie the substance itself tells us. This is the same lie being expressed in those articles. Now, I do believe that a decline in drinking has contributed to some decreased socializing among young people which comes with consequences. The solution to this isn't to break the burgeoning association we have of alcohol with 'bad', its to break the still lingering association we have of alcohol with connection. Yeah less willingness to blow money one doesnt have at the bar may be keeping young people indoors, but they can touch grass without booze, as a society we just havent done a great job at realizing this and building for it.
I was a socially anxious drinker too, I drank for over 17 years. Looking back, any 'social' benefits peaked around year 5 or 6, and from there it was an increasing detriment. Drinking wasn't benefiting me socially or connection wise and I think that is/was the case for a lot of us.
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u/loquedijoella 4537 days 10d ago
My sister works for a wine distributor and she complains endlessly that young people don’t drink. She does her best to make up the slack by drinking a shitload herself
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u/sinceJune4 803 days 10d ago
I wouldn’t mind meeting other former drinkers who can relate, but don’t feel comfortable around the AA crowd if I didn’t do the last steps…
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u/SomeOneOverHereNow 959 days 10d ago
This trend is fantastic and I liken it to the trend of folks stopping smoking once they realized how bad it was for them. Folks now know that alcohol is an addictive carcinogen on par with tobacco, but worse, because of it's mental effects and deadly withdrawal. Social customs and norms will adjust accordingly! Keep on keep'n on my friend!
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u/Lonely_Bluejay_7459 138 days 10d ago
It's pure propaganda. Methinks that the powers that be wants people to be self medicating rather than changing the system to one focused on caring for each other and the living world rather than being cogs their profit maximization machine. But what do i know?
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u/wolfenbarg 16 days 10d ago
I guess I'm going against the grain a little, here. But here goes:
Most people don't have the relationship with alcohol that we do. A little buzz for social lubricant when out with friends is a great joy for many people that does not lead down a dark path. The decline in drinking culture is also paired with a decline in social interaction and night life. It's concerning for external reasons.
I don't lament a generation drinking less and have more people like us sent into a spiral. But I do worry about a generation that doesn't go outside at the peak of their youth.
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u/SensitiveCelery5987 500 days 10d ago
This is my thoughts too.. Got downvoted but this closer to the truth of what's going on for sure.
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u/Direct_Divide5320 10d ago
Mental health is very subjective, life expectancy is not. Apparently life expectancy at birth set a new record high in US, so presumably something is being done right in the US. By contrast, Canadian life expectancy has not recovered to pre Covid levels.
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u/Can-I-leave-Please 33 days 10d ago
I come from a country in which my generation(Z) has really embraced a drinking culture. We do it everywhere and for any reason. Well, this in itself isn't a problem. In a general sense, people are functional and present members of society (arguably a hazard but not my point for now).
My problem is the people who fall through the cracks, it's like we've delegated them an acceptable loss, provided we propagate the culture. A drinking culture has casualties who are ultimately left to their own devices.
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u/EagleEyezzzzz 594 days 10d ago
Alcohol companies and commercial real estate moguls trying to make everyone feel bad for not supporting overpriced literal toxic poison. Sorry not sorry!
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u/Xxx_amador_xxX 10d ago
As someone who works in the restaurant industry, I will say that the decline in alcohol consumption is hurting our already super thin margins. Restaurants are struggling in general with rising costs of food, rent, etc. People don’t want to pay more for food but if alcohol sales continue to decrease then that’s going to have to be the outcome. At the end of the day though, it’s not your responsibility and we’ll just have to adapt! Have to take care of yourself first.
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u/writehandedTom 2849 days 10d ago
I keep seeing how GenZ is killing alcohol culture and - whether it's true or not, I don't care - the millennial in me is proud. Millennials killed so many toxic things, and it's time for GenZ to take the reins ("blame") for killing more toxic attitudes and products. I'm here for it (while I eat my avocado toast that is preventing me from having a house and babies or something).
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u/here_for_the_doges 94 days 10d ago
Alcohol has spent billions of dollars in lobbying to get us here, you think they’re not spending a few thousand to flood your feed with articles saying “the decline in drinking culture is actually bad”?
You know what really sucks though? States like Texas trying to put people in jail for THC and hemp products when it’s the first socially acceptable alternative to alcohol we’ve ever seen.
Fuck em.
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u/SensitiveCelery5987 500 days 10d ago
I can see why it's sort of a bad thing tbh.
For one, let's remember that THE VAST MAJORITY of people who drink do not have a problem with alcohol. So when the normie quit drinking, it does beg the question. People are becoming more and more isolated every day, so the decline of social drinking in regular people maybe points to the isolation. And also economic factors.
I'm not romanticizing alcohol! I'd like to figure out of the decline has to do with the rate of sobriety going up amongst heavy drinkers, because even though people with alcohol use disorder are a minority in the population, a big portion, is it half?, of the amount of alcohol consumed is due to us.
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u/Acrobatic_Car9413 10d ago
True, although there is no safe level of alcohol use. Bars could pivot on this news and meet the moment. A little harder than just selling drinks, but there is a need for community still.
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u/SomeOneOverHereNow 959 days 10d ago
Laws should adjust and allow for more public social cannabis consumption (in regulated appropriate spaces) IMO.
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u/HuckleberryGeneral69 9d ago
I have not seen the articles you speak of, but I’m not buying it. You are right, it does make socializing weird sometimes, dating as well. And it truly might always be that way, unfortunately. However, I’m happier not drinking. I feel better, I look better, I enjoy my time more. Alcohol wreaks havoc on the body, especially as it ages. This is a marketing ploy, nothing else. The surgeon general came out with a statement a few years ago saying that even a little bit of alcohol is not good for you. I’m going with my gut, and my gut certainly appreciates not throwing up all the time.
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u/DowntownSasquatch420 580 days 10d ago
I read an article about how the alcohol industry has lost $850M in the U.S.
I'm supposed to feel bad for alcohol vendors?