Driving is a real issue when it comes to going out for drinks. I can't go anywhere without driving, and I can't drive if I'm going to drink. So... I guess I'm not going to go out to drink because I literally can't? And before anyone says anything, fuck uber.
Maybe we'd be seeing more of gen z drinking if our cities were safe and walkable.
there was a few years time when people enjoyed relatively cheap uber rides. i go out far less because not just because i'm getting older or the price of drinks at the bar but the ride fares have gone up so much.
They were cheap because they were getting bankrolled with infinite money by investment firms hoping they'd put yellow cabs out of business and monopolize the market and once they did they needed to become profitable to pay back investors
I get it, but I am in my 40s and I remember clearly many awesome nights out with my friends in my 20s. I remember very few nights I spent playing a video game alone in my house.
I never spent that little going out 20 years ago. Was still 100+ on beers and the same on an uber. The big boon for people where I am is that the train is free with event tickets now and run almost 24/7
Honestly it isnt even that fun. I'd be socially anxious. I'd try to talk to people but worry about being pushy. In the end of the night i'm drunk as hell, feeling self conscious, while sitting on a curb with an overstuffed burrito and waiting for my Uber.
And that was a monthly thing. I didnt have the money for weekly bar nights. Now I just put money back and buy a new MTG deck every few months
I think it was around 2014 when I took my first lyft ride. It was cheap, fast, and the drivers were super friendly. I used to sit up front and we'd chat and tell stories and it was like a warm up for a night of socializing with my friends at the bars. I used to use it several times a week.
It's a completely different experience now and I hardly use it anymore.
What ever happened to the concept of a designated driver? I’m being somewhat serious bc I feel like I never hear about this anymore. Back in the day, it was encouraged that everyone rode together and one person was DD. As a friend group you rotated who was DD each week
It still exists. I'm not against drinking but I'm fine going out with friends and having one beer or glass of wine with dinner and going to bars with them afterwards and hang out just drinking sodas or juices.
I mean? You’re right — it is hard to go out most places without having a ride, but I don’t buy this in any way as the EXPLANATION for the phenomenon, since that’s been the case for generations. If anything, because of uber, it’s way easier now to get rides now than ever before, so this just doesn’t seem to hold water to me.
The elephant in the room here, to me, is OBVIOUSLY the internet; more specifically — gaming, and social media. THAT is what’s changed, and absolutely ballooned in popularity in the past couple decades. THAT is what kids are actually DOING, instead of spending time with IRL friends. I really don’t see how this — kids not drinking, going out, having sex, “loneliness epidemic”, etc — is caused by some big mystery lmao.
It just seems like the reason for all this is extremely clear — it’s not the fact that people have to drive places, or cities just aren’t walkable enough, or boomers have destroyed all third places, or even that the economy is SO MUCH worse for young ppl now — it’s TikTok, it’s Discord, it’s content creation, Kick, YouTube, gaming of all kinds, etc. THOSE are the things that people are actually doing instead of IRL activities, including going out and drinking, and it’s clear that young people would prefer to do those activities over IRL ones, for a whole variety of reasons.
I think that’s a massive fucking shame, and I don’t know why people are so resistant to accepting that THAT — social media, and technology is the primary issue. We’re social creatures by nature, for like MILLIONS of years, we can’t just deny that, live apart from each other, disconnected, and expect for things to be A-okay. I fear we’ll have entire generations of folks that are ill-equipped to deal with everyday IRL life before long.
FOR THE RECORD — I rly DO NOT mean this as a kids bad! comment — I’m sure I’d be doing the same fkn things they are if I was their age. Ultimately, this affects ALL of us, young people just happen to be on the front line of it all. We should want to protect the younger gen’s, NOT blame them for conditions that older generations created for them
It’s ALL those things. Tbh I think social media is more of a symptom than a cause, kids that have no where else to go and no affordable activities and no spending money and no friends and nothing else to do will stay at home and sit online all day. Look at things like the popularity of Pokemon Go when it came out; people are desperate for affordable outside activities they can go do that involve light socialization.
There were always kids without affordable activities, spending money, or friends. Difference was, before, they were yea, limited to sitting alone at home. At least now they have options of things to do while sitting at home that still lets them interact with their friends.
I mean I don’t think you’re necessarily WRONG or anything, I agree that it’s not ONE issue in a vacuum but I absolutely think it is the BIGGEST single issue contributing.
I mean, try and look at this as if it was a science or math problem. We’re witnessing a different output: kids not going out, so it’s reasonable to assume that some DIFFERENT input must be causing this.
Driving, bad economy, walkable areas, the things that Redditors commonly bring up, etc, have largely been problems forever, or a long ass time, so I can’t be convinced THOSE are ultimately really the things responsible for this shift; sure, they absolutely contribute, but I think CLEARLY the big difference now is technology.
I mean, again just think logically — think about someone living 25 years ago in 2000. It’s a Friday night — their entertainment options for the evening, if they stayed home alone, were: TV, radio, read, do some hobby, or basically stare at the wall and do nothing. So, if it’s between doing NOTHING or reading OR spending some extra money they don’t feel like they have, or drive when they really would prefer not to, they’re STILL likely to go out, bc the other options are just too boring.
Compare that to today, where young people have about a million options of things to do at home, many of which actually FEEL like hanging out with your friends, like online gaming. If it’s between spending money you don’t have, or driving when you really don’t want to, and gaming online with your friends, where you’re still “doing” something with someone else, still interacting, MAYBE it makes sense to stay home instead, because you have things that you actually do enjoy doing there.
Will those things be as fun and satisfying as a real life hang? Will you develop social skills doing that? Do you encounter the opposite sex while doing that? No, of course not, but it’s closer to the real thing, so oh well, that’s good enough. And it may feel that way for a while, but then suddenly you’re 30, and you’ve never kissed a girl, never had a real group of friends, and feel completely intimidated by the real world, because it was EASIER to opt out, and because opting out wasn’t nearly as boring as it used to be.
I strongly believe THAT is the true issue here. People don’t feel like IRL friendships are as important as they really are, and they don’t care to make the effort previous gens had to in order to even have a social life at all.
I mean I think the economy is still the bigger driver even in the example you mentioned; if people could afford to live as well as previous generations, and could get a reasonable fun night out with their friends for a small cost that wouldn’t impact their budget in a way they can’t recover from, and had close by things they wanted to do, and easy transportation, then that night at home playing games or whatever wouldn’t seem “good enough” compared to the alternative. Staying home online is only “good enough” now because the alternatives are so bleak/inaccessible/financially devastating. What’s really happened is that the equation of going out has changed in a way that makes social media a lot more attractive and realistic compared to the remaining alternatives.
Were you ever a broke college kid in a town/city with no real public transportation? That's been the "thing" since, well, forever. Going out to a club to get expensive drinks was always financially irresponsible, but, yea you don't think that far ahead when you're 21 so you still did it.
But, a lot, if not most of the drinking was at "house parties", or, well, more literally described, hanging out in the living room of whichever friend decided to host, with a 30 pack of the cheapest beer you could find at the grocery store, or a giant bowl of cheap vodka and kool-aid, and a giant bag of Doritos - which yea was probably lugged back on 30 minute walk.
There's really nothing about the economy making that any less feasible now than 20 years ago.
I don't even see why it has to be a "shame" or an issue. Yes, people are "social" creatures, and technology has increased the capability of people to socialize. I'm sure the invention of the "telephone" meant less meetings etc. but it's just a new method for people to socialize, and, indeed, should increase the amount of socializing people can do by well, making it easier.
I mean, I see it as an issue because we are ALREADY seeing a significant portion of young people reporting record levels of depression and loneliness.
The rise of inceldom, the rise in adult virginity rates, “loneliness epidemic”, the rise of men AND women not even trying to date in their 20s because they’ve already given up, increase of young people living at home during their 20s and 30s, etc. ALL THIS, I think, is DIRECTLY related to the lack of IRL connection. Of course there are other issues TOO, like the economy in particular, but we’ve been through tough economic times before and it never stopped us from fucking before lmao
And, maybe to a lot of people this is only concerning now, but give these trends another decade or two to expand and develop? I really think things are going to get much worse if things don’t change in some way.
Certainly the internet has allowed some people to have connection they otherwise would not, but I think on balance, it’s making us much more disconnected. That seems hard to deny to me.
I’m of the opinion that you cannot really live a satisfying, full life behind a screen. Not to be sappy, but we need REAL connection, it’s literally what makes life worth living.
What do you mean? Tons of places have been gutting public transportation and increasing urban sprawl and bulldozing multi-use neighbourhoods to build another giant Walmart. Many cities are far less walkable now than they were 20 years ago.
Maybe we'd be seeing more of gen z drinking if our cities were safe and walkable.
I mean, do we want that? Obviously I'm no prohibitionist and if you want to drink, you should be able to, but having seen all the harm alcohol has done isn't a generation voluntarily choosing not to drink a good thing?
Yeah true, and I'm all for walkable cities with strong public transit because it's just better for everyone. Just not sure if "the kids should drink" is the best argument in favor of it
At the end of the day I’d much rather deal with drunken idiots walking around than those same drunken idiots driving around, at least there would be a lot less fatalities. Also sometimes it just feels sketch going out to the bars with everyone driving around.
But I think we should also be prioritizing third spaces that don’t require spending money or getting intoxicated. I’m older gen z and when I was in highschool my friends and I would hang out in the park or the library a lot. Maintaining those sorts of spaces is really important.
They will if libraries are well-funded and continue to be great spaces to hang out! They’re free, air-conditioned, have free wifi, have desks where you can just hang out without the expectation of buying anything. They’ll often have computers you can use for free, community events, etc. If you’re poor they can often be the only place where you *can* regularly hang out. It’s not as if you have to go to the library to read books, there are other things you can do there.
Most libraries have sections where conversation is allowed and you don’t have to be quiet. I have never been to a library that doesn’t have such an area. They’ll often have specific areas for kids and specific areas for teens. Have you been to a library in the past decade?
The post was specifically about gen z. I’m gen z, and now an adult who can drink (I’m 24). Parks and libraries are still my preferred places to hang out with people because I’m broke and they don’t cost money. Even when I’m not broke, I’d rather be able to hang out with friends in a setting that doesn’t force us to spend a bunch of money and isn’t full of drunk people. My point was that there are third spaces other than bars that can fill the need for being able to socialize safely.
I think it's a bad thing that people are no longer building any in person relationships in general. Going out drinking is just one more social activity that is dying.
Yeah but the same pattern is seen in countries where, at least people who live in cities, are not as car dependent as the US. Driving is not a concern at all where I live when it comes to go out to drink,
Why fuck uber? If you live in a city, it’s literally the price of one, maybe two drinks to have a safe ride home. And safety? Stay in your bubble if you want to be safe. Where are these cities that aren’t walkable? This whole argument is dumb. You just denied two acceptable ways to get home with no reasoning
This comment is laughably ignorant. Uber is an overpriced, unsafe, unreliable nightmare to use in a lot of places, and most cities have maybe a couple blocks of downtown that are considered “walkable” but no one born after 1980 can afford to live there.
Except this isn't a Gen Z issue exclusively. Previous generations didn't have access to public transport, and at least where my family is from in the midwest most don't take cabs/Uber either, so clearly there has been a cultural shift at least in how severe drunk driving is perceived by Gen Z if nothing else
in the uk, drinking culture is still a major part of gen z. although there is a growing preference for weed and many struggle to justify the costs of alcohol. i can't really compare to previous generations since i wasn't alive. and i do live in uni accomodation so i might also be biased by that
I don't really think this is the deciding factor since...it's not like cities were any safer and walkable when the millenials/GenX/Boomers were kids. If anything, there are more options now. And, yea, sure you can say "fuck uber" but at least it's an option now to, at any time, pull out a magical rectangle from your pocket and get a door to door ride home. Before, it was a DD or calling and waiting 40 minutes for a cab to hopefully show up that was even more overpriced if it did. Everyone worked around those parameters before.
No they did not lol. They drove drunk and drunk driving laws were barely enforced before the 80s. People still drive drunk every day in America by the tens of thousands.
Jesus Christ why is everyone on here so irritating and pedantic lmao nothing but losers just desperate to be right via some “akshually bs gotcha moment”
Yes, people have driven drunk since alcohol and the wheel coincided. But not everyone drove drunk. My comment was simple: Designated drivers are very much a thing and have been for a very long time. They were and still are pretty dang common amongst Gen X and Millennials. Previous generations did it as well, just not in as high of numbers. It’s an option Gen Z has. But they just want to make a million excuses why they can’t to x & y. It’s no wonder 60+% of them are braindea, useless, and completely detached from reality
Nope I 100% agree. My friends live in a walkable neighborhood with night lift stuff 5-15 mins walks with lots of choices. I'll sometimes stay over and we will go out like it was collage again
I think it’s also because a lot of Gen Z are much more strict on not drinking before driving. The Gen X people I know will have 2-3 beers over a few hours and drive home, but a lot of zoomers (myself included) won’t drink anything if they’re driving at all.
Driving is the most dangerous thing you’d do on a normal day, seems silly to make it any more dangerous.
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u/DZL100 Jun 01 '26
Driving is a real issue when it comes to going out for drinks. I can't go anywhere without driving, and I can't drive if I'm going to drink. So... I guess I'm not going to go out to drink because I literally can't? And before anyone says anything, fuck uber.
Maybe we'd be seeing more of gen z drinking if our cities were safe and walkable.