Is the normality of alcohol consumption in society declining?
Do you have the impression that alcohol consumption that was pretty normalized a few years back on every social occasion is getting questioned lately? What do you think about it?
Alcohol consumption has been declining in many Western countries for decades. But it seems that younger people also don't go out that often anymore. Many clubs and bars struggle. I think it's more health awareness and the prices. Why paying 15$ and more for a cocktail and feel shitty the next day?
I like alcohol but it's definitely a good trend. I think we forget how much people were drinking back in the day. 20+ years ago it was normal to drive home trashed. And a few decades ago it was perfectly normal to put Schnaps in your morning coffee. And for example construction workers were drinking beer at the morning break at 9am (rural Switzerland).
Yes it's definitely healthier. But now that you mention Schnaps...
Sometimes, just sometimes I feel a little sad about traditions getting lost. Where I'm from it has something of "taking care of guests", that you hardly can replace without alcohol.
For example "Christbaumloben", a tradition we practiced. It means going from house to house at Christmas, telling people that their tree looks nice and getting Schnaps. It's just a nice way of connecting to people you often don't see anymore, maybe because you moved away from home or so. Impossible when nobody's drinking.
We need new traditions that don't require drinking.
My workplace set up a social event to get people to talk to each other and watching management try to name it without calling it "alcohol consumption event" has been very funny. I think, they eventually just gave up and it's now called "After Work".
That's kind of the problem. If it was before work, they could name it after a more socially acceptable drug: Morning coffee. 🙃
This is adorable.
I think it could be replaced with cookies and non alcoholic hot apple cider, but it might not be as sociable without everyone being a bit tipsy.
My friend group doesn't drink much because it doesn't go well with heroin.
Yes but mostly with younger generations. People born after ~1998 tend to drink noticeably less in every occasion.
This might just be personal experience but I'd say those born 1975-1985 drink the most.
In my friend group (in Germany) certainly.
Maybe it's aging as well, getting more severe hangovers and from less alcohol. But alcohol free beer has gotten so much better in the last 5-10 years, there's ones where you legit can almost not even tell anymore. And there's alcohol free wine and champagne as well.
I hear "Why aren't you drinking?" way less.
More than half of my friends still smoke, though. Not a poor people thing here.
Yeah I got the same impression, Germany here as well.
And I wasn't sure if it's just a thing in my friends group and if it has to do with a certain age and not being able to drink because of pregnancy and having kids that normalized it. That's why I asked.
I heard of the spooky two days hangover by some my age, but never experienced it myself. Still I lost motivation for drinking, somehow.
Back in the day it was alcohol or nothing. Not a lot of options to self-medicate.
How far back in the day are you thinking? I'm pretty sure recreational drugs have been around for a long while.
Tommy Chong went to jail in 2004 for selling bongs.
A lot of people went to prison for "recreational drugs."
I just read lately that younger generations in germany drink less alcohol. I am not sure what the common reasons are, but I think the weed legalization made questioning the effects of alcohol more mainstream.
Good point. Funny how legalization of one drug can make the dangers of another more obvious to society.
Broad legalization of pot in the US has had the impact on reducing consumption of other drugs, in the states where it's legal.
My wife and I are in our early 30s and bought our first flat in a student-y area in town. We thought given that we are still prone to the odd late night or having folks over for drinks we'd still fit in but it was a total miscalculation.
Our student neighbours are seldom up late drinking and instead they have phone alarms going off at 6AM to get them up to go to the gym on Saturday mornings when we are nursing hangovers. Mostly we sleep through it but sometimes I wake up dying of thirst with hot flushes to the sound of their alarm.
What's wrong with kids these days??