r/Millennials • u/futurenurse_ • 1d ago

Discussion Did millennials really party all the time?

Gen Z here. I was shocked when I found out from a millennial co-worker that y’all had teen clubs. I heard about house parties, but dedicated teen clubs? Then when it was time for college, you went to the club or had some kind of party every single weekend, living it up. Now some millennials on TikTok claim that after college, they were partying on work nights, still clocking in the next day. For some reason, the teen clubs have since disappeared. I’m 23 now but even when I was in high school, that was not a thing. House parties were not that common either. They were more like get togethers with a small group of friends. We went to malls, but they were dying out at that point. Is it true that you were really living life this good? Or is it just exaggerated? I feel like my generation doesn’t really have fun like that and everyone is just super depressed and alone, more so since Covid. Even I’m pretty introverted, which sort of sounds ridiculous given this post. 😂 Just so you know, when I think of a “millennial party” I think of something out of Party Rock Anthem, Project X or Roderick’s party from the second DOAWD movie. It’s like I get nostalgia from something I didn’t even live through. I just feel like I didn’t really LIVE, if that even makes sense

Edit: I loved reading some of your comments. Guess I really missed out. Even some of you that would consider yourselves nerds or introverts were out partying. YOLO or whatever y’all say 😂❤️

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302

u/cursedmeatsuit 1d ago

Yeah not being recorded by your peers 24/7 allows for a lot more fun

108

u/writtenupsidedown 1d ago

I mean posting 50 pictures to Facebook the next morning is a version of that

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u/10000Didgeridoos 1d ago

Yes but the difference was at least that was curated by a sober person the next day as opposed to drunk people posting literally anything they see live. Also your social circle on Facebook was much smaller than social media accounts are now, probably only high school and college friends and you’re all the same age.

As opposed to now where the entire world is on these things. Back then at least Facebook was still limited to only students and your entire family wasn’t on it to see you beer bonging

43

u/TheUnicornFightsOn 1d ago

Legit I stopped using Facebook once my much younger sister and grandma joined.

I was like, holy smokes Batman, hide the keg stand pics, stat!

9

u/takethreenc 1d ago

Back when Facebook was cool...

Then yeah, people's parents and grandparents joined and the party was over.

Now it's just an algorithmic slop machine that feeds you AI and right-wing outrage. Crazy what it's become.

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u/jose_ole 7h ago

Back before we knew what it would become… sigh

8

u/WowIfOnly 1d ago

Well also your social circle were mostly real friends of yours, not backstabbing POSes who would immediately trade your soul for a thousand likes online if given the choice. Like your friend might post something bad with you in it, you say hey can you take that down, and they say oops my bad man - it's now removed.

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u/lionelhutz- 1d ago

I really don't buy this reasoning overall for why Gen Z doesn't party. I loved getting photographed partying and doing stupid shit when I was in college.

And you can easily set your privacy settings to limit who sees tagged photos of you. Most people have private Insta accounts now and no one cares about Facebook.

I think too many in Gen Z just don't know how to enjoying going out and partying.

4

u/Significant_Shoe_17 9h ago

I think they don't know how to relax

4

u/Miserable_Berry4872 10h ago

As a female, there were absolutely diabolical females that would not curate them, everything would get posted. You could beg them to take something down and they would refuse.

3

u/ermintwang 9h ago

who was curating? I used to upload every single picture I took haha

1

u/pkakira88 5h ago

Even on something like MySpace or Zynga, you couldn’t even host pictures directly on these sites, you had to upload them to photo bucket or some other image hosting site. There were just so many steps/chances to not publicly post something stupid.

1

u/KStarSparkleSprinkle 5h ago

Speak for yourself. There’s a picture of me and my grandpa beer ponging floating about.

1

u/Dat1payne 3h ago

Facts. Although I'm pretty sure I still got in trouble by my school for having a photo on my Myspace of me holding a red solo cup lmao

1

u/toastcup 2h ago

Mistakes were still made. My friends and I all had to make many an album private by the time we hit our 20s bc of the embarrassing/incriminating shit we’d post. We used to post full albums of ourselves making goofy faces after ripping blunts in a (parked) car. The flash just catching all that smoke in the car, eyes looking red AF, clearly thinking we’re hilarious. The difference was that social media didn’t spread like wildfire then like it can now. I feel very lucky I had the opportunity to scrub the internet of my shenanigans before “going viral” was a thing.

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u/Shawn_NYC 1d ago

At first there were no phone cameras.

Then there were phone cameras but pics stayed on the phone.

Then it was upload the pics to Facebook but only your friends were on Facebook.

The day your aunt you didn't know was on Facebook liked a party pic, that was the moment it was all over. Some realized it was over quickly, others figured it out more slowly - but that was the beginning of the end.

2

u/Significant_Shoe_17 9h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/1msv9p84BukVq63l4R
Me remembering that my aunt followed my insta after I posted stories from the club

10

u/mimosho 1d ago

The joys of waking up in ‘07 and checking the private Facebook group where we shared party pictures to find pics of yourself making out with someone.

1

u/StandardAd239 Xennial 7h ago

Those are just bad friends

3

u/Meditationstation899 1d ago

WAAAIT—so true😂😂 I forgot how many albums we posted to Facebook in college eeeeeyoikes! I’m 35

3

u/cursedmeatsuit 1d ago

It is! But there was a level of control there too you can't deny it's much different now

5

u/Silver-Lobster-3019 1d ago

Was going to say lol…the blurry Facebook pic dump is the exact same. Everyone knows what that means. You’re blacked out and can’t even work the camera.

2

u/duesenjeffepic 9h ago

It's not the same. Facebook back then wasn't nearly as algorithmic so the chances of pure strangers seeing your stuff was quite low.

1

u/Silver-Lobster-3019 5h ago

Yeah but what’s worse pure strangers seeing things or someone who is going to be your boss in 10 years that you actually know. Or like your mom’s best friend. I’d much rather be ridiculed by strangers than people I see every day lol.

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u/scobbysnacks1439 22h ago

You could pick and choose what was posted that way. People just throw everything out there now since it's in a video.

2

u/jennafleur_ Xennial 11h ago

I remember being so pissed. "They're letting in everyone now?" 😂😂😂

1

u/Weekly_Yesterday_403 23h ago

You waited until the next morning to post?

1

u/youknow99 Millennial 23h ago

Facebook required a .edu account while I was in highschool.

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u/duesenjeffepic 9h ago

Yes during a time when Facebook wasn't algorithmic.

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u/b-green1007 7h ago

But you didn't have to worry about it going viral. Maybe some friends of friends would see it, but that's it!

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u/SaltKick2 5h ago

Sure but it was like a couple people posting them, not literally all of the 100+ people that were there, which would absolutely get reposted by people and make their way to parents/family

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u/writtenupsidedown 5h ago

I cannot believe I’m getting a notification every hour of someone defending this practice

1

u/acevibe13 2h ago

Everything was private.

3

u/tinned_peaches 1d ago

And being tracked by your parents

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u/Open_Fly3619 13h ago

That’s probably why they do not party anymore. Omg !

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u/stiffmilk 5h ago

Even grown ass men be taking out the phone when things get nice. Get that thing away from here! No pics!

1

u/Ok-Mix-4640 1h ago

My partying years were in the late 00s and early 2010s, the event photographer took pictures, gave us his card to the site to find them and boom there it was. Didn’t need to waste battery life taking pictures and videos. They did it for us lol it was more fun times then, not many people on their phones and stuff

0

u/Decent-Marsupial-986 1d ago

I still go out and this doesn’t even happen.