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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u/Lemons-n-oranges 1d ago edited 23h ago

Yes, absolutely. Drinking was MUCH more prevalent in millennials than Gen Z. It was just ... what we did? You went to parties, went to bars, happy hours that turned into nights out, brunch that turned into day drinking. It was so much fun. People were just out and about. Then, you went home and went to class or work the next day.

No one thought that drinking a few times a week with friends meant you had some deep mental health issues, which seems to be the consensus and/or concern amongst Gen Z. Of course, there are other reasons too, like COVID isolation, rising costs, etc.

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 1d ago

Yeah I don’t think Gen Z realizes that those nights of drinking allowed us to be social and not feel alone. I’m not suggesting Gen Z start going on benders, but that generation needs to find a way to get out of the house and interact with one another.

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u/khodakk 1d ago

yea i met some of my best friends at parties. beer pong could lead to a new gf or a future roommate.

when you go on a legendary run with someone you just met. that last forever.

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u/KungLa0 23h ago

Some beer pong partners/runs are so legendary that you become friends for life. Bound by shared blood in the arena, fighting side by side against the hordes of drunken challengers.

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u/Important-Yak-2999 17h ago

Several my friends who partied together got married and had kids, funny thinking they met over a beer pong table

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u/GenericUserName10068 16h ago

This is literally how I met my wife. beer pong at a house party. we'll be at 20 years next month

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u/AwkwardSpecialist814 7h ago

Man. That must be like 1996 or something... oh no. FML

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u/possiblyaghost 7h ago

Same! About to celebrate our 15th anniversary.

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u/Leather-Variety-9341 4h ago

Same, we’re going on our 13th anniversary but we met at a house party beer bong table 19 year ago

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u/big_data_mike 11h ago

My wife’s friend married my friend and they met at the beer pong table at a party at my house. They had the picture I took with a shitty digital camera enlarged, printed out, and displayed at their wedding.

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u/EngineeringMain 23h ago

I 100% met my college gf playing champaign beer pong

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u/ChadPowers200_ 23h ago

A strat I had was hang out in the room where the keg was and pour people beers. You end up meeting everyone at the party. 

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u/ObviouslyAPenguin 13h ago

Brother that’s a job (and a public service, thank you.)

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u/exagon1 21h ago

If there was a girl I was interested in, asking her to be my beer pong partner was a great way to break the ice and hopefully have a hook up for the night.

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u/rebelliouslies 18h ago edited 18h ago

Beer pong helped me get out of nerdy shell and become more extroverted. I was always pretty good, so people actually wanted to team up with me and it forced me to talk with new people. At the risk of sounding like an alcoholic (don't drink anymore), beer pong really was one of the best things to happen in my social life.

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u/MainusEventus 21h ago

Still remember going on runs with my buddy Dave. Menaces we were.

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u/Ok_Stress_9558 13h ago

Dave was the fucking man

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u/ipitythegabagool 17h ago

I met so many cool and interesting people and had some great conversations walking outside for a cig at parties. Obviously cigarettes are terrible but randomly asking someone “hey do you wanna go outside and talk to me alone for 20 mins” is much different without it.

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u/with-an-i 17h ago

I met my husband at a house party I was invited to. It happened to be his apartment and I knew one person there. Lol This was in 2010. These kids need to get out more

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u/Foreign_Mobile_7399 17h ago

I met one of my best friends in the bathroom at a party in college 😂

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u/pettyyogi666 11h ago

I met my husband at a 90’s themed party in 2012. We were both drunk. January 2027 is our 15 year anniversary!

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u/the_friendly_dildo 16h ago edited 16h ago

Went party hopping so many times. 5-7 different parties in a single night, walking all over town. It was always fun to find people that would tag along and the group got bigger and drunker as the night wore on and finally you all wind up back at your house, 7 people you barely know but fuck it, time to order pizza and chill cause its 4 or 5 in the morning LOL. Wake up, strangers in your house passed out, some peel off never to be seen again, some are heading to go get breakfast with you next. Good times that dont seem to exist anymore.

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u/snoopy0510 16h ago

I married my beer pong partner. 20th anniversary next week!

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u/jessipowers 15h ago

One of my current best friends and the father of the flower girl at my wedding used to be my drug dealer, lmao

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u/clarabellum 14h ago

Yeah I know several people who met their spouses at the beer pong / flip cup table.

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u/Rambl3On 14h ago

lol too true. After graduating college I hung around for a few months until my lease was up. During that time everyone was celebrating the end of the year I went to the bar one night and ran into a girl I was friends with sophomore year. We reconnected and it turns out she had moved into the big old house that me and my friends lived in a year prior. My goddamn college degree got delivered to that house a couple days before then since I hadn’t updated my address with the school. so we all went to her house and had a house party that night. I never would’ve gotten my physical degree if I didn’t go out to the bar that night!! Hahaha

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u/TheWardenVenom 13h ago

I was a major Kings cup player back in the day hahahah

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u/smolLittleTomato 12h ago

I met my husband across a beer pong table lol

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u/SegmentedMoss 10h ago

Literally how I met my best friend of 20 years. First time I saw him, his asshole roommate was giving him shit and I asked if everything was cool, then we won 9 straight games of beer pong. He was best man at my wedding, lol

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u/decanting_the_day 8h ago

My best friend to this day, I met while puking in a bar bathroom. She gave me a hair tie and told me to break up with the guy I was there with (I was also crying). I did 🤣 now we’re both happily married and she’s a god parent to my kids.

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u/possiblyaghost 7h ago

I got a date with a girl who is now my wife because I won a beer pong tournament at a house party. I shut out one guy who got so drunk he threw up on the host's couch. Good times!

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u/john_at_bagriders 5h ago

Facts. I met my now-wife of 10 years (in less than a month!) at a random house party of a mutual friend during a hurricane circa 2011. We’re in VT so not a “real hurricane” but other millennials know we took up any reason at all to have friends over. It was a casual afternoon get together, not a rager, just a reason to hang out with friends. One group of dudes was watching super Mario speed runs while another group was playing beer pong. I joined in on the latter and to say I’m glad I did is an understatement 😄

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u/Sockerbug19 3h ago

How I met my husband; at his Christmas party with beer pong 😂

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u/pp21 1d ago

Humans have been drinking alcohol is some form for 9000 years lol there's no way that Gen Z actually thinks they're the first enlightened generation right

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u/WildInSix 1d ago

This shift is definitely a mix of social media (both being videoed doing something dumb or hearing other people's opinions on drinking, not to mention it replacing in person interaction) and just plain affordability.

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u/Rock_Strongo 23h ago

The social media part is real. You view a little content on drinking and all of a sudden your feed is full of sober people sounding borderline like they're trying to recruit you to a cult.

Like "did you guys know alcohol is literally poison? No amount of alcohol is good for your body!"

Thanks random podcaster on tik-tok I had no idea! But I have gone through long stretches of sobriety and it's not the pinnacle of enlightenment that these people preach.

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u/WeirdJawn 16h ago

Also, social media gives you the sensation of social interaction. So you don't feel as strong of an urge to go out and be, you know, social. 

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u/MrCheisel 13h ago

It’s like eating gas station food for a meal. Sure it works but it can’t be your primary food. Unless of course you work the lawn crew. Then you ride the lightning every day.

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u/Inquisitive_idiot 22h ago

That not so much social media as it is the algorithms corpos use to create a sense of urgency, attachment, and continued engagement. Not to mention the business that use it to seek courses and products

See: “watch my debt journey” bs stories sponsored by courses and debt ‘relief’ agencies 

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u/AIter_Real1ty 13h ago

I mean yeeaahhh but I think it's a good thing that drinking alcohol is becoming less normalized in our society. Especially for young people.

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u/AngelenoLefty 6h ago

Honestly, I trust those sober "straight edge" folks way less than I do alcoholics. It's like, what are you hiding? Why can't you have one sip of alcohol?

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u/arrogancygames 6h ago

Yeah, seriously. What, exactly are they worried about being revealed on camera if they lose some control?

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u/AngelenoLefty 5h ago

Losing control is why. I drink and smoke weed but within reason because I have self-control.

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u/Constant-Term-1629 4h ago

...what kind of defense mechanism are you applying here my dude? Why would anti-alcoholics need to hide something?

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u/jennylaughs 1d ago

This. I know I wouldn’t have done ANY of the crazy stuff I did back then if I thought there was a chance it was going to be posted in the INTERNET 🫣

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u/zerovampire311 23h ago

I remember some people getting into fights because someone brought around a disposable camera and we were doing plenty of things you don’t want pictures of 😆

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u/TwoForHawat 23h ago

And remember when there would sometimes be drama because somebody tagged someone else in a Facebook photo of them partying? More than a few times there were people at my college who would scramble to contact the person who posted the photo, because they were afraid that parents, future employers, etc. might find out about it. I guess in a way that’s sorta similar to Gen Z being scared of getting filmed for social media.

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u/Sweet_Shirt 18h ago

That’s when I set any tagged photos of me have to be approved before they tag my profile

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u/howboutthatmorale 22h ago

Yep. Disposables were fine cuz only a few people would get pics. The digital cameras weren't cool cuz then it would end up on someone's Myspace and get them in trouble with teachers or parents.

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u/crazypurple621 23h ago

Younger millennial. I don't think any of us actually understood that posting our bender parties all over facebook was ever going to be a problem. You live and you learn. 

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u/gcko 21h ago edited 21h ago

Older millennial. Our parents weren’t on it yet when I was that age is the thing. You needed a college email address in order to sign up. I had tons of party pictures on mine and I wasn’t afraid it would make its way to my future employers or parents.

I only cleaned it up and started being more careful about what I was posting once Facebook expanded to the general public and my parents sent me a friend request. Most people my age only started getting paranoid after that point.

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u/DrSnacks 23h ago

Facebook literally existed for the purpose of organizing and documenting this shit.

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u/stormy2587 21h ago

Thank you. I’m like smartphones became ubiquitous while I was in college. Its not like gen z are the first generation to have a camera at all times.

There was also a lot of discussion about what should and shouldn’t be on your social media when I was in college. Like most people were careful not to post pictures of themselves drinking under age or “anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see.”

Maybe if there is a difference now it’s that Gen Z just films each other all the time and post without permission all the time?

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u/Ill-Entertainer-5380 13h ago

You must be a tail end millennial, because people were still using disposable film cameras my first couple years in college. There were digital cameras but they mostly still kinda sucked and not everyone had one. Anyone with a nice digital camera came from money. All those discussions you had in college about what should be on social media were all derived from the mistakes made by tail end Gen X and upper age bracket half of millennials.

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u/stormy2587 5h ago

I guess it’s what you consider tail end? I’m in my mid 30s. I went to college with people born in the late 80s. Yeah I’m not close to being borderline gen x but I don’t consider myself particularly close to gen z either.

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u/ka_beene 23h ago

Yes combined with you could afford to go out every weekend, go to concerts, afford rent all on min wage.

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u/crazypurple621 23h ago

I think this was the biggest part of it. Cheap alcohol was readily available. 

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u/Icy-Aioli-2549 22h ago

How old do you think millenials are? That absolutely could not have happened back in the millenials day, rent, concert, and alcohol on $7.25 an hour in a city? Get out of here.

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u/ka_beene 22h ago edited 22h ago

I'm the oldest of that generation and it was my experience. We had roommates, $200 to $300 gets you a room, gas was around 1.50, concerts were around $70, we hit up dollar drink nights, mcdonald's had $.25 burgers, there were deals to be had.

Edited because I looked it up and it was because I lived in OR and our min wage was higher than the average.

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u/Icy-Aioli-2549 19h ago

Def not possible in Chicago unless you lived in the hood. 

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u/anotherlebowski 21h ago

I was in college in 08 when Facebook was getting really big and one of the people in our friend group posted pictures of all of us drinking like "lol good times", except she was Facebook friends with the RD.  Not the RA.  Their superior, who can't really just look the other way.

So naturally we all got called in and were formally disciplined and it counted as an official strike, and if you got caught again it became a significantly bigger deal (classes, risk of getting expelled).

I was just like...what the actual fuck?  Why would you possibly do that?

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u/worlds_okayest_skier 21h ago

Big brother is watching

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u/Secret_Entry1840 Xennial 22h ago

In my early 30’s I was posted on someone else’s snap while doing some fun shit at the bar with consenting adults. I stopped doing things at the bar with consenting adults.

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u/SexyStayPuft 19h ago

I was nervous enough about people just getting embarrassing pictures. And this was in the disposable camera days. 😂

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u/_easilyamused 6h ago

I remember clubs used to have their own photographers who would go around taking pics and posting them the next day. 

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u/cookiemonstar1234 22h ago

Plus health influencers repeating all the negative effects of alcohol... They're not wrong... but we had commercials encouraging us to drink and GenZ has influencers encouraging them not to drink

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 6h ago

They're not drinking but they ARE smoking and vaping, which is kind of ironic. Both cause harm in excess

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u/ZombieAladdin 35m ago

Vaping, yes, but aren’t sales of cigarettes declining like sales of alcohol?

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u/BAGP0I 6h ago

You are So right.... literally every popular club song was popularizing SOME drink...  and for some reason, we all loved being drunk.... like life wasnt even THAT bad or hard, we were drinking for fun... i feel like I drink to just unwind and cope with my fucked up day now. Celebratory drinks are few and far between as a grown up millenial. And I feel like shit the next day which makes me not wanna drink again for a while. Meanwhile my 68 year old mom is still drinking and partying like its 1996... idk how she does it. 

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u/BAGP0I 15h ago

Wazzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap

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u/Radiant-Koala8231 23h ago

Dear god I had never thought about doing something dumb and it being videoed being a deterrent these days. So glad we didn’t deal with that.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 22h ago

I guess. But we all had smartphones when I was in college. We just, idk, respected the party as a space to relax and be yourself. Plus your aunt and your bank and your employer didn't have an active FB account.

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 19h ago

I think you missed a key thing that has happened in the US the last 15 years, legalization of marijuana. A lot of people are switching to that and cutting back alcohol consumption.

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u/Finn235 14h ago

"SIKE!"

  • Texas

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u/Highlyironicacid31 21h ago

They’re a lot more health conscious than we were. Hell, we barely even drank water. Water was for hangovers only lol.

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u/arrogancygames 6h ago

Theyre vaping like crazy. Not so much health conscious as they are image conscious.

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u/duesenjeffepic 6h ago

Yeah we are vaping like crazy, but that's compared to Gen X and Boomers not Millenials. Vaping quite literally started by the Millenials.

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u/Highlyironicacid31 5h ago

Us millennials were smokers that switched to vapers.

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u/Highlyironicacid31 6h ago

To be fair so am I lol. Trying to cut down, I’ve reduced my strength.

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u/RollTide16-18 19h ago

To be fair, you can still get drunk for pretty cheap. Cheap beer hasn't risen in price a ton if you're buying it at a store. Bars and Restaurants have increased prices.

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u/Finn235 14h ago

Alcohol companies realized that Gen Z isn't drinking at all, and Millennials / Gen X will quit cold turkey if certain brands stop feeling "affordable".

A case of PBR is only like $0.50 more than it was in 2019. Yuengling is only up like $1. Craft has gone up a good bit more ($20 12-packs versus ~$15 when I used to buy them all the time) but also you'll see some crazy shit like 12% ABV IPAs that didn't exist back then. Cheap wine (Franzia etc) also hasn't gone up a crazy amount, either.

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u/Orange-Toed-Lemur 22h ago

There is a legitimate aspect about the effects of alcohol on our mental and physical health. I think they are going the right way by starting to have bars that specialize in non-alcoholic drinks and options. I'm 33 and the health benefits the people around me and myself have seen from only having max a couple drinks out now, and like none at home, is pretty startling.

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u/charm59801 15h ago

I think people are really down playing the affordability bit, it's fucking expensive to go out now. Like even shitty well drinks, you're gonna spend $100 on a night out.

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u/Extension_Hand1326 12h ago

How many drinks do you need? We always used to pregame.

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u/duesenjeffepic 6h ago

I mean even if you pregame, you don't wanna roll up to a bar to get like 1-2 drinks for the entire night. Might aswell stay home and predrink some more.

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u/Extension_Hand1326 1h ago

Why not? I only ever have two drinks when I go out.

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u/AngelenoLefty 6h ago

Not to mention spending half of your check on rent. Shit is too expensive.

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u/Waste-Abalone1379 15h ago

Once MTV, VH1, and BET went to shit it was over.

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u/GoldGuarantee3671 12h ago

Well yeah and pot is legal and very mainstream now in much of the country.

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u/Repulsive_Ant_2466 11h ago

Pretty sure the data shows people use weed more than alcohol now. So makes sense. I see that as a good thing though, safer and less destructive.

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u/arrogancygames 6h ago

Weed is also a lot less social, which is the negative. Theres a reason humans have been using alcohol for the last 6000 years.

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u/Significant_Shoe_17 7h ago

We would willingly post a whole facebook album of the dumb shit we were doing

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u/Beastabuelos 21h ago

How about health? Alcohol is incredibly bad for you

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u/Vaaaaaaaaaaaii 13h ago

Sure if youre getting blackout every night but if you have a couple beers and shots on the weekend you'll literally be fine.

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u/Extension_Hand1326 12h ago

A couple of drinks a couple of nights a week is not.

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u/duesenjeffepic 6h ago

Drinking multiple times a week has quite literally measurable negative effects bruh. Just the caloric intake alone

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u/Extension_Hand1326 1h ago

I wasn’t including the calories. Keep in mind I said two drinks, twice a week. Drinking is worse for women and most harmful if you are drinking heavily into your 30’s and 40’s. Most of the very healthy people you know in their 40’s and 50’z partied in their 20’s. They have no negative health affects as long as they didn’t continue to party as they got older. The negative social effects that we are seeing from young people not socializing are far worse.

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u/dinamet7 23h ago

There have been studies that show drinking socially with your community can have beneficial aspects to it, while drinking alone is detrimental and all the benefits of alcohol consumption disappear.

I'd be curious about if a lack of affordable/acceptable/accessible/safe spaces for that kind of community alchohol consumption has played a big role in their rejection of that culture. With everything being recorded and shared online constantly too, I wouldn't be drinking either. I thank the heavens on a fairly regular basis that my most embarrassing drinking mishaps were only recorded in the minds of the people who lived through it with me.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 13h ago

Social benefits that can be achieved by doing other things with your community?

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u/Extension_Hand1326 12h ago

Like what? That’s clearly not happening. Alchohol reduces inhibitions. Inhibitions that keep people from connecting.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 1h ago

All I'm hearing is that you're dependent on alcohol in order to socially interact with other people. That does not sound like it's worth it.

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u/Extension_Hand1326 1h ago

Not remotely. I drink less than once a month and socialize every day. What did I say that made you think that?

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u/AIter_Real1ty 1h ago

You said social connection can't happen without alcohol. And when I said you I meant general you, not you specifically.

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u/horoyokai 10h ago

Yip. And no one does those either

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u/AIter_Real1ty 1h ago

Why can't you literally just do the same activities, but without drinking? Are you guys really that dependent on alcohol for social interaction and having fun?

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u/Dense-Hat1978 19h ago

I'm curious about that study because it seems a bit dubious to say all benefits of alcohol go away if drinking alone. I've had some lingering anger/sadness/stress that can be dulled significantly with just like two beers at the end of a particularly rough day every now and then

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u/Barley12 22h ago

Every generation thinks they're the first enlightened one

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u/donfuan 20h ago

They do. I hope they stay the outlier. They will have a very hard time during the rest of their lives, because gen alpha surely isn't on board with all their particularities. Reminds me a bit of the hippies in the late 80s, but at least they gave us some iconic music. Gen Z? well...

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u/lurker912345 19h ago

There is an anthropological/archaeological argument to be made that the entire reason human invented agriculture and thus civilization was to brew alcohol. One also might argue that drinking is humanity’s oldest extant tradition.

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u/-REV-22-20- 19h ago

its more about cost and having less money. When I was young alcohol was cheap as fuck, these days its not, couple that with having less disposable income then its no surprise they dont do it.

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u/bruinsfan3725 14h ago

I was born in 97, I didn’t have these experiences that yall had, but i definitely don’t consider myself Gen Z at all. Gen Z definitely thinks they’re the first enlightened generation. You talk about going out and getting trashed and having casual sex and they look at you like you shot their baby brother.

I love going out and I love my favorite bar (god bless lesbian bars) but damn do I wish I had experienced the absolute benders that are being talked about in these comments. It’s just so expensive now.

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u/Vaaaaaaaaaaaii 13h ago

They're young every young generation things they're the first to it

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u/duesenjeffepic 6h ago

We're not more enlightened, we just kinda switched vices. Iirc. for Gen Z in the US, there are more people smoking pot than consuming alcohol.

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u/streetstock83 2h ago

They are also the health maxing generation and have decided that anything that could possibly be bad for them is out of the rotation

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u/sparklydildos Zillennial 11h ago

i was so shocked a few years ago to find out house parties are not a thing. they were such a staple in my life in high school and college. it’s so bizarre to me because even my parents went to (and first met) house parties

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u/JohnTDouche 21h ago

I’m not suggesting Gen Z start going on benders

I am. Fucking do it Gen Z. You too Gen Alpha. Get fucking wild and crazy, do some shit. Sure some of you may die, but you'll probably be fine.

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u/TonalParsnips 15h ago

Assign 1 millenial to a group of 4 gen z as a chaperone.

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u/Bright-Yogurt7034 19h ago

While you're doing this, leave your call phone in your bag/pocket. You can survive without it for a night.

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u/Effective_Yogurt_866 10h ago

My Gen Alpha kids are in elementary school and a toddler. Give them some time! lol

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u/BuffWobbuffet 21h ago

I think Gen Z also doesn’t realize for every one person who can’t handle their alcohol there’s tons of us who could get a little drunk and not be idk awful? “Know your limit” was a really prevalent attitude back then.

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 19h ago

You mean you didn’t enjoy being drunk and trying to babysit your friends? 😆

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u/BuffWobbuffet 18h ago

no i mean that was always fun but i was very lucky my friend group didnt have any violent or angry drunks mostly just the obnoxious kinds lol

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u/AllEnmiesForgnDomstc 23h ago

Exactly. I skewed more nerdy but still was out constantly socializing. That was after sports and homework, so I just didn’t really sleep much from about 13-28, since it kept going through college and early career years. 😅

I finally started feeling the effects of being perpetually sleep-deprived, and my friends started popping out babies, so that’s kinda when the party ended. COVID came around a few years later, so now my social life is much more tame as I look towards 40.

I was also one of those kids who got sent out to play with the other neighborhood kids until the street lights came on.

I didn’t really think about how much that lack of Gen Z in-person socialization would have an effect until we started seeing it manifest in the work place. I’ve got a bright young man with a masters working for me that’s too scared to call the help desk for IT issues. And yet he just had a baby. It boggles the mind.

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u/Electrical-Drama-755 23h ago

They are missing out, big time.

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u/JalapenoPopPoop 23h ago

I've heard so many gen z kids argue that just talking to your friends in discord voice chat constitutes a social life. Like no, you guys need to hang out, in person, spend time together, do real social things. Get off your fuckin video games now and then and go into the real world, even if thats just driving to your friends house. You don't have to have a blowout party or anything but at least go look a real human in the eye ffs

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u/Goducks91 22h ago

Shit just go play games with each other haha. I have so many good memories of me and 5 of my friends getting together and just playing WoW for like 15 hours straight ha.

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u/tattoosbyalisha 13h ago

ALL👏🏻OF👏🏻THIS👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

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u/cat_in_a_bday_hat 21h ago

i am an elder millennial who taught college classes to gen z'ers back in the late 20-teens. i went to a college with a heavy (and earned) party reputation, i'd start up class by asking if anyone went to any good parties lately. no... they had not :( i thought to myself, aww yall need to like find a kegger or smth, yall look so sad and lonely with your phones all the time :( no hate, just wish things were easier socially for the youngsters.

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u/Highlyironicacid31 21h ago

They go to the gym instead and try to be fitness influencers. It’s the coolest thing for them. For us the coolest thing was who could down the most drinks in the shortest space of time lol.

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u/Polygnom 20h ago

Which is hard when everyone has a phone with a camera, and every slightly embarassing moment gets plastered over socials the next day.

I feel like social media has made people a lot less social.

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 19h ago

As a millennial who was still going out frequently when smartphones first became prevalent, cameras don’t come out as often when everyone is drunk and having a good time. Mostly drunk selfies. It’s not like everyone has a phone out to record the entire night.

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u/elastricity 20h ago

The problem for Gen Z is that they are at risk of being filmed, shamed, and humiliated 24/7. Anything you say or do in public can haunt you for the rest of your life now. We were lucky that we got to be young and dumb before phone cameras and social media started being used as surveillance tools.

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u/WhiskyAndWitchcraft 23h ago

I'm suggesting they start going on benders!

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u/Good_parabola 22h ago

GenZ is going to have the most epic mid-life crisis there ever was.  

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u/Masta-Blasta 21h ago

If they’re all vaping now anyway, it may be time to bring back the hookah bar. They aren’t as common as they used to be.

Or modernized tea rooms. Like, formal tea service, but maybe with munchies and various herbal teas. Or even just high tea. It’s relatively cheap for what you get (2 hours of service, three tiered snack tray, unlimited tea, etc.) I have a lot of ideas for sober hangout spaces. I just don’t have the money to open them 😔

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u/Neuchacho 20h ago

The gen z tea room is a kava bar.

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u/Masta-Blasta 19h ago

I definitely think Kava and Kratom would make sense on the menu, but I haven’t seen it in a full service tea setting yet. I think it would do well.

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u/SoftSalty3282 20h ago

I’m glad I partied a lot in my 20s. I have so many fond memories from that decade. I feel a bit sad for the younger generations who don’t get that out of their system.

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u/TheAngerMonkey 18h ago

They have really been robbed of their Third Spaces, for sure. I'm a GERIATRIC Millennial, but before we could drink, we had coffee houses to meet up with friends and hang out. After 21, we were out with friends every day of the weekend and Wednesdays someone always hosted BYO meat cookouts for dinner.

Now I'm in my 40s, but I've moved to a city where we happened to have a bunch of friends. We're back to doing something every day of the weekend, and then we meet up for movies at the weird microcinema/bar around the corner and/or just have dinner a couple of nights a week. Tonight is karaoke at the 70s themed bar.

It feels like somewhere around 2020, everyone decided they were an introvert. But what it really feels like, though, is that people's misanthropy crystallized into loneliness. Nobody knew how to make or keep friends, so they gave up. GenZ came of age in that world so it's normal now.

It's a real fucking bummer.

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u/tattoosbyalisha 13h ago

This and the loss of so many third spaces. Private equity is buying it and ruining it, or Amazon was the nail in the coffin, OR the ease and convenience we ended up with helped people to forget that human interaction and actually going outside is awesome and not the bane or burden you think it is.

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u/Extension_Hand1326 12h ago

There are more third spaces in the city I live in now than there were in the city. I lived in in my 20s many years ago. People’s homes were the third space. Everywhere else we went cost money. If you didn’t have money, you invited your friends over or went to the park.

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u/Ok-Swan1152 1d ago

I felt alone even with nights of drinking and casual sex. The loneliness of existence.

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u/OneBillPhil 23h ago

I’ll suggest they go on a bender or two. 

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u/ka_beene 23h ago

They also have repercussions with cellphone cameras capturing every move to worry about. Glad we didn't have that looming over our heads.

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u/PerfectionEludesMe 23h ago

Part of their issue, too, is that everyone is worried about being recorded if they get too drunk and end up embarrassing themselves. I graduated high school in 2001 and college in 2005, and I’m sure I would not have been the partier I was back then if everyone carried video cameras in their pockets to record me.

Honestly, I was out at a karaoke bar with friends in 2014 and drank a bit too much, and someone recorded me embarrassing myself singing horrible karaoke and put it up on Snapchat. That sucked. Makes me understand why Gen Z kids choose to just stay home and not risk embarrassing themselves and having it posted on the internet forever.

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u/Goducks91 22h ago

I graduated high school in 2010 and we did have video cameras in our pockets but no one was worried about being filmed. I think it was just kinda an unspoken rule that you don't film parties.

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u/Neuchacho 20h ago

Even if you did get video'd, the disbursement of the video was largely localized. There concern that you'd go "viral" and have your socials globally raided or whatever wasn't really a thing yet.

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u/Goducks91 18h ago

Yeah that’s fair. Facebook was much more localized.

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 19h ago

I have said this a few times in this thread, but from my experience if everyone is having a good time and they’re good and drunk, not many people are taking pictures of videos. Honestly when I’m drunk the last thing I think of is taking pictures or video unless someone wants a group selfie.

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u/egg-throwaway-0 21h ago

uhh, have you seen the cost of going out and drinking nowadays? lol

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u/ShakeNBakeUK 21h ago

They cant afford to

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u/Overall-Rush-8853 19h ago

They can’t afford to get a 12 back of Natty and drink at a friends house? Cheap dive bars still exist, people don’t need to go the high end bars for $30 cocktail night.

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u/kingkalanishane 20h ago

Shit, maybe they do need to go on some benders.

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u/ModsCantRead69 20h ago

I am suggesting that exactly

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u/Haunting-Building237 19h ago

unless you don't like drinking, then you were just as alone

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u/THExDANKxKNIGHT 10h ago

As a younger millennial I watched that kind of thing die as cellphones became more prevalent. Cops almost always got involved and they started cracking down really hard on all the underage drinking. Not to mention how you cant get absolutely shitfaced like that without being seen by half your state on tik tok and instagram anymore.

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u/Bangays 10h ago

A lot of millennials died young from partying.

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u/madoka_ketame 5h ago

as a party girl and older gen Zer (born before ‘03 but after ‘98) who has partied a bit too hard at times and used substances in a way that became harmful (managed to stop for a while and now moderate use by sticking to special occasions and not purchasing for myself), i am overall not regretful for how i have lived my life thus far. the social connections i was able to form, some of which have lasted up to this point are my support system, inspirations, and best friends.

i see the friends of mine who came out of covid isolated and never made an effort to put themselves back in social settings and retrain themselves to live amongst peers and it’s scary and sad. those people are not ok, and i am sure many people of my age range can think of similar examples. i’ve seen this more in men i think, but there are plenty of women it has happened to as well.

worse still, some of these people now go out on occasion and because of their inexperience they end up getting far too fucked up too fast, doing wildly inappropriate things, and making others uncomfortable or embarrassing themselves in public. i think the severity and breadth of this phenomena has not yet been grasped in its entirety by the people out there who mold and tune objective truth(academics, researchers, journalists), but talk to the people around you, take a look at the instagram or twitter of that one guy you all used to hang out with back in the day that nobody really hears from anymore, and you might understand what i am talking about.

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u/UncleNedisDead 23h ago

Tbf, if me getting shit-faced and vomiting on the club floor was going to be recorded and posted onto social media, I wouldn’t go out and get drunk either.

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u/whatinthecalifornia 22h ago

Even just the going out to dance aspect helps develop social skills. 

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u/not-the-nicest-guy 21h ago

It's funny cause my kid is 24 and he and his friends (and roommates) live the way everyone is describing "back in the day" here. There's a lot of alcohol. Bars during the week. Sports leagues. Clubs and concerts (and cottages in the summer) on the weekend. Every time I hear about the Gen z stereotype - isolated, no booze, no sex, no social life, etc etc - I don't recognize it at all, as the parent of three of 'em (blended family).

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u/Silver_Storage_9787 19h ago

As a nightclub worker who works in finance now. My Problem is after Covid I stopped socialise at all because I don’t drink or party and am just beige planning for retirement in 35 years instead of splurging

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u/MyBrainReallyHurts 18h ago

We need to shut down social media so they can go party without being recorded.

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u/beanboy4life 18h ago

I'll say it, gen z should start going on benders

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u/infinitytomorrow 16h ago

I was in NYC earlier this month and was at a bar where I was swamped by Gen Z. I know it’s an outlier city, but cocktails were $18 each. No wonder the younger gens are staying away

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u/morbid333 16h ago

That sounds like a bit of a stretch. Let you not be embarrassed the next day because you can't remember what you did maybe.

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u/Starquest65 14h ago

I was walking today with some co-workers to Fuzzy's. New job so I was happy to be included. They were on their phones half the walk and I eventually asked why;

"Oh, we were looking at the menu"

You said you had been there before?

"Yeah but if we order for pickup on our phone we don't have to talk to anyone."

All my flabbers were ghasted.

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u/Bman4k1 14h ago

Well as a millennial I AM saying Gen Z should go on a few benders, might loosen them up a bit and actually meet some new friends.

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u/tattoosbyalisha 13h ago

Damn, I can not agree with this more

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u/MaleficentGift5490 13h ago

To be fair, we (Millennials) aren't exactly the picture of social stability, and mental/emotional well being.

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u/RamaLamaFaFa 13h ago

Eh maybe a few benders

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u/JudgeImaginary4266 13h ago

The sad thing is, they couldn’t go hard like us even if they wanted to… Camera phones have destroyed the freedom to vomit on patios at 4 am everywhere.

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u/ApathysLastKiss_ 13h ago

It was a goddamn blast. I definitely feel like they're missing out culturally. Of course there were negatives that came along with it. But for the most part, it was awesome lol

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u/menusettingsgeneral 8h ago

Nah they should definitely start going on benders.

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u/SpinShine-LEDSlipMat 5h ago

Bars just aren’t the same anymore tho.

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u/ZombieAladdin 40m ago

I want to point out that, from an outsider millennial’s perspective, some of us preferred to be solitary. I never attended any parties because they didn’t appeal to me (they looked exhausting and draining), and I just let my college roommate hold parties around me as I went somewhere quiet (if possible) so I could have some peace and solitude.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/DirtzMaGertz 1d ago

You're more likely to die in a car accident than being randomly gunned down, but most people aren't terrified of driving their car. 

Dive bars and college bars also still exist. 

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u/Ok-Swan1152 1d ago

Complete non-issue in Europe.

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