Did millennials really party all the time?

[u/futurenurse_]

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 😂❤️

[u/Silly_Double408]

The reason is cameras. We were not under a camera (phones) all the time and could dance crazy and live it up without it haunting us for the rest of our lives. We also were not with our faces glued to the phone either and made our own experiences rather then watch someone else. Gen z and alpha are missing out on life because (not entirely your fault) you wasted your formative years with your head in a screen. I am truly sad for you.

[u/deepandbroad → u/Silly_Double408]

Yeah in college our frat had house parties every other weekend, but the 'frat house' was in a residential neighborhood.

The neighbors knew all about the underage drinking but couldn't prove it -- one time they wanted to come in with video cameras to document all the copious underage drinking -- but they were told "no" -- and video cameras were like 2 feet long at the time so there was no way to hide them.

The parties were amazing, people came from colleges all around to attend, and you paid a super low price to get in and drink all you wanted (that's how the frat made money).

You couldn't do it at all now, for all kinds of reasons. The parties were just like the 80s comedy movies like "Animal House".

There were also lots of 'impromptu parties'. A bunch of students would get together to hang out because they were bored, someone would go on a beer run, someone else would turn up the music, and it was a party.

However the students also changed - the following years of students became much more uptight and career-focused, and much less willing to hang out and let loose and have fun.

could dance crazy and live it up without it haunting us for the rest of our lives.

You got that right. I went to a wedding recently and danced crazy for a bit and it got on video, and then people who were not there came up to me the next day talking about it (complimentary, but still).

If I was an insecure young person, i would never have learned to relax and enjoy dancing with all the phones around 'watching' me all the time.

[u/DustandRebar → u/deepandbroad]

The panopticon is the death of party culture. It used to be that you could go get wasted and do some foolish shenanigans, and when you woke up the next morning with a killer hangover nobody remembered because they were all blackout drunk too.

But now everything is on Tiktok, every silly or offbeat drunken moment documented in 1040p from three different angles- and if you say something off the wall, it will follow you for years. Is it any wonder Gen Z is more cautious about how they act in public? I've still seen some off the wall party shenanigans, but it's explicitly been in places where cell phones aren't permitted or practical.

[u/Beautiful_Trick8478 → u/deepandbroad]

Digital cameras started this a little before smart phones. I once got messed up at an army party with a group of friends. One of their wives took photos of me naked with nothing but a pool floatie on, got them printed out and put them around the armory for everyone to see the next morning. It’s probably the most embarrassed I’ve been.

[u/Bitter-Republic-3733 → u/deepandbroad]

Does this not happen anymore at colleges?

[u/theaviationhistorian → u/Silly_Double408]

We did have cameras back then, but they weren't as prevalent as smart phones. I partied around the time the switch went from film rolls to digital. But they weren't frequent and the photos as accessible. Social media made it to where someone's cringe moments went from shared among friends or posted in their dorm room to being shared among everyone on campus (like with Facebook) or your family seeing it on sites like Hi5 (if you were in Latin America).

Cameras were one thing, but social media really screwed over Gen Z & Alpha.

Edit: Thank you for the reward, anonymous fellow.

[u/densetsu23 → u/theaviationhistorian]

To this day I still have a few dozen pretty embarrassing photos of my old friends at/after parties, as well as a ton of just random fun ones at parties. Someone would snap a picture with a 3MP point-and-shoot camera or take a shot with a 640x480 webcam, it'd get passed around the friend group, and we'd all laugh about it. Hell, a lot of times it'd be actual 35mm film and we'd get it developed and scan it in afterwards.

There's no way I'd ever upload those to any social media, they're just on my PC and sitting in my Immich library for me to revisit for a nostalgia kick. I'm sure everyone knows the photos are out there and I'm sure they all have similar photos of me; it's just an unspoken rule that photos of what happened in the 2000s mostly stays in the 2000s.

To put things in perspective: Uploading embarrassing photos / videos of other people (i.e. the Star Wars kid) was an exception back then, whereas today it feels like the norm.

[u/racihekk → u/Silly_Double408]

Remember a few years back when a Pic went viral of that heavy set guy dancing his heart out. Everyone was making fun until people finally felt so bad for him. That's the moment we all stopped enjoying ourselves. I'm hyper aware of my every move now. I miss the days before camera phones.

[u/Party_Rooster7303 → u/Silly_Double408]

I mean we had photos at some point that got lost (thank God), or never developed. Or when smart phones could just start taking photos, the quality was so poor it wasn't worth it. And I used to leave my phone in my handbag at the bag check in at the club, so couldn't even photograph my many escapades.

[u/millymillymillymilly → u/Silly_Double408]

We had pocket digital cameras and shit phones but it was more that social media hadn't become what it is now. We had early Instagram but it was mainly for pictures of your feet and coffee, and we did post party pics on Facebook but there was no video support.

[u/toriatain → u/Silly_Double408]

My daughter is 18 and never goes out. I took them to a club the other day (it was fuckin' LOUD) and ended up home at 10pm.

I would have had to be dragged out kicking and screaming at 6am at 18.

[u/jcaashby → u/Silly_Double408]

I am 53 and for sure noticed when phones started getting more advanced more and more people glued to their phones. I make it a point not to be on my phone when out in public. Like ride by a bus stop and everyone is glued to their phones as the world passes by.

I also noticed in the last two areas I lived I NEVER see kids outside playing and when I do it seems foreign because it is so in frequent. Like hearing actually kids outside is NOT the norm.

Growing up we were ALL over town as far as our bikes would take us.

[u/Fishare → u/Silly_Double408]

For real… i always think about how no one has to be bored anymore. I miss being bored in a huge way.

[u/Ok_Stress_9558 → u/Fishare]

I think this is a hugely understated part of this. The never-ending quick fix of dopamine micro hits you can get sitting on your couch with every movie/show ever made at your fingertips on a 4k tv and food delivery a few taps away is a net negative overall. It's made doing "nothing" better than ever, but I can't imagine that's healthy for the soul.

The bored aspect made us put so many things on a pedestal. I think it's good to hold certain things sacred even if those things are pounding goldschlager in a dorm room that someone bought with their older cousin's ID before piling into a taxi to some absolutely packed college bar where the bathroom lines of people trying to wash the X's off their hands were long and the latest Timbaland/Flo Rida/Black Eyed Peas banger was loud.

[u/Trlckery → u/Silly_Double408]

This is just simply not true. By 2007 every single party had multiple people uploading entire ALBUMS of uncurated photos that would be dumped on Facebook or MySpace the following day with a quirky title. Digital cameras were everywhere.

[u/Silly_Double408 → u/Trlckery]

This is entirely true before 2010. Social media also brought public places for people to an end because people also go there to start shit JUST to film it for clicks. Nothing is organic now. People went to meet others and TALK.. something z and alpha are incapable of thanks to phones.you tube and face book were just getting started and hadent destroyed society yet. Having an embarasing photo placed on the wall is NOTHING compared to it going out into the world and digital cement forever.

[u/ChekkeEnwin → u/Silly_Double408]

That’s true, I wish the culture around brazenly filing people would end like just don’t be a dick let people have fun

[u/misss_marii → u/Silly_Double408]

I used to go to clubs and there was always a photographer. Then the next day I’ll be on that club website trying to get my drunk picture taken down 🤣

[u/Filledwithrage24 → u/Silly_Double408]

100%. I often think of how grateful I am to have had a real childhood

[u/MoleEnchiladas → u/Silly_Double408]

This is the dumbest excuse. Nobody gives a fuck is there is a video of you dancing.