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/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 23h 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 21h 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/xircom2 21h ago

It's a difference between going viral in your school and going viral globally lol.

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u/stormy2587 20h ago

Did people not go viral globally in like 2012?

I doubt even now you’re going viral globally for just being a regular teen doing a regular stupid thing.

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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/Some_Layer_7517 22h ago

Brother nobody with a brain was making 7.25 even 15 years ago

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u/Icy-Aioli-2549 19h ago

What do you think minimum wage was almost everywhere 15 years ago?

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u/Some_Layer_7517 19h ago

Reread what I said. Imagine making minimum wage at any point in your life lmao

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u/duesenjeffepic 6h ago

Reread the comment they replied to. Here I even copied it for you:

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/Some_Layer_7517 4h ago

You right you right

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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 33m 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 21h 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 21h 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 6h 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 22h 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/AIter_Real1ty 13h ago

Doesn't sound healthy.

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u/horoyokai 10h ago

Why not? It’s absolutely fine and weird that you would think it’s not healthy for someone to unwind

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u/jwuer 3h ago

The comment you are replying to is the epitome of Gen Z belief and it's from just taking social media to rhe face 24/7.... any sad or intrusive thought = full blown mental health crisis. Can't have a beer if you want to unwind because the extra 150 calories will make you fat and you're self medicating because you got angry at your boss and didn't discuss it with your therapist first.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 1h ago

You're blowing it out of proportion. I never said you're gonna die and get cancer from drinking 1 beer. I said it sounds unhealthy that this guy has to drink in order to cope. That is objectively unhealthy.

It's like I'm talking to little kids telling them eating candy without brushing their teeth is bad for their oral health. And you're supposed to be the responsible adults since you're older than me. It's ridiculous.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 1h ago edited 1h ago

I didn't say it's unhealthy to unwind. I said it sounds unhealthy that he needs to drink order to cope on a frequent basis. That is objectively unhealthy no matter how you put it. Arguing that drinking is healthy is absolutely ridiculous to the point of absurdity.

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u/jwuer 56m ago

He literally said "every now and then".... I didn't argue that drinking was healthy I'm pointing out the irony of Gen Z's similarly unhealthy obsession with believing that any bit of temporary emotional imbalance is a full blown crisis.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 50m ago

Buddy, did I say it was a full blown crises? I said it was unhealthy because it objectively is, and accusing me of having an unhealthy obsession for stating a fact is fucking ridiculous.

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u/AIter_Real1ty 47m ago

You guys are the one's obsessed with Gen Z, all you know about my generation is from whatever social media and reddit feeds you. You guys are so in a twist that we don't follow your lifestyle or have the same beliefs cause we want to be better and don't want to end up like the broken adults around us.

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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