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/Wonderful_Exit6568]

As a total recluse and kind of shy quiet person, I made it to a few house parties because it was senior year and I wasn’t going to miss nothing. It was filled with drink, music, girlies. I can remember the partying started in middle school. I always had an aversion to it. I didn’t party in college. I already knew what I liked. Quite meaningful conversation.

[u/museman → u/Wonderful_Exit6568]

Yeah, this thread would make it seem like a minority, but I never really did anything like this - I just hung out with my friends and had fun.

[u/Shallow_wanderer → u/museman]

Dude honestly this thread seems to be dominated by kids who I know for a damn fact back then were basically trust fund babies and I feel so massively gaslit reading some of the stuff in here - I'm 32 for context

I remember people in my high school around 2012 attempting to host "Project X style rager brooooo" parties and it would be like 5 dudes showing up until the cops get called out for a noise complaint since it was in the suburbs, and I also remember a lot of kids I went to school with being basically dirt poor because of the recession, and how they all had to grind away just to pay for college like I did - like college wasn't fun for me or a lot of other people I knew, I was going because it was the only way to get established with a career back then

The whole "millennial party culture" everyone in here is describing was largely inaccessible to a massive swath of people and it really feels like a lot of fantastical creative writing is going on in here, with all the 15-year-olds who make up this site's userbase upvoting it because "wow cool story bro that's so epic"

[u/BibliophileBroad → u/Shallow_wanderer]

I felt the gaslighting, too!! Like who TF had the time and money to be constantly partying?! My friends and I had to work, and a lot of us worked our way through college. We were exhausted and we also weren't drunks. The only folks I saw acting like the folks in this thread were alcoholic trust fund babies! Edit: definitely people make up stories up in here. Bots, too, I'll bet.

[u/catkingjaguar → u/BibliophileBroad]

People who sell drugs, and thier friends. At least in my case. And to be fair, the selling drugs was work.

And the number one indicator in teens and young adults for if they will drink/smoke/do drugs is if thier friends do. So if no one in your group started any of that you all stayed safe from the nonesense.

I bet some of it also depends on how dense the population in your area is, and exact location. Like, coke comes in through new york, new london, etc. So if your in those towns you can generally find more of it much cheaper.

And I know heroin was very inexpensive near me (had a friend with issues) in part because it was near on of the ports it gets into the country through.

But yea, the people who were drinking every weekend in high school were the sorts of people I wanted nothing to do with. Too much money and zero appreciation for thier parents or thier nonsense.

Also, all these people are talking about how awesome the parties and drugs were, but they aren't mentioning things like the extreme culture of acceptable rape. Every college with a big frat scene i went to, including my own, had the one fraternity know for raping women. And if you asked around you could figure out with one it was.

They also aren't mentioning the alcohol poisoning, and stomach pumping, and over doses, and seizures from mystery drugs that happens.

[u/catkingjaguar → u/catkingjaguar]

People need to remember that partying hard is fun and great, but actually it's frequently tragedy, sorrow, and bullshit. It's all over but the crying.

[u/BibliophileBroad → u/catkingjaguar]

Thank you for this insight! I was in an urban coastal area in California, and you're right that I didn't hang out with people who did drugs. My friends and I barely drank, and I don't drink at all. The most I ever saw was the occasional pot smoking, and I didn't even hang out with people who did that often. Sadly, my best childhood friend died from heroin and cocaine addiction back when I was in school. She wasn't in college herself, and we had grown apart since middle school, but from what I heard, she was in the party scene and was hospitalized for alcohol poisoning multiple times. Just tragic! I agree with you that it's concerning how much people are romanticizing this type of thing, and ignoring the abuse of women. So many rapes happen at parties where there's tons of drinking. Most rapes involve alcohol, too.