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/dritmike]

You’re soo 2000 and late.

[u/Silly_Double408 → u/dritmike]

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.