As Dry January begins, there's one generation that has already begun cutting back on alcohol: Gen Z.
TIME
Alcohol
“It is becoming clear that, for whatever reasons, today’s younger generations are just less interested in alcohol and are more likely than older generations to see it as risky for their health and to participate in periods of abstinence like Dry January,” said National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism George F. Koob in a statement.
There isn’t one clear reason for alcohol’s decline among Gen Z, but experts point to a variety of factors.
One may be changing laws, including the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which set the age to purchase or publicly possess alcoholic beverages to 21. Prior to that, the minimum age to drink was 18.
Alcohol’s social reputation has also changed. “It makes sense that older drinkers are drinking more, given that Baby Boomers were steeped in a heavier drinking culture,” said Koob.
Adds Sybil Marsh, a physician specializing in family medicine and addiction: “There was a time where drinking some alcohol was a badge of maturity and was sophisticated. But now, it's only one out of a whole range of ways that people can relax or show sophistication and so on.”
Marijuana could be a part of that shift. The drug is legal in nearly half of all U.S. states for recreational use. Nearly 80% of Americans live in a county with at least one cannabis dispensary, according to the Pew Research Center, and cannabis has been put into drinks being marketed to younger consumers. Koob says it's unclear whether the decline in drinking among Gen Z Americans has to do with a preference for drugs. The 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 36.5% of adults aged 18 to 25 consumed marijuana in the past year. And if you look at marijuana use across a lifetime, some 1 in 2 adults in the same age range have at least tried marijuana, according to the same study. Still, that study showed alcohol use in the past year exceeded marijuana use, with 68.1% of the same age group consuming alcohol.
Another contributing factor has to do with the changing socialization patterns of younger generations. “Alcohol tends to be a social drug, even for young people, so part of the decline in underage drinking could be related to less in-person socializing,” said Koob. On average, the amount of time people spent with friends in-person decreased from 30 hours a month in 2003 to 10 hours a month in 2020, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on the epidemic of loneliness. That decline was especially marked for people aged 15 to 24.
Marsh says that younger generations are much more interested in living healthy lifestyles than generations past, and evolving alcohol marketing tactics reflect those changing values. “If you look at alcohol marketing, they're sort of stopping short of saying it's healthy to have some drinks, but that drinking can be part of a healthy lifestyle,” she says, “as opposed to the Gen X type of marketing, which was like, ‘party hard.’”
There’s been a wave of sober bars opening across the U.S.—Hekate in New York City, Sans Bar in Austin, and The Sober Social in Atlanta, to name a few—to accommodate for changing attitudes about alcohol.
Emerson Haven, a 26-year-old stage director and student based in New York City, occasionally drinks in social settings, but often opts for a sober night out for health reasons. “There’s a history of alcoholism in my family, so I'm just careful about it. I never drink alcohol if I feel like I'm having a bad day, because I don't want to create that association,” he says. “And then sometimes I just don't enjoy the feeling of being drunk.” ■
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