Well done, Ed. Thoughtful commentary as always and leads to the question nobody can answer (yet): How do we learn to put these damned things down and be human with each other again? I think your Negronis are a good start. Buying your friends dinner will (hopefully) prompt them to reciprocate. Cheers!
I'm sorry, Ed, but this one really misses the mark. Both you and Scott have talked about the need for progressive taxation and the inequalities of modern Western nations, especially for people who mix within the circles of the patron saints of finance capital. Still, this article just reads as liberal white-collar knowledge porn, straight out of an Economist periodical. It's clear why you had three Negronis and paid for your friends. You can afford to, you have an upper-middle-class job; young people cannot afford to drink anymore. They want to go to bars and pubs and clubs and eat out, but 50% of their salary goes to their landlord and going out costs as much or more than a day's work. So instead, they escape into the endless nihilism and dopamine of cyberspace. A warning to the supporters of neoliberalism, the chickens are coming home to roost, more and more of what economic liberals claim to love about society will deteriorate, the high street, the nightlife, unless inequality is solved.......But I doubt they will realise in their gated off blocks, I'm sure they assume just as young people choose not to drink, they must also be choosing to be poor.
I think there’s a flaw in the central argument here. The decline in drinking and the rise in screen time are happening simultaneously, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one replaced the other. Alcohol is primarily a social thing. Most people drink with other people. Screens, by contrast, are often solitary technologies, even when they’re technically “social.”
As a member of Gen X, I find myself looking at this through a slightly different lens. My generation grew up before smartphones, social media and constant connectivity. Going out wasn’t one option among many competing for our attention; it was often the default. We met friends in pubs, clubs, gigs, parks and each other’s homes because there was nowhere else to be. Alcohol was frequently present, but it was rarely the main event. The social interaction was.
What strikes me is not that Gen Z traded alcohol for phones, but that many young people seem to have lost the environments that once made drinking attractive in the first place. Previous generations met partners at pubs, went clubbing, joined local scenes, hung around with colleagues after work, and spent long stretches of unstructured time together. Alcohol was often the lubricant for those experiences rather than the objective itself.
If fewer people are dating, fewer people are going out, fewer people are joining clubs, fewer people are leaving home, and more friendships exist primarily online, then declining alcohol consumption may be a symptom of declining social participation rather than evidence that screens have become the new drug.
As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about addiction, I’m not convinced alcohol and screens occupy the same psychological space. My semi-autobiographical novella, Default Setting: A Nervous Breakdown, explores alcoholism, addiction, depression and self-destruction from the inside. One of the things I learned while writing it is that the substance itself is often secondary. People don’t become addicted because they love alcohol; they become addicted because alcohol, screens, gambling, work, sex, shopping or any number of other compulsions temporarily relieve some deeper discomfort. The object changes, but the underlying need often remains the same.
The more worrying possibility is that both trends stem from the same root cause. People aren’t lonely because they stopped drinking. They’re drinking less because they’re lonely. The phone didn’t simply replace the bottle; it replaced the pub, the dance floor, the house party, the awkward first date, the chance encounter, and all the messy, imperfect social spaces where previous generations spent their time.
If that’s true, the real question isn’t whether screen addiction is worse than alcohol addiction. It’s whether we’re creating enough opportunities for genuine human connection to compete with either.
Perhaps the lesson isn’t that alcohol was healthy after all, or that screens are uniquely destructive. It’s that human beings have always sought relief, escape and connection. When one outlet declines, another tends to emerge. The challenge is not eliminating our addictions entirely, but building lives in which we need them a little less.
Is anyone actually mourning the death of alcohol? I’m glad Galloway stopped preaching about kids needing to drink more, as if alcohol is the only way for young people to socialize. It’s an outdated take and ignores the fact that most people are not able to order three $17 negronis at dinner.
I absolutely loved this piece. Social lubricants are a real thing, and whatever is the opposite of a lubricant - social dessicant - that's what we've currently got going on.
SIR,consider this —*Bloomberg— Bhajan clubbers - - The Sober High Taking Over India’s Nightlife*
*Young Indians are trading hangovers for a faith-fueled buzz as devotional jamming goes mainstream.*
India’s Gen Z and millennials are increasingly *swapping alcohol-fueled nights out for “bhajan clubbing” — devotional chanting set to bass-heavy beats, strobe lights and concert-style production.* What was once rooted in temples and family prayer is being repackaged for a younger generation seeking spirituality, community and, as one attendee put it, *“a sober high.”*
Its a collective action problem. Not using my phone makes my life worse. I live in a pretty small city and there is simply nowhere you can go to meet other young people. There is no 'real world' anymore
Wow this was amazing! I never realized that an addiction to one substance was taken over by our addiction to something else. Thanks a lot for the read.
Excellent piece. I wonder whether the radically lower percentage of Gen Z drinkers correlates in any way to continually dropping crime rates. Might be an interesting subject for a future post.
Well done, Ed. Thoughtful commentary as always and leads to the question nobody can answer (yet): How do we learn to put these damned things down and be human with each other again? I think your Negronis are a good start. Buying your friends dinner will (hopefully) prompt them to reciprocate. Cheers!
You didn’t mention the price of alcohol at all though?
I'm sorry, Ed, but this one really misses the mark. Both you and Scott have talked about the need for progressive taxation and the inequalities of modern Western nations, especially for people who mix within the circles of the patron saints of finance capital. Still, this article just reads as liberal white-collar knowledge porn, straight out of an Economist periodical. It's clear why you had three Negronis and paid for your friends. You can afford to, you have an upper-middle-class job; young people cannot afford to drink anymore. They want to go to bars and pubs and clubs and eat out, but 50% of their salary goes to their landlord and going out costs as much or more than a day's work. So instead, they escape into the endless nihilism and dopamine of cyberspace. A warning to the supporters of neoliberalism, the chickens are coming home to roost, more and more of what economic liberals claim to love about society will deteriorate, the high street, the nightlife, unless inequality is solved.......But I doubt they will realise in their gated off blocks, I'm sure they assume just as young people choose not to drink, they must also be choosing to be poor.
I think there’s a flaw in the central argument here. The decline in drinking and the rise in screen time are happening simultaneously, but that doesn’t necessarily mean one replaced the other. Alcohol is primarily a social thing. Most people drink with other people. Screens, by contrast, are often solitary technologies, even when they’re technically “social.”
As a member of Gen X, I find myself looking at this through a slightly different lens. My generation grew up before smartphones, social media and constant connectivity. Going out wasn’t one option among many competing for our attention; it was often the default. We met friends in pubs, clubs, gigs, parks and each other’s homes because there was nowhere else to be. Alcohol was frequently present, but it was rarely the main event. The social interaction was.
What strikes me is not that Gen Z traded alcohol for phones, but that many young people seem to have lost the environments that once made drinking attractive in the first place. Previous generations met partners at pubs, went clubbing, joined local scenes, hung around with colleagues after work, and spent long stretches of unstructured time together. Alcohol was often the lubricant for those experiences rather than the objective itself.
If fewer people are dating, fewer people are going out, fewer people are joining clubs, fewer people are leaving home, and more friendships exist primarily online, then declining alcohol consumption may be a symptom of declining social participation rather than evidence that screens have become the new drug.
As someone who has spent a lot of time thinking and writing about addiction, I’m not convinced alcohol and screens occupy the same psychological space. My semi-autobiographical novella, Default Setting: A Nervous Breakdown, explores alcoholism, addiction, depression and self-destruction from the inside. One of the things I learned while writing it is that the substance itself is often secondary. People don’t become addicted because they love alcohol; they become addicted because alcohol, screens, gambling, work, sex, shopping or any number of other compulsions temporarily relieve some deeper discomfort. The object changes, but the underlying need often remains the same.
The more worrying possibility is that both trends stem from the same root cause. People aren’t lonely because they stopped drinking. They’re drinking less because they’re lonely. The phone didn’t simply replace the bottle; it replaced the pub, the dance floor, the house party, the awkward first date, the chance encounter, and all the messy, imperfect social spaces where previous generations spent their time.
If that’s true, the real question isn’t whether screen addiction is worse than alcohol addiction. It’s whether we’re creating enough opportunities for genuine human connection to compete with either.
Perhaps the lesson isn’t that alcohol was healthy after all, or that screens are uniquely destructive. It’s that human beings have always sought relief, escape and connection. When one outlet declines, another tends to emerge. The challenge is not eliminating our addictions entirely, but building lives in which we need them a little less.
Is anyone actually mourning the death of alcohol? I’m glad Galloway stopped preaching about kids needing to drink more, as if alcohol is the only way for young people to socialize. It’s an outdated take and ignores the fact that most people are not able to order three $17 negronis at dinner.
>. We’re healthy from the neck down and sick from the neck up.
Ancient greeks knew better : Mens sana in corpore sano
I absolutely loved this piece. Social lubricants are a real thing, and whatever is the opposite of a lubricant - social dessicant - that's what we've currently got going on.
Sandpaper?
ha exactly
(not really ha) :(
I absolutely agree with you that’s why I decided to share my journey.
https://roberttmccune.substack.com/p/i-underestimated-myself
Great read Ed!
SIR,consider this —*Bloomberg— Bhajan clubbers - - The Sober High Taking Over India’s Nightlife*
*Young Indians are trading hangovers for a faith-fueled buzz as devotional jamming goes mainstream.*
India’s Gen Z and millennials are increasingly *swapping alcohol-fueled nights out for “bhajan clubbing” — devotional chanting set to bass-heavy beats, strobe lights and concert-style production.* What was once rooted in temples and family prayer is being repackaged for a younger generation seeking spirituality, community and, as one attendee put it, *“a sober high.”*
Its a collective action problem. Not using my phone makes my life worse. I live in a pretty small city and there is simply nowhere you can go to meet other young people. There is no 'real world' anymore
Wow this was amazing! I never realized that an addiction to one substance was taken over by our addiction to something else. Thanks a lot for the read.
Excellent piece. I wonder whether the radically lower percentage of Gen Z drinkers correlates in any way to continually dropping crime rates. Might be an interesting subject for a future post.