It's such a huge drop in one year, you have to wonder how much of it is Ozempic.
U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
141–150 of 216 posts
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because I have never had the desire to buy alcohol since there is a superior alternative. I am providing context on why me and many others are contributing to the fall of the statistic.
Then post it on your blog, nobody actually wants your thoughts on why you think you're superior for not enjoying one of the most common beverages in human history.
I enjoyed reading this thoughts, and kind of fascinated why he thinks cold water is "ruined" water. I'm not going to ask him though, it will ruin the mystery.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
shh, you are going to upset people that think drinking is evil and cutting it has no draw backs
It’s not evil, it’s just bad for you. A 5 mg edible a couple times a month is going to be a way better for someone than drinking multiple times a week.
I find it so weird to make up a comparison about which is healthier and then have differing frequencies of usage.
A 5mg edible a couple times a month is going to be way better for someone than multiple 5mg edibles per week.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the body (and the bodies) of evidence is readily available My understanding is that the evidence suggests that light social drinkers tend to be healthier and live longer than people who drink not at all.
Causation goes the other way. Healthier people tend to drink more because they don't have enough signals from their bodies to respect them.
That would be a novel finding in the field! Tell me more.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#145There was a pretty good Kurzgesagt video posted earlier today on alcohol in general: https://youtu.be/aOwmt39L2IQ The shift in perception of alcohol is certainly a good sign. Even outside of the health benefits, a night out at the bar is expensive now (at least on the East Coast) and honestly speaking other drugs are simply more cost-effective. I still have the occasional cocktail when going out with friends but now…
Anecdotally it seems like alcohol is being replaced with weed or other things. But it doesn't bode well for the future of mental health if social drinking is being replaced with solo drug use or just solo everything.
Exactly this !
I'm not advocating for more alcohol consumption, coming from a Eastern European country I've seen my fair share of what alcoholism can do to people.
However, it feels like there are 2 trends, none of which is good from my perspective. First one is what you mention - replacing social activities with solo ones. Second one is overprotecting kids, young adults and everybody in general. Kids in many modern countries are glued to phones and screens in part because their parents or schools don't let them to just go find something to do outside. Let them play on their own - yes it can be dangerous, but if they break an arm or a leg, so be it. They will be fine within a month.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
The lack of IRL 'third places' for young people to meet locally will only exacerbate the issue -- and probably should bear most of the blame. The car-centric infrastructure of the suburbs (well, the vast majority of America) encourages isolation and asocial behavior. It really sucks that for some, their lives will never go beyond that invisible cage.
When I was young we lived just as spread out. We just biked/skateboarded to places. We stashed our surf boards at the closest house to the beach. We made third spaces happen. Why has that stopped being an option? Is it because people's parents are too scared to let them do it when they are young (we were taking public busses to downtown Santa Cruz in junior high but we were latch key 80s/90s kids with zero oversite)…
You might be on to something. And if you consider that the generation that's 22 -- near peak "going out" age in the old days, was in COVID lockdown during that late high school period, which for me was a huge spike in how much time I spent away from my house. That was on top of the "constant supervision and scheduled activities" regime that took over right about the time the oldest GenZ-ers hit late elementary years, and the smartphones and tablets that hit as that cohort hit their teens.
Gen X really ruined their kids in the name of safety. I don't blame Gen Z one bit, they really never had a chance at a healthy social life.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
The lack of IRL 'third places' for young people to meet locally will only exacerbate the issue -- and probably should bear most of the blame. The car-centric infrastructure of the suburbs (well, the vast majority of America) encourages isolation and asocial behavior. It really sucks that for some, their lives will never go beyond that invisible cage.
When I was young we lived just as spread out. We just biked/skateboarded to places. We stashed our surf boards at the closest house to the beach. We made third spaces happen. Why has that stopped being an option? Is it because people's parents are too scared to let them do it when they are young (we were taking public busses to downtown Santa Cruz in junior high but we were latch key 80s/90s kids with zero oversite)…
Because not everyone is born into, or lives in, beach culture.
that'll be the reason in most cases.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#148Meanwhile daily or near-daily marijuana use has increased by 269% from 2008 to 2022.[1] [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/611714/marijuana-use-dur...
I wonder how much of that is honesty in reporting? No doubt the wave of legalization has increase usage massively, but I sure as shit wouldn't have told a random poll in the 2010s about my illegal marijuana use. I didn't even tell my doctor for fear of it ending up in a chart somewhere.
> I didn't even tell my doctor for fear of it ending up in a chart somewhere.
Keep not telling them, by the way. All evidence I've found is that (US) life insurers can still refuse to cover you or rate you as less healthy if you admit to cannabis consumption even when it's state-level legal, and you have to sign papers that authorize doctors to disclose EVERYTHING to them to get a policy issued (at least you do once you're old enough that life insurance becomes more important).
During COVID, I was somewhat down and my GP prescribed a tiny dose of Lexapro, which did nothing but give me diarrhea so I quit immediately. But that "being treated for depression" or whatever, once disclosed, caused my next life insurance renewal to be far more expensive.
So that's why I "have never consumed any cannabis."
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#149A good chunk of my “fun and memorable nights” involved going out for a drink with friends/meeting new people at the bar. It’s very good if the younger generation is consuming less alcohol, but unless they’re replacing the social-aspect of it with something similar, I pity them. Unfortunately, looking at the data, it shows that people are just lonelier and hang out in social circles even less. Obviously there are prob…
There's so much to do other than drinking. Tennis, badminton, hiking, or even just walking the coastline.
I find the problem much more to do with the availability of entertainment. Before social media and YouTube, you just got bored staying at home all day and would naturally go out and socialize. Nowadays, everyone is just plugged into a never ending stream of TikTok brain rot.
Re: U.S. alcohol consumption drops to a 90-year low, new poll finds
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
One drink doesn't do that. It's a misconception pushed by people who don't know what they're talking about / have an axe to grind. That being said: If you don't want to drink, don't. Life is too short to spend time with people who don't accept you for who you are and what you want to do.
One drink lead to another.
This is to be said for any addiction