A Sobering Thought

I have the feeling that my students aren’t drinking as much as previous generations. I did a little search, and there seems to have been a peak of alcohol consumption around 2008, and the trend is that kids are drinking slightly less, and there’s a small decrease in binge drinking (or admissions to the hospital for over-drinking).

I had a school group out on a trip last year, in another town, and they were reasonable. Only two girls (one of whom was from a war zone country and quite older than the other students), were “caught” quietly drinking cocktails in a bar next to the youth hostel after curfew. I did the required yelling at them (they were dressed to the nines and I think they had no friggin’ idea how beautiful they were and how much creepy guys would like to slip something into their drinks and take them home.) Other than the fact that I was responsible, it was nothing out of the ordinary and they weren’t drinking themselves into a stupor or anything. (They might have been priced out; cocktails are super expensive.)

I’m curious if social media has anything to do with the tendency for young people to drink less. I have two theories. One is that social media gives them that uninhibited space that drinking supplies. They can say whatever they want (anonymously in some forums) and that could be liberating. For example, my feeling is that it’s a hundred times easier to come out these days. It’s much more acceptable and kids can find their tribe more easily on social media. That must be helpful. On the flip side, social media is piquing the endorphins all the time, with immediate gratification might be replacing what alcohol provided before. They know it’s bad to spend eight to ten hours a day glued to their phones, so that might be attractive just on its own. (`Cause kids love to see what’ll happen if they do all the things adults warn them about not doing.)

My other theory is that kids are also very aware and sometimes quite afraid of being filmed, and their actions showing up to be mocked (essentially forever) on social media. I’m pretty sure that if some kid was drunk and doing stupid stuff, or staggering around, his or her friends would film it and show them (and possibly everyone else) afterwards. That might put a chill on drinking too much or doing anything stupid or out of line. That’s kind of a pity, in some ways. Kids don’t have a space anymore that is free from judgement, as long as the phones are out to record everything.

Drinking just doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing as it was. It used to be that my students could barely hold themselves back from going over the top on alcohol every weekend. The difference might just be with my particular group of students. They’re in a college prep school, basically, and are already mostly pretty serious about studying and getting on with their lives. However, that was true before as well. The population that I deal with hasn’t changed, but their behavior has.

The fifteen/sixteen year olds are still being idiotic, but just less so with alcohol. The seventeen/eighteen year olds are pretty damned…sober. As in serious. Focused. It’s honestly just kind of weird.