The older generation has always loved accusing Gen Y of drinking too much, with alarmist headlines about binge-drinking and gratuitous pictures of teens and twenty-somethings - young women in particular, don’t think we haven’t noticed - wasted and tripping over their heels in city centres.
Last week, though, a groundbreaking report by experts at Cardiff University emerged that proves they’ve got young people ALL wrong. British alcohol consumption is at a 23-year low, and it’s young people who are driving this undrinking - where not drinking is an active, positive choice - movement.
‘Binge drinking has become less frequent, and the proportion of youth who don't drink alcohol at all has risen sharply,’ says Professor Jonathan Shepherd, director of the university's violence and society research group and lead author of the report. These findings echo the most recent NHS statistics showing that young teenagers today are much healthier than previous generations.
The younger you are, the less inclined you are to use drugs or smoke
Just 12% of 11-15-year-olds said they had drunk alcohol in the previous week in 2011, down from 26% a decade earlier, whilst 48% of 16-26-year-olds saying they had had an alcoholic drink in the previous week in 2010, compared with 71% in 1998. And before you ask - the younger you are, the less inclined you are to use drugs or smoke, too, with the percentage of those who’ve dabbled in illegals down from 27% to 17% in the past decade.
So why are we all going straight-edge? ‘I've never drunk to excess and never been anything past mildly tiddly,’ says self-confessed booze virgin Laura Southall, a 27-year-old arts coordinator. ‘I grew up on a farm in Wales so I needed to drive, so I got used to going out sober. Today I just think why spend more money, consume more calories (I'd genuinely rather eat a twix!) and potentially write off the next day, if I don't need to.’
After uni, I became much more aware of how my (now terrible) hangovers affected me so in the end I gave up altogether.
Lauren Bravo is 26, a writer and digital editor, and has been teetotal since she was 22. ‘I was never a big drinker in my teens and being emetophobic (chronically afraid of being sick), the fear of vomming generally overrode any desire to get shitfaced. After uni, I became much more aware of how my (now terrible) hangovers affected me so in the end, aged 22, I gave up altogether.’
Laura and Lauren are both smart, funny, and seriously self-aware, and they agree that one of the main drivers of this generational shift is that twenty-somethings don’t have the luxury of being in denial about the downsides of alcohol. We’ve all been told a thousand times that there are a 500 calories in a Mojito. We’ve read accounts by beauty bloggers about how quitting wine got rid of their zits. And Jawbones, Fitbits and SleepTracker Apps hit us with the stats on how alcohol affects our sleep patters, energy levels, moods and our output at the gym. ‘Health definitely factors strongly,’ says Lauren. ‘When each week brings a new cancer scare in the Daily Mail, alcohol is at least something we know for sure is bad for us. And particularly if, like me, you struggle to eat sensibly, booze can feel like an easier thing to give up.’
Charley Mothers, a 26-year-old copywriter, who drinks a handful of proseccos a year, agrees: ‘People are much more alert to the effect that alcohol can have on them, long and short term, and what that means for their careers and their health,’ she says. Meanwhile 29-year old project administrator Simon Brackenborough (who has only ever had the occasional sip) points out that: ‘People are so into yoga, with an emphasis on bodily and spiritual wellbeing wihchi doesn’t really sit well with the ‘work hard, play hard’ lifestyle of weekly toil relieved by drunken weekends.’
Undrinking isn’t just about a puritanical new generation getting off on self-denial; it’s about having other priorities, different focuses.
And what about the money? Professor Shepherd pointed at the decrease in the affordability of alcohol as another factor - with sky-high city rents and only-slightly-better-than-the-intern wages, can young people even afford to drink? Lauren thinks this is definitely a contributing factor. ‘After a year or two in work I noticed that my friends had stopped or reduced their booze intake,’ she says. ‘Many of us were skint, and hangovers at the office weren't nearly so much fun as they were when we were students. Plus we started swapping sweaty clubs for trendy restaurants (perhaps we just got a bit more boring!) and when you're in bed by 12 most nights, there's just less of the evening to fit drinks into, isn't there?’
But crucially, undrinking isn’t just about a puritanical new generation getting off on self-denial; it’s about having other priorities, different focuses. Today we’re officially more obsessed with eating than drinking; foodenism is the new hedonism. ‘Yes, financial constraints play a part. But what’s booming in my demographic - young, middle class and metropolitan - is eating out at trendy new restaurants and foodie-ism at home,’ says Simon. ‘And the last 10 years has seen a huge proliferation of high-street coffee shops whilst pubs close - unless they refocus on food. Young British people have become more interested in chatting over coffee in the day and eating well in the evening, and I like that.’
Today’s teens and twenty-somethings have witnessed the worst excesses of materialism and debauchery, and they’re staging their own rebellion
Catherine Salway, of booze-free bar Redemption offer raw salads, virgin cocktails and DJ nights, developed the brand in direct response to the research showing that young people are switching off alcohol and becoming more health focused and driven. ‘Young people are driving the non-drinking trend, and hopefully we can be part of the zeitgeist.’
Every trend, of course, signals a questioning and a rejection of the trend that went before - and everyone I speak to does voice a slight embarrassment about the binge-happy drinking culture we all grew up surrounded by. Getting shitfaced, far from being a bold act of youthful rebellion, is now officially naff. ‘There’s definitely been a shift in social norms,’ says Charley. ‘Young people are deciding that they're not going to get drunk or binge drink just because that's what society seems to want happen.’ Today’s teens and twenty-somethings have been raised in the shadow of recession, have witnessed the worst excesses of materialism and debauchery, and they’re staging their own rebellion. Sober.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.