[News] Kids Know Nothing #6129: not drinking

[Bozza]

Young people are turning their backs on alcohol, a new study has suggested.

Researchers looked at official health data from the last decade and found almost a third of 16 to 24-year-olds in 2015 said they didn't drink, compared with around one in five in 2005.

Non-drinking was found across a broad range of groups, suggesting it was becoming "more mainstream".

Binge drinking rates also decreased - from 27% in 2005 to 18% in 2015, based on Health Survey for England figures.

Almost 10,000 people were questioned, with the results demonstrating a clear decline in consumption of alcohol among young adults.

More >>> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45807152

 

[Papa Lazarou]

They smoke Marajuana instead?

 

[Trufflehound]

For what it's worth, pretty much all the 16-24 year olds I know do drink, and most of them also either work in bars or in breweries.

Or maybe that just says more about me than anything else...

 

[Beanstalk]

Young people are turning their backs on alcohol, a new study has suggested.

Researchers looked at official health data from the last decade and found almost a third of 16 to 24-year-olds in 2015 said they didn't drink, compared with around one in five in 2005.

Non-drinking was found across a broad range of groups, suggesting it was becoming "more mainstream".

Binge drinking rates also decreased - from 27% in 2005 to 18% in 2015, based on Health Survey for England figures.

Almost 10,000 people were questioned, with the results demonstrating a clear decline in consumption of alcohol among young adults.

More >>> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45807152

Though I am definitely part of the other 66% of 16-24 year olds, I have got to say that drinking is a bloody expensive habit now. Hard pressed to find a pint cheaper than a fiver anywhere. There was a recent BBC article that dubbed us "generation sensible". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/44880278 Apart from teen pregnancy (better accessibility to contraception/better sex-ed) and fewer young people getting arrested (who knows really), everything boils down to a lack of disposable income.

 

[Raskolnikov]

They smoke Marajuana instead?

not just that. Everything is seemingly available at universities

 

[BLOCK F]

Though I am definitely part of the other 66% of 16-24 year olds, I have got to say that drinking is a bloody expensive habit now. Hard pressed to find a pint cheaper than a fiver anywhere. There was a recent BBC article that dubbed us "generation sensible". https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/44880278 Apart from teen pregnancy (better accessibility to contraception/better sex-ed) and fewer young people getting arrested (who knows really), everything boils down to a lack of disposable income.

Or perhaps they have seen the state their pissed up parents get in, now and again!
Never me and my nearest and dearest, of course!

 

[Beanstalk]

Or perhaps they have seen the state their pissed up parents get in, now and again!
Never me and my nearest and dearest, of course!

hahahaha maybe, as [MENTION=736]Trufflehound[/MENTION] noted, most of us are able to pick up bar work and especially when I was working in Brighton, the state in which some people, who were old enough to know better, got in was pretty embarrassing.

 

[ManOfSussex]

Having skirted a couple of reports on this today and previously when it's been reported, one fundamental reason in my opinion as to why youngsters are no longer drinking that gets missed is the massive clamp down and cultural shift in recent years to Challenge 25/asking for ID shift in the sale of alcohol, both within licensed premises and in shops - I never see underage drinking going on in pubs now. As in my case when I was 15, the days of knowing an off license that served you if you were underage and being a regular in a pub as a 16 and 17 year old are long gone. For what it's worth, drinking in a pub with my friends as a 16/17 year old was a far safer environment to be doing it in than the alternative and was also a rite of passage into adulthood and an important learning curve in life and development of social skills that just doesn't occur anymore.

 

[Seasidesage]

Having skirted a couple of reports on this today and previously when it's been reported, one fundamental reason in my opinion as to why youngsters are no longer drinking that gets missed is the massive clamp down and cultural shift in recent years to Challenge 25/asking for ID shift in the sale of alcohol, both within licensed premises and in shops - I never see underage drinking going on in pubs now. As in my case when I was 15, the days of knowing an off license that served you if you were underage and being a regular in a pub as a 16 and 17 year old are long gone. For what it's worth, drinking in a pub with my friends as a 16/17 year old was a far safer environment to be doing it in than the alternative and was also a rite of passage into adulthood and an important learning curve in life and social skills that just doesn't occur anymore.

This. The genius that thought that preventing underage drinking was a good idea had never seen it in action. I would sit with my mates huddled in the corner keeping our heads down to ensure we weren't thrown out and we learnt how pubs work and who to watch out for etc Mind you I was 13 and looked about 9 at the time! Now they are all smoking weed and worse and by the time they arrive at pubs they have a coke habit and think they are invincible...

Pubs are a good educator of behaviour in teenagers when its the right pub with the right punters.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Having skirted a couple of reports on this today and previously when it's been reported, one fundamental reason in my opinion as to why youngsters are no longer drinking that gets missed is the massive clamp down and cultural shift in recent years to Challenge 25/asking for ID shift in the sale of alcohol, both within licensed premises and in shops - I never see underage drinking going on in pubs now. As in my case when I was 15, the days of knowing an off license that served you if you were underage and being a regular in a pub as a 16 and 17 year old are long gone. For what it's worth, drinking in a pub with my friends as a 16/17 year old was a far safer environment to be doing it in than the alternative and was also a rite of passage into adulthood and an important learning curve in life and development of social skills that just doesn't occur anymore.

Yep - I agree. There’s a pub in Shoreham that first started serving me when I was 14. “Only two pints, mind. Go over there, sit down, and don’t make a fool of yourself, or of me”.

 

[melias shoes]

They smoke Marajuana instead?

Amongst others.

 

[Gazwag]

The modern way seem to be everybody meeting at somebodies house and drinking, then go out around 10pm and head for a Weatherspoon's for cheap drinks and then head for a club where they need don't buy drinks which are much more expensive

 

[Marshy]

My 16 year old son and close friends are non drinkers. Clearly some do drink but I would say its less than when I was a lad.

 

[ManOfSussex]

This. The genius that thought that preventing underage drinking was a good idea had never seen it in action. I would sit with my mates huddled in the corner keeping our heads down to ensure we weren't thrown out and we learnt how pubs work and who to watch out for etc Mind you I was 13 and looked about 9 at the time! Now they are all smoking weed and worse and by the time they arrive at pubs they have a coke habit and think they are invincible...

Pubs are a good educator of behaviour in teenagers when its the right pub with the right punters.

Sitting in the corner with our heads down is exactly what we did as well. We didn't prop the bar up, the landlord and landlady knew we were underage and we would only go out drinking on a Friday/Saturday night. All of our parents knew as well and we'd get lifts back etc. We wouldn't go to any old pub we wanted because there were pubs we knew to avoid for being rough or that wouldn't want an underage clientele etc - but it worked, it was tolerated and a few pints in a pub was a far better, safer environment than the alternatives as a 16/17 year old. Today, you just do not see underage drinking in pubs because of the challenge 25/ID clampdown and I don't believe socially in terms of their development or in terms of what they're consuming, that's a better state of affairs for kids today.

 

[Surrey_Albion]

I think 87% of stats are made up to reflect whatever you want them too

 

[Peter Grummit]

False IDs are still prevalent, but generally I agree, that ID/25 and cost keeps young people out of pubs to an extent. The huge difference in cost between supermarket booze and pub prices has led the 'prinking' culture.

The other factor not yet mentioned is the whole internet/social media/phone culture which means youngsters leave their room less, but still feel they can 'socialise' virtually. Pubs were as much somewhere to go as somewhere to booze for earlier generations.

PG (3 boys aged 25, 23, 19)

 

[BBassic]

That generation of kids has probably grown up being bombarded with information about the risks of drinking etc. I'm 33 and I can't recall much hand wringing in the media when I was younger about the perils of having a drink.

 

[Lower West Stander]

My 16 year old son and close friends are non drinkers. Clearly some do drink but I would say its less than when I was a lad.

I agree with you.

My son is 21 and doesn't drink. He just doesn't enjoy the effect it has on him. Although most of mates do, it is now a perfectly socially acceptable thing for people of his age not to drink. Much more so than when I was his age.

My 19 year old daughter is a total party animal on the other hand and yes there remains a large number of the younger generation who like to get leathered in Spoons. So the culture hasn't exactly gone away.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Having skirted a couple of reports on this today and previously when it's been reported, one fundamental reason in my opinion as to why youngsters are no longer drinking that gets missed is the massive clamp down and cultural shift in recent years to Challenge 25/asking for ID shift in the sale of alcohol, both within licensed premises and in shops - I never see underage drinking going on in pubs now. As in my case when I was 15, the days of knowing an off license that served you if you were underage and being a regular in a pub as a 16 and 17 year old are long gone. For what it's worth, drinking in a pub with my friends as a 16/17 year old was a far safer environment to be doing it in than the alternative and was also a rite of passage into adulthood and an important learning curve in life and development of social skills that just doesn't occur anymore.

Very much this.

We didn't take the piss, just a few mates playing cards and having a coupe of beers. The landlord(s) clearly knew who was and wasn't 18. Was always amusing when one of the group had their 18th Birthdays. I remember the landlord buying me a drink!

The cost has to be a factor too - it's bloody expensive to go out and have a skinful on an 18 year old's wage.

 

[Triggaaar]

For what it's worth, drinking in a pub with my friends as a 16/17 year old was a far safer environment to be doing it in than the alternative and was also a rite of passage into adulthood and an important learning curve in life and development of social skills that just doesn't occur anymore.

What social skills did you develop, that those who didn't drink underage have tragically missed out on?