Drink for a good time, not a long time and reap the benefits - Kilkenny Live

“Are you going out at the weekend?” That’s a question that dominated many people’s teenage and early adult years.

Going for a pint on a Friday, Saturday and even a Sunday night was an unbreakable tradition for many. Whether to celebrate or commiserate, bond with your team-mates in victory or defeat or simply have a ‘quiet one’, our socialising habits went hand in hand with a pint glass.

However, all seems to have changed in certain strands of society with many young people appearing to have turned their back on socialising in a pub and nightclub settings.

According to a survey of 500 18-28 year olds conducted by Beat 102-103 FM and SPARK as part of the ‘My So Called Beat Life’ initiative, 50% of young people in that age category surveyed prefer to socialise at home, while only 19% of those surveyed said they would go clubbing to socialise.

On initial reading, those figures were eye catching and quite surprising. It left me wondering, have we seen a change in habits or in our understanding of the word ‘socialising’?

For many years, socialising in Ireland outside of the home or workplace didn’t necessarily mean a quiet meal or chat - in fact, in lots of cases it didn’t. The term would be used in its loosest possible meaning, where you would pull up a stool at a bar, consume a pint or 15, inevitably a pint of ale is spilled all over your trousers and the conversation you’ve been having for hours is vaguely remembered for a total of 20 seconds before the alcohol washes away any memories of what was said for ever more. That’s not to mention the drunk and disorderly behaviour that usually follows on local streets.

For many that is normal everyday socialising in Ireland.

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Fast forward to 2024 and the recent survey findings in my view deliver two differing ideologies of young people in Ireland.

1. The health conscience who may be mindful of their appearance or who are required to be at a certain fitness for employment for their sports team.

2. As a younger generation, our understanding of the word ‘socialising’ has been redefined.
While I have no statistical basis for saying so, I would suspect the latter applies to many of the young people surveyed who differentiate between ‘socialising’, where you sit and chat over a meal before heading out on the town.

I hope and pray the latter is slowly creeping into the Irish psyche. I’m an alcohol drinker and enjoy socialising in that setting as do many others but enjoying a drink socially and deliberately going out to get drunk are two very different things.
Like good food, consumption of alcohol can surely only be enjoyable when you’re aware of your surroundings and the company you’re keeping. The phrase ‘let’s go out to get hammered’ has always puzzled me. We’re all human; it may happen. You may over-indulge, but to leave your front door with that mindset should be considered an unhealthy mindset by any reasonable standard. After all, when we treat ourselves to a take-away meal our motive is not to buy everything in stock.

I think it’s also important to note that a certain cohort of young people may prefer nights in because of the expectations to ‘go heavy’ on alcohol when on a night out. As a country and as a younger population, many may not be drinking as regularly as their parents or grandparents but it could be argued they’re drinking more irresponsibly.

Some of the healthiest people in our community, primarily athletes in many cases, set a standard of health which is to be welcomed but also a culture of binge drinking where being a stuttering mess is celebrated. That culture separates us from our European cousins - and not for the better.

We socialise to be with friends and family, to create memories and share memories. Not every night will be memorable but deliberately deleting our memories will leave gaping holes in the scrap books of the future.