00:00If you've been online for five minutes, you've probably seen more than a few people complaining
00:22about the fact that Gen Z doesn't party, doesn't smoke and spends way too much time complaining
00:28about their anxiety on TikTok. But are they the harbingers of the party apocalypse? Or
00:33is this generational shift a symptom of something larger? And who will be the unlikely casualty
00:38in all of this?
00:42Once upon a time, nightlife was booming. First there were the lads and ladettes of the 90s,
00:47wearing dayglow, downing pints and keeping the hacienda firmly in business. Then came
00:52the millennial party era. The jeans were tighter, but the drinks were still very much flowing.
00:56Alcopops swapped for Jagerbombs and questionable decisions that would later be deleted from
01:01Facebook. Fast forward to 2025, where everything has changed. Yep, not only have we seen the
01:06death of the nightclub, but since 2010, the UK has lost more than half of its clubs, with
01:11405 shutting down since the COVID pandemic alone. That's nearly a 33% decline. And almost
01:17half of drinking age Gen Z have never even touched booze. Pubs aren't faring much better,
01:22with fewer than 39,000 left across England and Wales after 400 more closed in 2024. And
01:28the ones still standing are calling last orders at 11pm, like they've got work in the morning.
01:33And Peggy Mitchell said,
01:34Get out of my pub!
01:35I don't think she thought everyone actually would.
01:371 in 3 younger Britons are socialising less, while in Australia, 71% have cut back on nights
01:42out entirely. And in South Korea, the government is so concerned about their hermit-like youth
01:47that they're actually offering young people $490 monthly just to get them to leave the
01:52house. Maybe it's because they never got used to actually going out in the first place.
01:56With dating apps and Snapchat, there's never a reason to leave the house to flirt. And
02:00with TikTok, Deliveroo, and Netflix at your fingertips, having a good night in is just
02:05a tap away. And while governments scramble to stop this generation from becoming full
02:09blown recluses, whether by pushing brick phones in UK schools, or South Korea's attempts
02:14to make them go outside, Gen Z seem pretty content with their screens. But why? Well
02:20for starters, it's money. Because, fun fact, it's really expensive to have fun now.
02:26The average night out in the UK costs around £73, with London pubs charging as much as
02:30£8 for a pint of Guinness, despite a national price of £5.18 for the popular Irish stout.
02:36You could get a Ryanair flight to Spain for that in 2005. And sure, millennials did also
02:41have to budget when it came to nights out. But those nights out still cost about half
02:45as much as they do today. What boomers and millennials once spent on an entire night
02:49out, Gen Z is now blowing on two pints and a kebab. Iconic? Maybe. But affordable? Absolutely
02:56not. And then we have the health factor. Alcohol-related deaths have risen by 89% in the last two decades,
03:02with alcohol now costing the NHS and wider society £25 billion a year. Enter Gen Z.
03:08This is degeneration raised on gym vlogs, protein shakes, and meditation apps. They
03:13count their steps, track their sleep, and they don't want to spend £30 on cocktails
03:18just to feel like they got hit by a bus the next day. One in five people now don't even
03:22drink at all. And for 18-24 year olds, it's even higher. A third of them are teetotal
03:26from alcohol altogether. So, while millennials were all drink and regret, Gen Z is now all
03:31about the gym and reset. This change in culture has triggered a boom in low and no alcohol
03:36drinks, a market expected to grow 7% year on year between 2022 and 2026 in the UK. Globally,
03:44the consumption of no-to-low alcohol drinks is projected to rise by a third by 2026. In
03:49fact, half of the adults in the UK say that they've brought a no-to-low alcohol product
03:53in the last year, and now commands nearly 3% of the UK's entire alcoholic beverage
03:58market. So this isn't exactly a niche market. Big brands have caught on too. Gordon's
04:03Crony and Heineken now advertise all of their 0% offerings with the same weight as they
04:07do their alcoholic products. Even Weatherspoons now offers a zero-alcohol menu. That's right.
04:13Spoons has gone sober. The messy clubbing era? Out. The wellness era? In. But here's
04:18the thing. This isn't bad for bars, clubs, and the entire concept of getting wasted.
04:23It's bad for... corkscrews? Once upon a time, this little guy was the life and soul
04:29of the party. It was a symbol of sophistication, the gatekeeper to bottles of overpriced wine.
04:34In 2024 alone, the UK consumed an estimated 1.35 billion litres of wine. That's enough
04:40to fill 540 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Yeah, I did do the maths. And yes, I do regret
04:48it. But very little of this is consumed by Gen Z alone, with them and millennials together
04:52accounting for just 26% of regular wine drinkers. Whereas baby boomers alone represent 48% of
04:58this entire demographic. I do hear the cork purists already typing,
05:03but corks let the wine breathe! Cool. But if you're chugging that wine within 48 hours,
05:08do you really need to let it breathe? Gen Z doesn't have £50 to spend on a fancy bottle
05:12of Bordeaux. Instead, for those that do drink, they're spending £15 on a bottle of rosé
05:17with a twist-off cap. Why? Because student loans exist. And rosé slaps. So, if twist-offs
05:24are preferred by Gen Z, can they even use one of our twisty friends?
05:27Um, I never use a corkscrew. Maybe I don't know how to use these things.
05:32You have to watch the hands going like that. There we go, then the arms go up. Yes, I've
05:38seen this. Progress. Oh my god, did I do it?
05:46Oh, there you go. There we go. We did it. And the hands went up.
05:52Gen Z obviously know how to use a corkscrew. They just don't have to. It's not a lack
05:56of skill, it's a lack of necessity. This whole idea that Gen Z is too clueless to open
06:01a bottle is just another example of older generations mistaking lifestyle changes for
06:06incompetence. The reality is they're drinking less, prioritising their health more and opting
06:11for convenience over traditionally getting wasted. So, is Gen Z really killing fun? Or
06:17are they just redefining it? This generation grew up amid a recession, a climate crisis
06:22and about 400 seasons of Love Island. They don't have time for hangovers. They're busy
06:27trying to fix the mess that they've inherited. One oat latte at a time.
06:36Does anyone have a hammer?
Comments