Depending on your relationship with both alcohol and the people around you, social pressure to drink when you don’t want to can lead to a worse experience than if you hadn’t drank at all. There’s no reason you can’t go sober.
It’s well-known alcohol isn’t good for your body: it’s a toxin that impairs decision-making, motor skills, memory, and productivity the next day. That said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying a few drinks responsibly. What I do take issue with, though, is the idea alcohol needs to be involved in a fun night out.
Though I’m not against drinking, I don’t feel the need to do it every weekend, but that doesn’t preclude me from wanting to go out and have fun with my friends. While establishments serving alcohol don’t need to be completely sober places, more people should understand it’s possible to be sober within them.
This understanding has helped me feel freer when ing my friends in the Hub or going to parties than I did when I felt like those activities had to involve alcohol. Everybody deserves the same freedom.
Associating socialization with drinking can be very isolating for particular social groups. Many people may refrain from drinking for personal reasons—like religious beliefs or medical concerns—they don’t feel comfortable explaining publicly. They may simply not want to drink.
If we were all a little bit more accepting of sobriety, those people would feel less like they have to justify their presence in venues associated with drinking, or less pressure
to drink more than they want to, and may have more avenues of socialization and friendships available to them.
In the meantime, I’ve discovered the key to staying happily sober on a night out is matching the energy of the people and place around you. If you’re going to a club, maybe have a little coffee first so you can dance the night away. Before a house party, prepare your chattiest self to make some new connections. Go with people you trust and enjoy spending time with and play drinking games with a solo cup of water, juice, or pop.
You wouldn’t be alone in doing so. Recent research has shown shown Gen Z are drinking less than millennials for a variety of reasons including cutting costs, a desire for a healthier lifestyle, or an increase in cannabis use.
Personally, I love dancing, so it’s not hard to remove alcohol from my clubbing experiences because I have just as much fun jumping around to songs I don’t know sober. I encourage you to find your equivalent—maybe you wouldn’t mind sober trivia or karaoke nights out at a bar with friends.
I’m lucky to have a group of friends who don’t pressure me to drink if I don’t want to and will invite me out regardless of whether we’ll be taking shots together. If you’re with the right people, it is possible to have fun at the bars without alcohol, and I encourage you to try it on your next night out. Just don’t think too much about how sticky the floor is.
Kenzie is a fifth-year English and film student and one of The Journal’s Copy Editors.
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