Strange but True
Q. Have you heard that many young adults these days are choosing to stay sober? Why might that be?
A. The factors are many and varied, but “it’s impossible to ignore the role of new financial pressures,” says Jon White in New Scientist magazine. “Millennials (those born between the early 1980s and mid 1990s) in many places are loaded with student debt, have faced recessions, are living in an era of greater job insecurity, widening income inequality and also rising housing costs.”
Then, too, rather than meeting in a bar or at somebody’s house party drinking alcohol, socializing via group chats can now be done online using laptops, tablets and smartphones. With ready-on-demand cameras, smartphones may also play into younger people’s fear of appearing drunk in photos posted online for all to see. In a recent report, beer-maker Heineken concluded that “self-awareness and staying in control” are the main motivations for reduced drinking on a night out for Millennials.
Consider several other factors: As Western populations are becoming more cosmopolitan, they are incorporating newcomers from cultures where drinking is less common. For example, London, with the most diverse population in the UK also has the highest concentration of people who are teetotal (30 percent). Also, Millennials may be experiencing a backlash to the excesses of their parents (born primarily from 1946 to 1980), whose drinking has either risen or remained high in recent decades.
Though it’s hard to determine which factors are most critical, White says, “the payoff for maintaining alcohol consumption at a low level is potentially huge in terms of lives and money saved and pressures eased on healthcare systems.”
Source: Bill Sones and Rich Sones, Ph.D.
Surprising Millennial Facts
• Millennials are earning 20 percent less than their parents did
• A third of U.S. adults 18 to 34 live with their parents
• Counter to stereotypes that Millennials are self-centered, they arguably are the most charitable generation
• The average student loan debt doubled between the millennial generation and Generation X
• Just 18 percent of Millennials describe themselves as baseball fans. (Soccer has become the most popular sport among 12-24 year-old in the U.S.)
• 49 percent are more willing to digitally “detox” while on vacation than their Gen X counterparts
www.socialmediaweek.org
Millenials vs. Baby Boomers
Every generation has a different outlook on life, born out of the social and economic situation in which they grew up. Baby Boomers were born between 1946 and 1964, while Millenials were born between the early 1980s and late 1990s. A recent global survey by Ipsos MORI, the second largest market research organization in the United Kingdom, reveals the differences in perception of both generations.
