Has Gen Z really killed fun, or just changed the game?In this episode of Decomplicated for The Independent, we dive into why younger generations are ditching booze-fueled nights for wellness, gaming, and digital hangouts.With pub culture struggling and club closures rising, Gen Z's drinking habits are shaking up the alcohol industry. Generations before them claim this means Gen Z is boring... but, is that accurate, or are they just redefining fun on their own terms?Watch more Decomplicated on Independent TV.
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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?