Shoutout to the spike in women drinking when Trump got elected
Correlation is not causation, but…
The election was 15-16. Spike happened 14-15. Wondering if it was a methodology change to jump that much in 1 year?
Also fuck me but that was already 10 years ago. Was trying to recall if there was maybe some kind of viral social media thing that might have happened in 2014.
Was there one of the several “once in a lifetime” economic crashes that year? I can’t remember, but that was my first thought.
Don’t think so. By 14 we were pretty well out of the 08 mess. Was around when I got my first major career break. Which was nice as one of the millennials that finished college while the economy had gone to shit.
The text is to the left on '15; zoom in and compare the circles to the year. It was a 15-16 jump according to the dots.
The dot above 2014 isn’t labeled. I’d guess it’s about 31.7%. The dot above 2015 is 36.8%. That’s far and away the largest year-over-year change and the jump I’m referring to.
2016 is the peak. But it’s only barely slightly higher than 2015.
I think we’re saying the same thing. I had understood your prior comment to mean that 2014 included 36.8%.
The advent of white claw
Robin Williams killed himself and Bill Cosby was arrested.
Gamergate
I’m shocked there’s no bump in 2020-2021. Many people I know, myself included, started drinking so much more during the pandemic.
These are also self reported numbers.
I know I wasn’t telling people how much I was drinking during the pandemic
I wonder if that could be the entire cause od the drop, the stigma became greater so men just lie about it.
Also how are we defining “binge” drinking
In the 18-25 age bracket though?
I found people went one of two ways. I know plenty of people who drank more, but also plenty of people (myself included) who basically went cold turkey for two years. I don’t enjoy drinking by myself so I didn’t
Same
Obligatory NYT headline: “Alcohol poisoning used to be a time honoured pasttime in this small town, but Millennial woke mob took it all away.”
I enjoy being intoxicated all day and not having a raging headache the day(s) after. Weed 4 Life!
You may also get a hangover from weed, but it isn’t as bad as the one from alcohol.
Not sayig drinking is fine, but you sound like you’re dehydrated. If you can stomach water whilr drinking it reduces the negative effects
The post was about binge drinking, which is a specific kind of “drinking”? I was comparing the differences between “binging” both drugs and the effects they cause after the fact.
I gotta disagree here. What qualifies as a “binge” to a scientist and, say, a university student (or even an adult that occasionally drinks) are quite different things. You can science “binge” with like 3 or 5 drinks in a night with no ill effect at all by being sure to drink water or mixing with water, you just can’t do it in 20 mins before bed.
It went from 50% to 30% which is less but the scale makes you feel it is much lower
Yeah, graphs that are cut off is misleading graphs 101.
Sometimes you just have to trust the audience to be literate. A 20% drop is very significant, it’s not like they’re trying to make a .5% decline look like the Temperance movement.
Trust the audience to be literate
But really, that depends on the intended audience.
Yeah and also its a decline in male binge drinking. Female hasn’t really changed after a short term uptick.
that’s still an overall decline.
I think at least part of it is due to weed. Both it being legalized and being more popular than it’s ever been in non-legal states. At least for me, smoking weed kills my desire to drink nearly as much. Usually at parties or just hang outs it starts off with a beer or mixed drink or three, then someone breaks out the weed and suddenly I’m nursing my fourth drink for an hour.
Would we not expect sudden changes then? This is a steady decline, not indicating any sudden changes in laws or anything.
Weed legalization hasn’t been sudden though. It’s progressed from medical to decriminalized to legal state by excruciating state.
As this graph is national, it makes sense that there wouldn’t be a cliff because there’s no particular date when we could say weed became legal.
Still not legal in any way here in texasss, and I assume we’ll be the very last of the last to do so. But even here, it’s so easily accessible that a good number of younger people I know tell me they prefer weed to alcohol. In legal states, that tendency must be much higher.
Do we have the same date for individual states? Perhaps some with and some without legal weed?
Legalization efforts have been piecemeal throughout the country, and still less than half the states have direct recreational access. I’m sure it’s a factor, but until we have federal recreational legalization, we should see a downward trend instead of a drop.
Weed has had a steady increase in popularity since like the 70s. I kind of agree, I’m sure there should be some cliff in the states where it was legalized, or if not my theory is bunk. It’s only based on an anecdote tbf.
Edit: actually if we want any theory it seems pretty clear that the beginning of the drop off started right about at the market crash of 2008.
I think it’s also in part due to easier access at an earlier age compared to alcohol and the rapid increase in quality. Weed is easy to grow, and even kids have been selling it to their friends in school for forever. But gone are the days of buying skunk weed off some dude you barely know. There’s 13 year olds out there today smoking stuff of a quality that the hippies could only dream of.
Plus, when it comes to drugs, as a late Millennial, I knew a lot more kids who became heroin addicts as teenagers than alcoholics - and they started their drug use years before showing up on this graph. During Bush’s presidency, heroin from Afghanistan became a lot more easily accessible on the east coast, and I used to say when I was a teenager that heroin was more popular with my generation because it was too awkward to go to the bar and see your friends’ parents day drinking.
I’m not sure how it all factors in but there’s evidence that teenagers are using weed less: https://coloradosun.com/2024/06/26/youth-marijuana-use-colorado-legalization/
Interesting. Personally, it doesn’t kill my desire to drink when I do decide to go on a bender. If anything, for me it gets easier to drink when there’s weed involved, as I just don’t enjoy most alcoholic beverages, taste wise. However, since access to weed got easier and I don’t have to hide anymore, when the occasion to get a buzz happens, I just prefer the weed high to being drunk, and I can skip the hangover.
The graph maker certainly seems to think so at least
the shift to cannabis and other alternatives is here
Now add other drugs to the chart
Average of $105/month, that’s much.
Alcohol was good enough for my viking ancestors so it’s good enough for me.
Removed by mod
Crazy how well this correlates with the rise in depression, anxiety, and social media use in young people.
Binge drinking is obviously not the answer, but getting out and being uninhibited with other young people in the real world seems like a pretty important element of being young as well as being happy.
It looks more like the correct headline is binge drinking among men drops to the same level as women’s binge drinking. The red line ends very close to where it starts.
That’s a very good point.
What happened to the women in '15/'16 lol
Binge drinking in celebration of first female president. Then binge drinking because Trump became president instead?
Exactly
I don’t live in a civilized state with legal weed, but I can get the hemp derived delta 9 gummies at any smoke shop, and they do a damn fine job (until Ken Paxton gets a hard-on for criminalizing them anyway)
Since I’ve had easy access to cannabis that I don’t have to smoke, my desire to drink has plummeted.
I’m not gonna tell you that I’ve quit drinking. I’m not even gonna tell you that I’ve quit binge drinking.
But I am gonna tell you that I was once that guy who centered his entire existence on “when can I start drinking?”
Today, without any interventions, without any criminal charges, without any AA, without any conscious decision, I’ve somehow become entirely indifferent to alcohol.
I’ll buy a twelve pack of beer here and there or a bottle of whiskey. Used to be either would be gone the next day. Now it’ll take months (plural) to get through either one.
Downside: I’ve been a whole lot less social without the lubrication of alcohol. Weed doesn’t make me social. It puts me to sleep.
Upside: I’ve pretty much ceased all alcohol related bad decisions. No more sorting through texts from the previous night or having to apologize.
Really big upside: No hangovers
Young people don’t have my decades of experiences to arrive where I am today. Seems like they’ve found the equilibrium without first having to pay to price of alcohol consequences, and good for them.
The alcohol business has known this, and they’re one of the biggest opposition to legalized weed behind the scenes.
Is that vos everyones too busy trying to feed themselves they can’t afford to get drunk.
No, economic declines, including all the way into famine tend to increase rates of alcoholism.