Culturally We May Have a Problem.

[Timsup2nothin]

The difference goes beyond that. In southern Europe drinking is (usually) about having a good time, about being social. In the UK, and perhaps in some other places (I'm thinking the likes of Russia and Ukraine, though I don't know them very well) it's primarily about getting ****faced.

Don't get me wrong, getting very drunk every once in a while is fun and good for the soul. But I never got the appeal of constantly getting ****faced for the sake of getting ****faced like the britishers do.

I think the Anglosphere has a cultural slant towards drinking is a competition that is probably a very dangerous thing.

 

[luiz]

I think the Anglosphere has a cultural slant towards drinking is a competition that is probably a very dangerous thing.

Indeed. But from my experience in the US it's restricted to some subgroups. A lot of people there also drink primarily to be social and have a good time. Whereas in the UK getting drunk to the point of throwing up is a secular religion.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Indeed. But from my experience in the US it's restricted to some subgroups. A lot of people there also drink primarily to be social and have a good time.

I think it's pretty easy, generally, to haul people over that line. No matter the subgroup, the transition from "have a good time <doing whatever>" to "a little friendly competitiveness" is not a particularly daunting barrier.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, it feels weird (to say the least) when one observes the behavior of young english tourists around here. As if they are drinking to forget something.

They are. It's called England.

Drinking culture is changing here. Used to buy an 18 pack or 24 pack for your nights drinking. I tend to stop at 2 or 3 litres now. Nice buzz no hangover.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

They are. It's called England.

Okay, that was hilarious.

 

[Zardnaar]

Okay, that was hilarious.

In the days of Empire.

"The world is full of Englishmen who will do anything for the motherland. Except live there".

 

[Mango Elephant]

I think the Anglosphere has a cultural slant towards drinking is a competition that is probably a very dangerous thing.

People act like binge drinking is cool. It's just depressing. I mean yeah, getting wasted every once in a while is a lot of fun, but do it too much and you're just sad and unhealthy. Even on this forum I see people bragging about how their culture drinks so much and it's like - you know that's a *bad* thing, right?

 

[abradley]

Am a non practicing Alkie, used to get drunk every chance I could.

People assumed I'd had some horrible experience in my past, I hadn't ... just wanted to drank until I passed out.

When I hit 50 years I had a life changing experience, woke up from a dream where some guy was telling me I didn't need to drink anymore and I haven't for the last 33years.

Don't know who the guy in the dream was, only heard his voice, didn't see him.

Maybe someone was praying for me.

The OP pics don't tempt me, rather they turn me off.

Am I cured, hell no ... one day at a time.

 

[Ajidica]

People act like binge drinking is cool. It's just depressing. I mean yeah, getting wasted every once in a while is a lot of fun, but do it too much and you're just sad and unhealthy. Even on this forum I see people bragging about how their culture drinks so much and it's like - you know that's a *bad* thing, right?

It might just be my friend groups, but there has been a massive change in drinking culture from just a few years ago. Even when I was with my hardest-drinking friend group (lawyers, to absolutely no surprise!) on a cabin weekend, nobody got seriously wasted. I probably got the most wasted, and that was by accident as a friend poured me a drink but didn't realize how much alcohol she poured into it. Even then, I pretty clearly remember that night, remembered to drink a half-liter of water, and was completely good to go the next morning.

 

[Mango Elephant]

It might just be my friend groups, but there has been a massive change in drinking culture from just a few years ago. Even when I was with my hardest-drinking friend group (lawyers, to absolutely no surprise!) on a cabin weekend, nobody got seriously wasted. I probably got the most wasted, and that was by accident as a friend poured me a drink but didn't realize how much alcohol she poured into it. Even then, I pretty clearly remember that night, remembered to drink a half-liter of water, and was completely good to go the next morning.

Interesting. And you think nowadays people like to get seriously wasted more?

 

[Kyriakos]

I think that over-drinking is mostly a problem in the northern countries. Maybe it started due to the cold - alcohol can somewhat make you feel warmer.
Here the main vice is cigarettes, given that virtually everyone smokes. Though it seems the younger generation is more into vaping.

I always found most alcohol to be disgusting anyway.

 

[Ajidica]

Interesting. And you think nowadays people like to get seriously wasted more?

Oh, no; the other way around. People these days are less likely to get wasted.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Oh, no; the other way around. People these days are less likely to get wasted.

People are still the same, you're just hanging with older ones than you used to.

These days I get up about the time I used to go to bed.

 

[Truthy]

It might just be my friend groups, but there has been a massive change in drinking culture from just a few years ago. Even when I was with my hardest-drinking friend group (lawyers, to absolutely no surprise!) on a cabin weekend, nobody got seriously wasted. I probably got the most wasted, and that was by accident as a friend poured me a drink but didn't realize how much alcohol she poured into it. Even then, I pretty clearly remember that night, remembered to drink a half-liter of water, and was completely good to go the next morning.

Didn't you graduate from college just a few years ago? I did and have noticed the same change in drinking culture.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Didn't you graduate from college just a few years ago (I think you're a couple years older than me)? I did and have noticed the same change in drinking culture.

Are you meaning that the drinking culture of college did not follow you into the real world, or suggesting that college students just don't party like they used to any more? The first I would consider normal, the second I think is unlikely.

 

[Truthy]

The first

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Just checking.

FWIW when I left college I found myself in a place where the drinking culture made college look like a teetotaler summer camp. Nobody I knew in college, including myself, could afford the consumption levels of the average navy sailor. College culture, with paychecks.

 

[Ajidica]

Didn't you graduate from college just a few years ago? I did and have noticed the same change in drinking culture.

I graduated in 2015.
That said, my sister is still in college and there also seems to be less drinking there than when I was in college. She goes to a small college in rural farm country, the sort of college where traditionally the only thing to do on weekends was get hammered.
Even when I talk to some of my cousins who are in college -and when their parents aren't around- they don't have any fun stories. I only got hammered a couple times in college, but I still went to parties where some people would get hammered and have some fun stories.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

The people at my first job right out of college were big drinkers and the company as a whole has a drinking culture in part to cope with the workload. My next job had a drinking culture as well but it wasn't due to the workload; the founders started the company right out of college and they kept their college drinking habits and encouraged it with their underlings. I'd say it was mostly the young people at that company that drank but I didn't work with or socialize with too many of the older folks (purely by coincidence) so I am not really sure.

My own drinking thankfully nosed-dived right after I left that first company. I'd usually be the only sober person at every company function/social event at the next job I had. It's just not as fun as it used to be and my body doesn't cope with it nearly as well.

 

[Truthy]

Just checking.

FWIW when I left college I found myself in a place where the drinking culture made college look like a teetotaler summer camp. Nobody I knew in college, including myself, could afford the consumption levels of the average navy sailor. College culture, with paychecks.

My dad was on Los Angeles class subs, but joined the Navy as an officer after college (in 1989). My impression is that, apart from getting hammered occasionally at port calls, he and the other younger officers didn't drink super heavily. So that sounds like the drinking culture of college not following them into the real world, as you put it. But with some big caveats, like a lot of them being married already (my dad was) and having harsh consequences for drunken misbehavior (not getting promoted, getting fired, etc). That being said, my parents have stories about, say, this admiral who would do things like drunkenly falling off roofs or stumbling into the other people's houses and passing out.

From what I've heard from my parents, the drinking culture among enlisted guys could be pretty extreme, like you suggest. A routine thing for my dad later on was dealing with guys getting DUIs, guys injuring themselves while drunk, and guys who'd wind up in the Navy jail for one drunken mishap or another.

Oh and as an aside, he claims the Navy's culture has changed a lot since women began serving on boats.