Participants were asked their reasons for not drinking or limiting their alcohol, as well as what hobbies they did instead, what pressures they felt and why they thought there were generational differences in drinking cultures.Īround 30 per cent of respondents said they enjoyed arts and crafts in place of boozing, while they also listed reading, watching videos and listening to music as alternative hobbies.įive per cent said they choose to do creative hobbies, playing instruments and board games and 'learning new things'. They were mostly students or recent graduates from middle class backgrounds.įour focus groups of 13 members were also formed based on sober societies at three universities in England. Young people who either did not drink or did so only in moderation were targeted via social media and email lists for the questionnaire.Īround 79 per cent were women, with 17 per cent being men and 1.7 per cent identifying as non-binary. The latest study, published in the British Journal of Sociology on June 18, recruited 517 British adults for an online survey from April to July 2020. In the UK, Britons are urged not to drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis - the equivalent of six pints of lager or 10 small glasses of wine.Īmericans are advised not to drink more than 14 bottles of beer a week for men and seven small glasses of wine for women. Scientists only observed the link in people who drank at least 17 units a week. Research has also linked having longer telomeres to looking younger. They naturally get shorter as we age, leading to DNA becoming damaged and raising the risk of developing problems such as Alzheimer's, diabetes and heart disease. Telomeres are biological caps found on the ends of chromosomes which protect the DNA in them from damage - much like how the 'caps' on the ends of our shoelaces prevent fraying. Scientists at the University of Oxford believe anything more than five glasses of wine a week speeds up the body's biological clock.Įxperts examined data from nearly 250,000 people and found those who drank over 17 units of alcohol per week had shorter telomeres. However a quarter also said they take recreational drugs as a substitute for alcohol, suggesting the decline in drinking may not be entirely sensible.ĭrinking too much alcohol really does age you, researchers say. Other reasons for cutting back on booze was soaring supermarket costs, academic pressures and a desire to excel in their career due to 'hustle culture'.
They also used focus groups university students who were part of 'sober' societies to find out why they chose to abstain. Seven 10 believe they don't need to drink as much because they have a better choice of hobbies.Īnd up to 70 per cent said they felt they were under greater pressure than their parents generation to achieve academically and get a good job, giving them less time to party.Ī team from the universities of Kent and Leeds surveyed around 520 Britons aged 18 to 25 who considered themselves moderate or non-drinkers in 2020. They have been dubbed the woke generation for ditching meat, fast fashion and petrol cars.Īnd now Gen Zers claim they drink less than their parents because they feel pressure 'to be making the world a better place, rather than just like living for the moment and having fun'.Ī new study found people born in the late nineties and early 2000's are abandoning alcohol because they are worried about the future, leading researchers to dub them 'generation sensible'.