Jana Hocking’s piece in the Mail paints a picture of young people clutching their sparkling waters like emotional support beverages, too timid to live, laugh, or board a plane without three glasses of champagne. She wishes Gen Z’ers (is that a word?) would ‘loosen up and have a drink’ It’s a fun story – really well written, and I’d have loved it when I was in denial – but it’s also nonsense.
The Opposite is True!
The idea that sobriety equals joylessness is one of those myths that only survives because people keep repeating it instead of actually testing it. As Catherine Gray famously wrote, there is an ‘unexpected joy of being sober’ – emphasis on joy. Not mild contentment. Not polite wellness. Actual joy.
And here’s the thing: I’ve lived both ways. I’ve had the Aperol summers, the wine‑soaked lunches, the “liquid courage” moments. And I’ve had the sober ones. I know which version of me was actually present, actually connected, actually alive. And young people tell me the same.
Alcohol isn’t the magic – it’s the myth
Jana says her best memories in Paris were “helped along” by wine and spritzes. But let’s be honest: the sunshine, the friendships, the adventure, the spontaneity, those were the real ingredients. The alcohol was just the garnish.
If anything, the fun she remembers happened despite the booze, not because of it. Because alcohol doesn’t create joy – it just blurs the edges around it.
Gen Z has simply realised that you don’t need to be half‑pickled to have a personality. They’re not joyless; they’re just not buying the idea that fun requires a chemical catalyst. Its not just Gen Z either, in a survey almost 70 per cent of people who drink say they wish they didn’t!
Scott Galloway’s “worst thing to happen to young people” take?
Jana quotes New York Professor Scott. It’s a dramatic clickbait headline, sure. But the idea that social connection collapses without alcohol is crazy If your ability to socialise depends on ethanol, that’s not liberation. That’s dependency dressed up as culture.
The real joy is being fully there
The best conversations I’ve had? Sober. The best friendships I’ve made? Sober. The best decisions? Definitely sober. The best mornings? No contest.
And the young people I meet – the ones supposedly “joyless”, are actually some of the most emotionally intelligent, socially connected, and self-aware humans around. They’re choosing presence over hangovers, clarity over chaos, and genuine connection over chemically‑assisted small talk.
That’s not joyless. That’s evolution.
Only someone who hasn’t sampled life without booze could genuinely believe alcohol is the gateway to joy. It’s not. Joy doesn’t need a drink. Joy needs courage, curiosity, and a willingness to show up fully – something Gen Z is doing better than most generations before them.
If anything, sobriety isn’t the absence of fun. It’s the removal of the stuff that gets in the way of it.
I gave a TEDx talk Sobriety Rocks – Who Knew! It does, it rocks.
TedXNorwichED 2019, Janey Lee Grace
Gen Z – Boomers – quit the booze – life is better without – Join us in The Sober Club for connection and wellbeing inspiration