Losing Faith in the British Social Life? By Hanane Zahrouni Here lies an individual who has never been to a single club in her life asking friends to enlighten her on what their social life is like? From the moment, I asked that question and followed by the most awkward look they gave, their description on the information they shared, not only made me feel clueless, but also for a moment, felt like Alice, entering wonderland with a twist of a nightmare. First fact they put forward was “The British drink a lot”, which is somewhat understandable from the pictures I continuously get on my newsfeed. Facebook is attempting in creating a digital assistant to prevent socially networked teens/young adults from posting drunken pictures of them. This cursed generation can never realize when the music actually stops or when it is okay to blame alcohol for your misbehaviour, which is pretty much never, or coming in to lectures with a hangover and/or with the flu and repeating the same thing the next day, which I personally cannot get my head round the reason why. Perhaps, it is because I have never had an ounce of alcohol, yet I understand drinking for a social purpose, to some extent, but then why drink your weight in poison. Doing my research on this, here in the UK, we have documentaries, which illustrate a night out at different party-loving cities, such as London, Manchester, Liverpool and Nottingham, amongst many others with the lovely company of police officers. They are completely deluded in the sense that they cannot constitute on what is right from wrong. Their socializing seems to be stemmed out of pub culture, where drinking revolves around the idea and is fundamental aspect of “having fun”. Here in Britain, it is less common to invite many people over to your house for a house party of some kind. Instead, they would meet for pre-drinks, where is centred on the individual in a less communal way and would opt to “go out” for a pub-crawl, which is uniquely British, rather than staying in. A friend of mine, mentioned how in working class areas such as counties in Coventry, it is common for parents to encourage drinking as a rite of passage. It is difficult to examine why socializing in the UK is almost synonymous with drinking: perhaps it could be just an embedded obsession or habits may be influenced by class, where the wealthy are less likely to binge drink and more likely to have wine and cheese evenings, whereas the working class drink to forget their troubles? Another friend suggested how drinking until you are sick may happen when out boozing in the States. But it's also a sign of weakness when you are not able to handle your liquor and thus, being socially frameless to the point those who went out with you had to babysit you a bit extra
to make sure you get home safely or to hold your hair when you're sick. She also added a “GROSS” in her description somewhere. It is not that I am criticizing the British public, far from it. In fact I am just writing what I have witnessed in my life living here and there and its seems as though the same applies to adults or semi-functioning ones at least. They should know better yet refuse to admit defeat to those endless club nights where the majority of them on Friday/Saturday nights are constantly staring at their reflection in the toilet bowl. There seems to be a pattern in which when I ask my generation whether they would rather travel and explore new places, they make a run for it and come up with excuses ranging from being financially useless to needing a job in order for them to scrape enough money to pay rent and feed themselves. Within a couple days, you see this generation on your newsfeed maxing out their credit card drinking their sorrows away. Sure, they do not have a mortgage or kids to chase around the house and feel accountable for, but that should not be a reason for them to give up this first-world wasted lifestyle filled with immaturity, and running away from the risk of being ‘responsible’. From what I have seen, I am not going to be like one of those substitute teachers who enforces abstinence in sex Ed, but in this case, forcing sobriety. I choose to be sober because, I believe it leads to a better lifestyle…plus I don’t want to spend half my life in a hangover, so all I can say is moderation is A-OKAY, Britain! Now there are those, who are much more responsible when it comes to alcohol and we cannot leave those out. However, even if you are, it seems that you are still drowning in a sea of inaccurate surveys that place us in the norm and majority of those destroying their liver and detaching themselves from maturity, thus leading to a nationwide problem. It may be the pressure to conform to a traditional lifestyle that is continuously being refused by today’s society, unlike during the time my parents lived, where they settled down in their early 20’s with their first born: much easier for them to just grow up with a structured life. Now, these days, people have glued to the screen and binge-watching Netflix and exploring anything else or doing anything else is simply out of the question and the weekends is normally what they look forward to; those depressive nights consisting once again of alcohol in one form or another. Sure, you can blame the media and how it designs the whole experience in a “oh so pretty” way, but aren’t we evolved enough to realize that it is truly time to find a new way of just rising to the top of adulthood instead of risking the chance of bringing to this world alcoholics? There is an alternative lifestyle, and I am sure many of you are aware of it and it could involve experiencing exciting social encounters without alcohol...and maybe even save money by doing so? HZ
RYOT NOTE: This is not a joke, but a wakeup call and should be treated as one. There are many who struggle to sober up and require the extra assistance and support in doing so. Alcohol Concern is aims to help with the personal recovery and continued sobriety of individual alcoholics and helps those who need information and guidance. In addition, they also help professionals through training, projects and research – and to help us all through campaigning to challenge the drinking culture in our country. Addaction, another charity is the UK's leading drug and alcohol aid organization. Every year, they help over 40,000 people in England and Scotland to recover from their problems, which leads to them being able to rebuild relationships and go on to live fulfilling and meaningful lives.