GENERATION SOBER?: RecoveryFirst.org, a leading alcohol and addiction treatment facility, carried out a survey of 3,898 18-24 year olds, and found that over a third (34%) of Pennsylvanians (in this age group) said they’ve never been drunk.

This could also be explained by the ‘sober curious’ movement, where people experiment with sobriety as a kind of “wellness trend” that is often depicted by social media influencers, given the prevalence of young people who use these platforms on a very regular basis. In fact, almost a third (32%) of Gen Zers said they actually feel modern media pressures them into living a sober lifestyle.

Increased awareness and education about hard drugs and alcohol being linked to health and well-being may also be a contributing factor to Gen Zers’ abstinence. For example, more than three-quarters (81%) of respondents felt the benefits of not drinking alcohol outweigh the benefits of consuming the intoxicant; perhaps the lack of hangover the following day tops the chart as the number one benefit. Not to mention the feeling of a far less-empty wallet after a big night out.

However, another study funded by NIDA found that nearly half (44%) of college students reported using cannabis in 2020, which was an increase from 38% who reported cannabis use in 2015. There was also an increase in ‘daily or near daily’ marijuana usage, which rose to 8%, from 5% in the five-year span. The interesting correlation was that while marijuana use increased among college students, there was a dip in reported alcohol use from 62% in 2019, to 56% in 2020. Binge-drinking among college students also dipped from 32% to 24% in the same year span, which is actually the lowest in the study’s history. This could also be linked to statistics showing Americans in cannabis-legalized states are now binge-drinking at a rate nearly 10% below the national average.