In the early summer, I was at a family BBQ when I brought up the well-known university saying that ‘a 2:1 is a first with a social life’. Naturally, they were curious as to what exactly I meant by a “social life”. For me, and those around me, it means being part of societies and going out maybe once a week.
Their reply shocked me: they used to go out four or five times a week.
Nowadays, if someone told me they regularly went out four or five times a week, I’d probably ask whether three things were okay: their mental health, their liver and their bank account. Yet something that would now seem like a cause for concern was completely normalised in our parents’ generation.
Most evenings, I’m training with Triathlon Society, and I don’t particularly want to be hungover during the week anyway. I’m not going out on a Friday because I want to do Parkrun. So that leaves Saturday, on which every so often a cheeky Poptarts doesn’t go amiss… as a treat.
Does this mean exercise is replacing good old clubbing? Are run clubs the new bar crawls? Gyms the new clubs? Dare I say, protein shakes the new tequila shots?
Most of my friends hardly drink, a major shift from our parents’ generation, who seem to have a glass of wine in hand most evenings. A YouGov survey found that 38% of 18-24 year olds don’t drink alcohol at all, which highlights the growing culture of sobriety amongst our generation.
One possible reason for this is our growing awareness of mental health. Anyone who has experienced ‘hanxiety’ knows that alcohol can turn a fun night out into a weekend of spiralling anxiety and low mood. For a generation experiencing a rise in mental health conditions and already talking more openly about them, the appeal of voluntarily making yourself feel worse the next day may be starting to fade.
Meanwhile, exercise offers almost the opposite. Studies have repeatedly shown that it can massively improve mental health, with strength training proven to be an effective treatment for depression as well as a protective mechanism against its onset.
Gen Z places a huge value on physical health too, and alcohol doesn’t always fit neatly into the increasingly health conscious lifestyles many young people are living. Running is undeniably trendy. Drinking hasn’t disappeared, but it is perhaps no longer the unquestioned centre of young people’s social lives.
Running clubs, in particular, have become a new way for young people to socialise. Strava found a 59% increase in running club participation in 2024, while running itself has gone from being a relatively weird hobby to something extremely popular and posted all over social media by ‘runfluencers’. Electrolytes are in. Drinking is… perhaps not completely out, but certainly less essential.
With the rise of running has come the rise of smartwatches, meaning a night out no longer just leaves you feeling rough – you get to experience the joy of waking up the next morning to your watch documenting exactly how badly you slept, how high your resting heart rate is and how little recovery you’ve achieved. For many people, this is simply not worth it.
I also hate being hungover. I cannot stand it. So sometimes it isn’t a particularly difficult choice between a gym session or run that’s going to leave you bouncing with endorphins, or a night out that’s going to leave you questioning your life decisions while bed-rotting with a hangover the next day.
But what happens when this healthier lifestyle begins to replace nightlife altogether?
In London, there are now more 24-hour gyms than nightclubs. It’s tempting to see this as a victory for public health – treadmills replacing tequila, protein shakes replacing pints. On paper, surely this should be a good thing. Something good for your health is replacing something that often comes hand in hand with damaging it, particularly your liver. However, something important is being lost in the process.
A study by the NTIA found that one nightclub closes every two days, with more than a third of nightclubs shutting in the last six years. The pandemic was a major catalyst for this decline, and the current economy continues to make life hard for smaller venues. The UK has lost around 11,000 pubs, bars and grassroots venues since 2019.
The loss of these spaces affects DJs, bands and grassroots artists, and runs alongside the wider loss of the arts and culture that we’re already experiencing in the UK. Small gigs at pubs and nightclubs are how many major artists start up. A recent study found that more than 1.5 million young Britons may already have abandoned ambitions to perform live music because of the lack of these venues. Where are the next generation of musicians supposed to perform?
Then there’s the far less interesting reason behind why we’re going out less – it’s expensive. A study by Unihomes revealed that the average price of a student night out in London is £93. In Sheffield, thankfully, we haven’t been struck quite as hard, with the average being £49. But when a gym membership for an entire month can cost less than a single night out, even in Sheffield, it’s not exactly a difficult choice.
The pandemic also changed the way many of us socialise. We’ve become more like homebodies, preferring the comfort of our own sofa to the sticky floor of a nightclub. I’m definitely guilty of that. As much as I love going out, I must admit I rather enjoy getting in touch with my inner grandma and having a cosy night in watching TV with my housemates.
However, from my experience at university, drinking culture remains massive. Being sober on a night out can still feel taboo. People are still going out, just perhaps not as often as they used to. Gen Z hasn’t stopped wanting to socialise, we’re just becoming more selective about when, how and why we do it. The problem is that going out is still so fundamentally tied to heavy drinking and perhaps this is what needs to change.
People have already started moving with the times. DJ Annie Mac has begun hosting before-midnight events, proving that you can have both. The fun night out, eight hours of sleep and a productive day the next day. Nightlife doesn’t need to mean spending ridiculous amounts of money, stumbling home at 4am and losing the entire next day to a hangover. And equally, gym culture doesn’t need to replace clubbing – the two can come hand in hand.
Venues need to evolve, becoming more flexible and offering daytime and earlier events rather than being completely tied to late nights and reliant on ticket and drinks sales. Sober events, earlier club nights and daytime parties could allow young people to enjoy music and dancing without sacrificing their entire weekend.
I strongly believe there will always be a desire for the shared experience of music and dancing, whether this is sober or not. The best part of going out isn’t necessarily the alcohol. It’s being with your friends, having a cheeky dance and sharing an experience together.
Perhaps we don’t need to choose between being healthy and experiencing nightlife. Run clubs don’t have to replace bar crawls, and gyms don’t have to replace clubs. The future of nightlife might involve fewer tequila shots, more sober dancefloors and earlier finishes. But losing nightlife altogether would be a far greater loss than losing an occasional night’s sleep.
Image credit – Danielle Cerullo
