[mig1]

I agree with the sentiment of the article but I don’t understand the point they were trying to make here:

“Before, you had to go socialize with friends; now, you can just get drunk with a bunch of strangers. Before, you had to go find a mate, create children and raise a family; now, you can just watch a lot of porn.”

I’d think more of Facebook, Instagram and Netflix or the advertising industry in general like weaponized additions than what I do of alcohol.

[ks2048]

That line threw me too,

> Before, you had to go socialize with friends; now, you can just get drunk with a bunch of strangers.

"Before" what? I think being antisocial and/or drinking are as old as humanity.

[milesrout]

I think it means before the author had access to alcohol. To expand it, before the author had access to alcohol [an addictive substance[0]], he had to socialise with friends, and now that he has access to alcohol, he can instead get drunk with people, which is (for some unexplained reason) a lesser activity.

Doesn't make much sense to me, but makes more sense than any other interpretation I can think of given that alcohol production is pre-historic.

[0] Personally I disagree. I think alcohol is a nice social lubricant and that also beer and wine are nice drinks. The demand for non-alcoholic/low-alcoholic beer and wine proves wrong the people that have claimed that beer and wine aren't really enjoyed by people that drink, and that people mostly just drink to get drunk.

There are people that ruin their lives in part through abusing alcohol but I don't think alcohol is to blame. Personal responsibility. If you can't handle it, don't drink. Don't ruin it for everyone else by imposing endless additional rules because some people can't handle themselves. eg. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/557549/christchurch-city...

[joegibbs]

Yeah "before" - before when? Before Sumer and Ur? If anything getting drunk with strangers is way less common now than it ever was in the past. A hundred years ago it was all about spending the rest of the day at the pub when you knock off your job at the steelworks. Alcohol consumption has dropped heavily in most developed countries.