Wine and the SmartPhone Theory of Life
In just a decade and a half the cell phone and its apps have changed everything
The Harbor Lights was a funky little bar that livened up Main Street in Tiburon, California for many years. It was a mainstay for middle-aged Marinites where they could mingle, listen to live music and dance on the small space in back, all the while trying to attract the attention of others.
It was the first bar I ever entered with the intention of drinking, socializing and using my highly undeveloped game to attract the attention of the opposite sex. It was 1982 and I was 19 years old—too young to legally be there.
Talking our way into the Harbor Lights bar with our ginned-up bravado and imitation IDs was a rite of passage for me and all of my friends, male and female. Prior to the Harbor Lights Incident, my friends and I had consumed alcohol and used it to gather our courage to attract the opposite sex or, simply, to fit in among a mixed crowd. This started probably around 16 years old. But slipping into this well-known local bar was a new excursion on my road to socializing as an adult.
Today, due to the migration among the young toward online socializing instead of in-person socializing (all due to the rise of the smartphone and social media beginning around 2012) this kind of in-person socializing is far less common among the young and young adults.
Research from The Ringer highlights that between 2003 and 2022, American adults reduced their in-person socializing by about 30%, with teenagers experiencing a sharper decline of over 45%.
This is what Bourcard Nesin, author of Rabobank’s recent Report, “The Real Reason Generation Z is Drinking Less Alcohol,” calls a “generation shift”. This phrase underplays the importance of the trend. It is a cultural shift that will be with us for the long-term future.