Party Culture

Potentially unpopular opinion: contemporary party culture sucks.

I feel like there is some unspoken understanding that says the best nights of your life are the ones you don’t remember. There is a certain pride that goes with drinking alcohol to a point where you are no longer physically or mentally capable to function. Isn’t that kind of sad? We define some of the best moments of our lives as those that we can’t even remember what happened, what we did, who we were with, and how we felt. And then we relive and piece together those memories using 5 second clips on Snapchat and Instagram. If I am at a party, why do some friends insist that I black out or otherwise end up incapacitated. Why am I suddenly a lame-o if I would rather share a meaningful experience with people I care about instead of testing the limits of my metabolism (I have some ideas why, but maybe it’s too soon). I’m not claiming to be above any of this nor am I trying to tell anyone how to live their life, but I am trying to point out how ridiculous it kind of is.

All that being said if a certain lifestyle makes you happy, and I mean truly happy, then more power to you. If you resonate with any of this, where do we go from here. If you disagree or are upset by any of this, why do you think that is? Perhaps this has less to do with a culture of partying and more with culture of escapism. Everything feels better when we can forget about our problems, our anxieties, our fears, and our responsibilities, but there has to be, and are, better, less destructive ways to do that. Forgetting and avoiding is the easy way, but doesn’t fix anything; confronting and resolving, is much harder, but may fix everything. Pick your poison.