I don't think its society that treets the kids as kids longer. I think its the parents. Gen X is terrible about that.

Society still says 18 years old for smoking, 21 for drinking. School, college, job. Nothing's changed there. Its the parents that have lagged.

it's not just parents when laws are being put in place that also reinforce it

what laws?

in Europe there's a lot of changes to drinking age for example

they are now trying to control what kind of drinks you can drink

not just "alcohol"

I'm not aware, but I do know 18 was the drinking age in the UK and some euro states so if they're changing it to 21 thats probably not all that bad. But going back to it being the parents faults, they're overprotective because the parents themselves were latchkey kids and didnt get enough attention from their boomer folks.

Its an overreaction that has crippled kids

colleges are also almost free in Europe too

meaning kids don't even have to make a choice

the default is college

just as if it was high school, and without any added responsibility

so you're saying *socialism* <:TimThink:482277772497125378>

I mean that's always to blame.

as an aside, drinking age has stayed the same (18) for a looong time in my country, but the amount kids drink has drastically gone down with the increase of social media

in mine, the drinking age was 16

they increased some drinks to 18

basically you can only drink beer at 16

I started parting at 15 tbh

thats funny. but i'm an American and we gotta wait (legaly at least) til 21. we don't of course.

don't most kids do it illegally though?

yep

because that's what happens in my country

imo it doesn't make sense to say you can get drunk on beer

but forbidden to do so with vodka

also gets things very complicated for bars to comply

also... drugs are available everywhere 😂

the way they solved that around here is beer and weaker is 18, I think above 22% is 21 years

bars and restaurants can sell to whatever to whoever is above 18

and it makes a ton of sense to restrict higher alcohol content to more responsible people, alcohol poisoning is a real thing that can fuck you up bad

making it illegal doesn't do shit though

oh it definitely does

growing up it was much, MUCH easier to just buy 20% liquor yourself than having a friend buy you 40% vodka

only Bars pay the price, if they are caught

simple convenience made you largely stick to the weaker stuff. or maybe you bought a bottle of vodka from someone you knew that you shared with the crew while drinking as much beer you could stomach

at 16 they are already buying drugs, getting to alcohol wouldn't be a problem

which is a LOT better than downing a bottle or three of vodka and ending up in hospital and/or frozen to death in a ditch

not the point

it's about convenience