How We've Become The Generation That's Obsessed With 'Getting Drinks'

Our generation is obsessed with our drinks and apps. We are just ALWAYS getting drinks (which of course, means getting apps because, duh).

Every single bar and restaurant can be seen after work hours, flooded with friends and coworkers alike, blissfully enjoying cocktails, snacking on apps and relieving  themselves of the tension of yet another long workday.

On weekends, every restaurant's outdoor patio is filled with gaggles of laughing friends as they hold a mimosa in hand and nibble on eggs beni and home fries at brunch.

For us, getting drinks is the adult version of getting coffee. We’re old enough to get vodka sodas instead of cappuccinos.

It makes us feel like mature, sophisticated professionals. Look at us and our ability to have one or two beverages on a work night! 

Sure, we like our French fries as well, but we’re still grown-ups.

We’re so very seasoned to this new, adult life.

Drinks are a time to catch up with old friends, to socialize and to fill the deadened hours between work and bedtime. It's a time to catch up with friends on the weekends and keep our relationships alive.

We get drinks because we don’t want to fall off the face of the earth now that we have careers and our college days are long behind us. We don’t want to become friendless hermits who survive off Seamless and Netflix alone.

We aren’t ready to throw in the towel and admit we’re old and would rather be home, snuggled in bed with Frank and Claire Underwood.

So, we drag ourselves out night after night, weekend after weekend, attempting to maintain our relevance and build up our ever-growing list of contacts. We will have our wine and bruschetta and guzzle them up, too!

We need a drink or two to hear about our friend’s third new job.

If we’re going to devote the evening to seeing one of our old friends from college to hear, yet again, about her new and exciting job, there had better be wine and appetizers involved.

It seems like everyone is always making a career change and we're obligated to celebrate every single time.

Having a few cocktails and a plentiful cheese plate helps us liven up the mood so that we can feign interest and even ask a few questions, too. No one is happy on an empty stomach.

We know a few drinks will ease the social tension.

When we go for “drinks,” it’s usually to catch up with someone we haven’t seen a while.

Maybe it’s an old friend, boss or classmate who you don’t want to completely lose contact with. The first few minutes of these engagements are always a little awkward.

The first step is agreeing on your app. If you can both get down with some calamari, you're on the right track.

Plus, having alcohol there to act as a social lubricant will help deflate any tension and allow the two of you to slip back into the easy conversation you once had.

We have to fill our evenings with more than just Netflix.

Those hours between the end of the workday and bedtime need to be utilized or we feel like we’re wasting away.

Sure, a night in with Netflix is great, but it doesn’t allow you to meet new people or have new experiences.

What else are we going to do if not go out for some apps and drinks? After work is the perfect time to have a little fun and so, we indulge.

We can’t commit to dinner.

We’re not devoted enough to actually agree to give away an entire meal. We stick with drinks (and definitely a few appetizers) because it’s easier.

If you’re on a date and it’s going badly, you can easily leave any time you want. If you’re stuck through a meal, it could spell disaster.

If things are going downhill, all you have to do is throw back those three mozzarella sticks and peace out.

On top of that drama, we’re dealing with student loans and entry-level paychecks. We don’t even have the money to go to out to dinner. Having a few drinks and some chicken fingers is as good as it gets when it comes to socializing.

We want to explore everywhere and everything.

We see all these places on Yelp and we simply cannot ignore the call of adventure. We want to see everything there is to see, taste every cocktail, dole out a little extra for an appetizer (hey, we gotta eat!) so we can take in as many experiences as we can. We’re young and carefree.

Getting drinks is an easy way to try new places without having to eat an entire meal (or spend the entirety of our meager, bi-monthly salaries).

We want our lives to seem glamorous.

We watch shows like "Sex and the City." We see Carrie and her fabulous girlfriends sipping Cosmos and nibbling on oysters and we want to emulate that.

So, we go out after work and meet for cocktails and flirt with the bartenders in an attempt to make our lives seem full of the same glamour we see on TV.

It makes us feel elegant and mature. We may be splitting that bruschetta appetizer between four of us, but it's worth it.

We have FOMO.

This generation is collectively plagued by the illness known as FOMO. We need to have every experience, go to every party and accept every invitation.

Our feeds are constantly flooded with photos of our smiling friends, clinking glasses and munching on hors d’oeuvres at cocktail bars. It makes us itch to miss it.

What if we don’t meet up for drinks with the girls and they have the most epic night of their lives?

What if we don’t stay for that last glass of wine and end up missing the chance to meet the love of our lives?

We get “drinks” because we’re afraid of what might happen if we don’t.

We want to share experiences together because we know what happens after a few rounds.

Alcohol is the ultimate truth serum. After a few drinks everyone’s inhibitions have been lowered and that’s when the really juicy talk comes into play.

If you want to know the ins and outs of everyone’s lives, you join them for drinks and shared platters. It’s a little like having a secret with someone.

Every time you share drinks and apps, you and your friends get a little closer.