Drinking is an expectation in all sorts of situations in the UK. Celebrations are often thought to be incomplete without alcohol. Workplaces frequently rely on drinks to encourage colleagues to socialise. Drinking in rounds is a tradition from which it can be hard to stray, but one that causes problems for those who want to drink less or more slowly.
Marketing is undoubtedly part of the problem. Through advertising and sponsorship, alcohol producers are able to imply that their products are essential to everything from watching sport, to celebrating holidays, to relaxing after work. While no alcohol company believes its own marketing causes the problem, as a whole alcohol marketing saturates our culture with the idea that drinking is a necessary accompaniment to everyday life and to every occasion.
There’s more to drinking cultures than marketing. From an early age, we are initiated into a complex array of drinking behaviours, rituals and expectations. We come to learn that alcohol is associated with celebrations, weekends, food, and a range of social gatherings.
Beyond learning the ‘rules’ of drinking, we can also be made to feel that deviating from particular behaviours is socially condemned. We experience peer pressure at both an individual and a wider societal level. This can lead to us drinking in ways that we do not enjoy or which may not be good for us. People who do not drink – even just for a night, let alone a month or a lifetime – often report being strongly encouraged to do so, and being criticised for not.
It often seems that the norms of drinking today are fixed and represent traditions that have never changed. This is not true; for example, bringing a bottle of wine to a dinner party would have been unheard of outside the most rarefied social circles just fifty years ago. Drinking heavily on St Patrick’s Day is, essentially, a creation of marketing departments. And while student excess has a long history, the idea of Freshers’ Week as a seven-day pub crawl was unusual until recently (and seems to be declining again).
The reality is that drinking cultures change, constantly. Young people are drinking less, sales of alcohol-free and low alcohol drinks are increasing, and the mainstream media is taking notice of the change. This is not a niche trend. Around 20% of the UK population do not drink, and a great many more drink only occasionally.
