Less booze, more moves: Inside Gen Z’s new social scene
By Mustafa Qadri, CNN
(CNN) — For generations, pubs have served as a place where soccer fans crowd around television screens, colleagues meet after work, families celebrate birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties mark a final hurrah before marriage and regulars find community.
But young Britons are increasingly looking elsewhere for social connection and embracing sober alternatives to mingle. This cultural shift may add to the squeeze being felt by Britain’s pubs.
A study published in May by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), an industry body that represents thousands of pubs and breweries, said that between January and March of this year, 161 pubs closed across England, Wales and Scotland – an average of nearly two a day. Since 2000, more than a quarter of pubs have closed, going from 60,800 in 2000 to 44,650 to 2025.
Rising costs and taxes are among the reasons why pubs are feeling financial pressure, said Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA.
But experts say cultural shifts also have a part to play, as the social scene for Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 – diversifies and a Friday night is as likely to mean hanging out at the running track as propping up a bar.
From running clubs and padel to coffee raves, Britain’s social scene is changing at pace.
‘Collective ritual’
For Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers, heavy drinking was often woven into established social rituals like after-work drinks said Thomas Thurnell-Read, a sociologist from Loughborough University who studies leisure and consumption.
“For a lot of professions and industries a generation ago, it would have been the norm to go to the pub on a Friday or go to the pub during lunch time, whether it’s a three-pint lunch, and then back to the desk. Things like that sound nostalgic,” he said.
“Then there were the big nights out or bachelor parties, he said, where “the hangover was always part of the adventure, part of the collective ritual, recovering and having to cook breakfast, or in a cafe retelling the stories from the night before.”
But as awareness of the potential harms of heavy drinking has grown, behaviors have shifted, particularly among younger adults. Research by British alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware shows an increasing number are embracing low and no-alcohol drinks.
For Thurnell-Read, what makes Gen Z’s drinking habits distinct from other generations is the pressure young people feel to succeed and spend their free time more productively.
“This is a generation (that’s) grown up with Instagram and TikTok… you have to be seen doing well,” he said.
“That kind of vision of time in the pub, or the morning lost when you’re sleeping off the hangover, is viewed as wasted time,” he added.
Sports over shots
During pandemic-era lockdowns, when everything from gyms and night clubs to pubs were shut, running exploded in popularity, with Gen Z pushing the surge.
Among those embracing the Gen Z running cult is 24-year-old Rhys Lloyd from the small town of Brecon in south Wales, where, in his words, “there’s not much to do bar going to the pub.”
During Covid, when many people were indoors picking up new hobbies, Lloyd decided to lace up his running shoes and quickly fell in love with the sport.
As socializing restrictions loosened, Lloyd branched out of Brecon and explored free, community driven park runs in other scenic villages where he met other running enthusiasts.
Running for Lloyd has meant sacrificing Friday nights at his local for Saturday morning jogs.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still drink, but I’ve cut down a lot compared to when I didn’t run as much. I feel like you’re more aware (of) how to live a healthy life and you realize how awful drinking really is, and the sooner you cut it down the better you’ll feel,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd is far from alone. Statistics from the London Marathon show that more than a third of runners who completed the 26-mile race this year were aged between 18 and 29. In 2010, 2016 and 2019, runners under 29 accounted for 18 to 21%.
Running is not the only sport that is reshaping how Gen Z socialize. The racket sport of padel has also boomed in popularity since Covid.
Played in fours, padel combines elements of tennis and squash. Around 860,000 Brits had tried it least once as of the end of 2025, more than double the figure a year earlier and far above the 15,000 who’d tried the sport by the end of 2019, according to the Lawn Tennis Association.
Padel clubs are increasingly promoting it as more than a sport, offering spaces where people can work, eat and socialize alongside the courts.
Oscar Sanger, an associate at a busy London padel club, said the company aims to create a “home from home,” with food, co-working spaces, live music and even speed dating, and is focused on bringing in a younger demographic.
“We’re seeing a lot more people wanting to socialize over sport, which again is aligned with all those trends with less alcohol and socializing over exercise,” he said.
‘Problem’ vs. ‘solution’
For earlier generations, alcohol was treated as an everyday escape from the stress and pressures of life and work, whereas Gen Z sees it as another obstacle, said Emily Nicholls, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of York who studies alcohol consumption and sobriety.
“Generations such as Boomers were more likely to frame alcohol as a solution to the stress and pressures of life and work; alcohol has instead been reframed for Gen Z as part of the problem rather than the solution,” Nicholls told CNN.
She believes this is due to Gen Z facing increased societal and economic pressures by comparison to earlier generations.
“What we are seeing is an intensification of this ‘get ahead’ mentality in Gen Z, rather than it being completely new. It is not to say that older generations didn’t experience these pressures, but rather Gen Z is particularly affected by factors such as… rising cost of living, economic crisis, challenges in getting on the property ladder,” she said.
To work around this, some Gen Z ravers are swapping vodka shots for espresso shots and chasing their weekly serotonin buzz beneath café lights rather than nightclub strobes.
Coffee Culture UK, a company organizing coffee raves – where cafés are transformed into alcohol-free daytime dance spaces – said that on average, two-thirds of those attending are age 18 to 24, with a smaller portion age 25 to 30.
“We think this is because Gen Z is increasingly looking for new ways to socialise. They’re placing more value on experiences centered around community, connection and wellbeing, rather than nights out where alcohol is the main focus,” said the founder, Tanya Thadani.
Among them is Aditi Devali, who enjoys a boogie without throwing her routine off balance.
“One of the reasons I don’t like nightclubs is that they start quite late and can really disrupt your sleep schedule,” the 20-year-old said.
“I’m someone who likes to keep a consistent routine, so daytime coffee raves suit me much better. I still get to enjoy the music, social atmosphere and energy of a club-like event without sacrificing a good night’s sleep.”
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