Today's teens are a more sober, less social generation (axios.com)

Teens today are drinking less than their parents did — but the trends that may be supercharging their sobriety aren't all positive. The big picture: Researchers say there isn't one definitive reason for the shift . Some hypothesize it isn't solely a health kick, but that some teenagers have no one to say "cheers" with. The generation whose childhood was warped by a pandemic and the exponential acceleration in tech and social media is, perhaps unsurprisingly, isolated . "The way that we socialize post-COVID is just really different," says Rachel Janfaza, a Gen Z researcher and author of "The Up and Up" newsletter. Coupled with social media, "those two forces ... have created a perfect storm for a change in how we hang out." By the numbers: The long-standing decline in teen drinking began in the late '90s, according to the Monitoring the Future study , a University of Michigan project that has tracked young people's substance use for half a century. The trend has only accelerated. According to the study , the share of students who drank in the past 12 months in 2025 was 41% in 12th graders (compared to 75% in 1997), 24% in 10th grade (compared to 65% in 1997), and just 11% in 8th grade (compared to 46% in 1997). Worth noting: "All drug use, including alcohol use, is very social," MTF principal investigator Richard Miech tells Axios. Lifetime abstention from select substances, including alcohol, climbed to historic high levels among 8th and 10th graders, and near the historic high for 12th graders, in 2025. "There's a growing percentage that aren't using anything," he says. "It's not like all the kids are being steered to some other substance." As the author Derek Thompson noted earlier this week, it matches a broader social anti-substances trend. Janfaza highlights three reasons she thinks young people are giving booze the boot: A social shift: The pandemic's impact on social life for kids and teens, who have experienced a stubborn surge in loneliness , and a shift where hangouts mostly happen online. Body optimization and looksmaxxing culture: Health and body image pressures are hitting both young women and men, in particular through the GLP-1 craze and so-called " looksmaxxing " and skinny culture . Plus wearable tech that tracks your sleep, steps and other biometrics ramps up the wellness worry. Economic pressure: For Gen Z, affordability strain has also collided with romance, with one study finding roughly half of men (53%) and women (54%) spend $0 a month on dates. Context: Gen Z is a generation of " late bloomers ," says Janfaza: "It's not just that they're drinking less, they're having less sex, they're getting their licenses later." Since even before the pandemic, she says, young adults have told her "our generation's freedom, flexibility, childhood has felt a bit more rigid." The bottom line: Parents can help alleviate some of their teens' stressors (without encouraging them to drink, of course), Janfaza says. They must grasp "how it might