Less booze, more moves: Inside Gen Z’s new social scene

Pubs have long been places where families celebrate birthdays, coworkers get together after work, bachelor and bachelorette parties serve as a last hurrah before marriage, soccer fanatics congregate around television screens, and regulars discover a sense of community.

However, young Britons are adopting sober alternatives to mix and searching elsewhere for social connection. Pubs in Britain may be under more pressure as a result of this cultural change.

According to a report released in May by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), a trade association that represents thousands of bars and breweries, 161 pubs closed in England, Wales, and Scotland between January and March of this year—nearly two a day on average. From 60,800 in 2000 to 44,650 in 2025, about 25% of bars have closed.

Pubs are under financial strain due to a number of factors, including taxation and rising prices, according to Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the BBPA.

However, analysts claim that cultural changes also play a role, as Gen Z new social scene (those born between 1997 and 2012) have a more varied social scene and are more inclined to spend a Friday night at the running track than at a pub.

Britain’s social landscape is evolving quickly, from coffee raves to running clubs and padel.

‘Collective ritual’

According to Thomas Thurnell-Read, a sociologist from Loughborough University who studies leisure and consumption, excessive drinking was frequently incorporated into long-standing social customs for Millennials, Gen X, and Baby Boomers, such as after-work beverages.

“Going to the pub on a Friday or during lunch, whether it’s a three-pint lunch, and then returning to the desk would have been the standard for many professions and businesses a generation ago. That kind of thing sounds nostalgic, he remarked.

Then there were the big nights out or bachelor parties, he recalled, 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 previous night.

However, behaviors have changed, especially among younger persons, as awareness of the possible risks of heavy drinking has increased. A growing number of people are adopting low- and no-alcohol beverages, according to research from the British alcohol awareness organization Drinkaware.

According to Thurnell-Read, the pressure young people have to succeed and make better use of their leisure time is what sets Gen Z’s drinking habits apart from those of previous generations.

“You have to be seen doing well because this generation has grown up with Instagram and TikTok, he remarked.

He continued, “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.

Sports over shots

Running surged in popularity during pandemic-era lockdowns, when everything was closed, including pubs, gyms, and nightclubs, with Gen Z driving the trend.

Rhys Lloyd, a 24-year-old from the small South Wales town of Brecon, where he claims that “there’s not much to do bar going to the pub,” is one of many adopting the Gen Z running cult.

Lloyd made the decision to put on his running shoes during the Covid pandemic, when many people were indoors taking up new activities. He soon fell in love with the activity.

As socialization constraints relaxed, Lloyd ventured outside of Brecon to participate in free, neighborhood-driven park runs in neighboring picturesque communities, where he connected with other runners.

For Lloyd, jogging on Saturday mornings has meant giving up Friday evenings at his local.

“Don’t get me wrong, I still drink, but I’ve drunk a lot less than when I didn’t run as much. Lloyd remarked, “I feel like you’re more conscious of how to live a healthy life and you realize how terrible drinking really is. The sooner you cut it down, the better you’ll feel.

Lloyd is by no means by himself. More than one-third of the 26-mile runners who finished the London Marathon this year were between the ages of 18 and 29, according to statistics. Runners under 29 made about 18–21% in the total in 2010, 2016, and 2019.

There are other sports besides running that are changing how Gen Z interacts with one another. Since COVID, the popularity of padel, a racquet sport, has also skyrocketed.

Padel, which is played in fours, blends aspects of squash and tennis. According to the Lawn Tennis Association, as of the end of 2025, some 860,000 Britons had played the sport at least once, which is more than twice as many as a year earlier and significantly more than the 15,000 who had done so by the end of 2019.

Padel clubs, which provide areas where people may work, dine, and mingle next to the courts, are rapidly marketing padel as more than just a sport.

Oscar Sanger, an associate at a popular padel club in London, stated that the company is concentrating on attracting younger customers and wants to establish a “home from home” with food, co-working spaces, live music, and even speed dating.

He stated, “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.

‘Problem’ vs. ‘solution’

According to Emily Nicholls, a senior sociology lecturer at the University of York who researches alcohol consumption and sobriety, Gen Z saw alcohol as an additional barrier, whereas previous generations saw it as a daily getaway from the stresses and strains of life and work.

“Alcohol has been reframed for Gen Z as part of the problem rather than the solution, whereas generations like Boomers were more likely to frame alcohol as a solution to the stress and pressures of life and work,” Nicholls told CNN.

Compared to previous generations, she thinks this is because Gen Z is under more social and economic pressure.

Rather than being something new, what we are witnessing with Gen Z is an increase of this “get ahead” mentality. It’s not that past generations weren’t subject to these pressures, but Gen Z is more impacted by things like growing living expenses, the economic downturn, and difficulties climbing the real estate ladder, she added.

Some Gen Z ravers are circumventing this by substituting espresso shots for vodka shots and pursuing their monthly serotonin buzz under café lights instead of nightclub strobes.

Two-thirds of attendees are typically between the ages of 18 and 24, with a smaller percentage being between the ages of 25 and 30, according to Coffee Culture UK, a firm that organizes coffee raves, which turn cafés into alcohol-free daytime dance venues.

We believe this is a result of Gen Z’s growing search for novel forms of social interaction. Tanya Thadani, the company’s creator, stated, “They’re placing more value on experiences centered around community, connection, and wellbeing than nights out where alcohol is the main focus.

Aditi Devali is one of them; she likes to boogie without upsetting her routine.

The 20-year-old stated, “One of the reasons I dislike nightclubs is that they start quite late and can really disrupt your sleep schedule.

“Daytime coffee raves work much better for me because I prefer to maintain a regular schedule. Without compromising a restful night’s sleep, I can still take advantage of the music, social atmosphere, and energy of a club-like event.