This chart has been floating around, and I find it interesting to speculate about the reason for this shift.
Have attitudes changed this much? Do teens have less independence or fewer places to go to do these things? Are parents more involved in teens’ lives? Was vaping excluded in the study?
I think a growing number of high schoolers are just not going out as much. They’re at home socializing on discord. I don’t think there is a rise of “straight-edge” as much as just fewer organic opportunities for a larger swathe of young adults.
My brother teaches. He tells me that post-Covid, his students in general seem shyer, more pessimistic, and less confident with taking risks.
It’s also increasingly expensive to go out. That also applies to drinking and doing drugs lol. Something like staying home and going online or playing video games is cheap.
It’s ties in with why younger generations aren’t having kids. Everything is too expensive.
Also the world has grown increasingly hostile to young people. There is a constant trend towards there being fewer places for them to hang out, and it being harder to get around.
In the US, often the only option to get around is a car and there really aren’t many options of affordable places to go even if you have one.
This wasn’t as much the case 30 years ago.