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?
This is from 2015 showing rates of smoking in adults:
So I’m guessing there are lots of reasons we’re seeing similar patterns in high school seniors. The most obvious from the data above is that they’re mirroring the behavior of adults that are largely eschewing smoking. Smoking/drinking/drugs were or are also acts of rebellion and experimentation in the youth. I’m guessing those definitions are changing too. Rebellion may be taking on slightly different forms and much of the taboo of smoking/drinking/drugs is being removed if the adults around them are also using less or none at all.
Except a lot of these things don’t include vaping. That has skyrocketed in kids and iirc vaping rates are higher in kids than smoking rates were when I was in high school
I agree. I’m 41 and was a smoker for like 16 years starting in high school. I saw cool adults smoking as a kid and that’s that. I still vape some, but I strictly don’t do it in front of the kids in my life. I don’t want them to think it’s cool.
Too busy with other addictions. Video games. Social media. Etc.
All generations have their vices
Video games, social media, hunting landlords for sport, harmless things, really
3.2 beer which 18-year-olds could legally buy was a thing. Looks like 1984 was when the federal government mostly put an end to it.
I don’t understand the downvotes; I’m pointing out that many states legally sold beer to 18-year-olds, many of whom would be high school seniors, during at least the first part of the chart.
Literally 1984
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.
So the percentage of highschool seniors lying about drinking and smoking is on the increase. But seriously, I’ll bet the rise in social media addiction might have something to do with that trend. You can’t really trust self reporting stats tho.
My first inclination is always to be suspicious of self-report too, but presumably any biases would also be present in the older data. If anything, I’d guess kids 50 years ago might have felt more social pressure to not admit to alcohol/substance use.
Edit: to your point, I bet you’re right about social media addiction. If most kids are just going home and spending time online, they’re probably not doing these things as much. I bet it’s also the root cause to those studies showing that young people are having less and less sex.
On a positive note there is also less pressure to have sex you are not ready for or just do not want, less virgin-shaming, and more awareness of asexuality and people who fall under that umbrella. By the time I was a high school senior there were plenty of opportunities where I could have had sex but I just did not want it as an asexual person and people actually respected that instead of telling me I’d be lame if I didn’t, or that I had to put out for my partner.
If anything i would guess the opposite. In the past smoking and drinking were considered cooler than it’s viewed today, so in the past more kids would’ve lied that they did use when they actually didn’t. But i would guess that the amount of lying about it on an anonymous survey has remained relatively constant
Guessing that “smoking cigarettes” doesn’t include vaping. But, it’s definitely true that cigarettes are seen as a lot less cool nowadays. I am surprised there aren’t more kinds drinking regularly… I think here in the UK the picture would be different, parents are a lot less bothered about drinking here in my experience.
There are probably lots and lots of factors.
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education about how using substances underage can mess up your brain development
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ban on cigarette ads made them seem less cool
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new laws that require id for anyone who looks 25 or under
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stronger enforcement of sale-to-minor laws
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mobile devices are able to stimulate you at all times when you otherwise would’ve used a substance
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more empathetic parenting makes kids listen to parents more
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etc etc etc
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Zyn is growing quick in popularity. Them and other nicotine pouches very well may be taking some of the market.
They spend all their money on microtransactions
How old are high school seniors?
Around 17-19, based on where their birthdays fall in the year.
Also depends on how many years they have been that same grade.
The kids are gonna be alright 👍
I remember the Skull and Copenhagen girls giving out free samples to the 4-H & FFA kids at the county fair… Thats how I got my addiction…
The less people smoke and drink the better our society will be, that’s a fact. Remember, smokers are jokers
The further away we get from that awkward leaded gasoline period, the better too.
As a person who was a high school senior in this time period I just thought those activities were something I personally would not enjoy. Not sure why these rates of teens making healthy choices is treated as a bad thing, but I have always been a bit of a goody-two-shoes who is not susceptible to wanting something more because it is forbidden. Even with the reasons in the comments about signs of things being harder for young people, I think it is still a positive outcome of an otherwise bad situation.
Also relevant: picky eater. Part of why I think I won’t enjoy these things is because I think if I put them in my mouth they’ll taste bad. I stay away from healthy food because of that, why would I make that sacrifice for things actively considered a health hazard (in the case of cigarettes and alcohol)? I’m also just not comfortable with anything messing with my brain that isn’t doctor-prescribed, and I don’t have a medical marijuana prescription. Weed smells bad to me and although sometimes taste and smell aren’t perfect predictors of each other (vanilla extract, anyone?) I think smell is 80% of taste? So I’m further disincentivized. Plus I don’t want to start liking weed and then having to manage the smell, or to like weed enough I don’t care how I smell. I am friends with someone who smokes frequently and their room smells like weed and they do too and it is quite unpleasant to me.
Also relevant: I am adopted and therefore have an unknown family medical history. Am I genetically prone to substance use disorders/addiction? No idea but I do not want to take the chance I’d turn out to be the kind of person who gets addicted to alcohol and runs over a family in a car and ruins my life, but I know my personality and I tend to be very all-or-nothing, grab onto the thing you like hard and very little moderation. Sounds like a bad combination with alcohol. I respect people who do manage to drink responsibly because I probably cannot. Mildly curious as to what kind of drunk I’d be, if I’d be fun, sad, or the alcoholic disaster I fear I’d be, but I’m not going to chance it. Besides, I’m extroverted, so I don’t feel I need it in order to talk to people at a social gathering.
All this holds true now and these were also the reasons I’d probably give you as a high school senior, with the addition of “not breaking the law and risking getting caught, thank you”.
Gonna call bullshit, only 1 in 20 high school seniors were straight edge in the early 80s?
