The death of the night out? How Mexico City’s youth are socializing

What if the problem isn’t that young people have stopped going out, but that we’ve been getting the night out wrong all along? For decades, the formula seemed pretty straightforward: Friday night meant getting dressed up, meeting friends, drinking too much, dancing until the early hours and spending Saturday recovering. Going out was practically a weekend obligation. But for a growing number of young people, getting wasted is losing its appeal. And the traditional clubbing experience is no longer the default way to socialize. Instead, think dinner with friends, a long walk, a fitness class, a coffee that turns into a three-hour conversation, or a night at someone’s apartment. Alcohol hasn’t disappeared, and neither has the desire to have fun. But the priorities seem to be shifting. So, is the night out dying? Or are we simply learning to have a good time differently? In Mexico City, where nightlife has long been part of the city’s appeal, I wanted to find out. Studies suggest that younger generations are, in fact, drinking less than those who came before. (Louis Hansel / Unsplash) Is Gen Z drinking less? There is evidence that young people are drinking less in several countries, although the trend isn’t universal. According to the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs, the proportion of European students who reported drinking alcohol in the previous month fell from 55% in 1995 to 43% in 2024. The figures concern school students across participating European countries, not all young adults worldwide. Mexico offers another interesting example. The country’s 2025 National Survey on Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption (ENCODAT) found that the percentage of adolescents aged 12 to 17 who had consumed alcohol in the previous month fell from 16.1% in 2016 to 7.5% in 2025. That’s a substantial decline among teenagers, although it doesn’t tell us exactly how much Mexico City’s 20-somethings are drinking. So, what’s behind the change? Health consciousness is an obvious place to start. Fitness has become part of everyday life for many young adults, from Pilates and running clubs to strength training and early morning workouts. When your Saturday plans involve a long run rather than nursing a hangover, Friday night suddenly looks different. There’s also a growing awareness of alcohol’s health risks. We know more about its relationship with sleep, physical performance and long-term health, including cancer. And when social media is full of people sharing their workouts, wellness routines and carefully curated lives, waking up feeling terrible can seem like a particularly bad trade-off. Research suggests younger people, especially Gen Z, are more likely to prioritize health earlier in life than previous generations. (Shutterstock) But there’s a contradiction: The same social media that encourages us to go to bed early also makes us feel as though we should be doing something worth posting about. The perfect workout, the perfect job, the perfect group of friends and the perfect weekend have become another set of expectations to keep up with. I still tell my friends to send me pictures when they travel. Increasingly, though, they would tell me they can’t wait to see my stories when it’s my turn to go somewhere. Sometimes it feels as if an experience isn’t quite complete until you’ve posted about it. Could the pandemic have played a part, too? Young people who spent months isolated during formative years may have developed different social habits. But it would be too easy to blame COVID for an entire generation’s changing relationship with nightlife. Technology, money, work, wellness culture and shifting social norms may all be part of the picture. And there’s another question worth asking: If drinking less is becoming more acceptable, does that mean we’re becoming less social, or simply less dependent on alcohol to socialize? Does Mexico have an alcohol problem? Everything in moderation I’ve been doing Dry January for four years. Back in 2022, only one of my friends had even heard of it. She was the one who introduced me to the idea. At the time, not drinking seemed strange unless you were taking antibiotics. How could you possibly go out and not drink? Every January, I’d find myself explaining why I was doing it and why taking a break from alcohol appealed to me. Most people weren’t particularly interested. They only wanted me to have a glass in my hand. This year was different. By the end of January, I realized I didn’t really feel like drinking. I didn’t miss it at all, and when the month ended, I didn’t see a reason to start again. I’d already been going out less, drinking fewer cocktails and mostly having wine when I went to restaurants. My first alcoholic drink of the year eventually came in May, at a friend’s wedding. I had a few cocktails, enjoyed myself and moved on. What surprised me most wasn’t how easy it was to say no to alcohol. It was how much I enjoyed the mornings afterwards. Waking up after a fun evening with no hangover, enough energy to exercise, go for a walk or visit a museum felt like getting an extra day back. Alcohol-free tequila brand, Almave, is the first company to use the traditional blue agave plant. (Almave/Facebook) Mexico City has also made it easier to experiment. There are bars and restaurants where alcohol-free drinks feel like a genuine part of the menu rather than an afterthought. A good mocktail can be just as enjoyable as a cocktail, without the alcohol. Still, I don’t think everyone needs to give up drinking. If I go to Italy with my best friends, I’ll be more than happy to have a Spritz. At Christmas, I’ll gladly share a bottle of wine with my family. For me, the shift has been about choice rather than restriction. I don’t want to drink just because everyone else is drinking, or because I’ve convinced myself that a night out requires alcohol. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone who feels differently. Perhaps that’s the real change: Not that drinking has become unacceptable, but that not drinking is becoming less of a big deal. A look back at the days when tequila was the drug smuggled across the Mexico-US border What do young people actually want from a night out? To understand what’s happening in Mexico City, I asked young people about their habits, what they do instead of going out, and what would make them want to go out more often. In my survey, 55% said they go out less frequently than they did three years ago. Respondents also described drinking less when they do go out. Their explanations were revealing. Several said their friends simply weren’t interested in going clubbing as often. Instead, they preferred daytime plans, relaxed dinners or meeting at someone’s home. These gatherings felt more intimate and made it easier to catch up, have proper conversations and spend time together without feeling rushed. Sports and wellness came up, too. For young adults juggling work, studies and other responsibilities, a weekend workout or an early start the next morning can take priority over a late night. What stood out in my conversations was that the issue wasn’t always a lack of desire to socialize. It was a lack of enthusiasm for the available ways of doing it. The idea of a heaving nightclub does not appeal to some in Gen Z. (Shutterstock) In my survey, respondents talked about wanting clubs closer to home, shorter queues and friends who were more willing to go out. Some described asking their friends to make plans and feeling as though they were begging. That last detail stayed with me. Imagine wanting to go dancing, getting a group together and feeling as though you’re asking everyone for a favor. But we should be careful not to confuse a preference for smaller gatherings with a rejection of nightlife altogether. People can want fewer nights out without wanting nightlife to disappear. They may simply be more selective about when they go, who they go with and what makes the evening worthwhile. In fact, 65% of respondents in my survey said they still went to bars, clubs or parties at least once a week. That complicates the idea of a dying night out. Going out less often doesn’t necessarily mean giving it up. Postcards from Mexico: Noche de Despecho, or where heartbreak becomes a party Are bars noticing the shift? If young people are changing their habits, what does that mean for the places where they spend their evenings? I spoke to young people about what they drink and to bar and club owners in La Roma about what they have noticed since the pandemic. In my survey, respondents described drinking less hard liquor and fewer cocktails, such as gin and tonics or rum and Coke. Beer and wine remained popular, while some said they alternated alcoholic drinks with water or delayed their first drink until later in the evening. Others admitted that they didn’t particularly enjoy the taste of alcohol. For them, drinking was more about loosening up, feeling more sociable and having fun with friends. Alcohol-free options therefore have an obvious appeal. But mocktails aren’t a complete replacement for the drinking experience: Some respondents said they found it boring to spend an entire evening drinking sodas or alcohol-free cocktails, particularly when everyone else was drinking. Mocktails: try these non-alcoholic beverages to beat the heat The message isn’t necessarily that young people want bars without alcohol. They want more choice, a good atmosphere and a reason to stay. The owner of a bar in La Roma that also serves food offered another perspective on the experience of running a venue where people can eat, drink and socialize. His observations, alongside those of a local club owner, suggest that the relationship between nightlife and the pandemic deserves a closer look. The club owner described a shift after COVID, with fewer young people going out, while holidays and days off could still bring busy nights, including crowds of international visitors. These are individual observations, not proof of a citywide decline. But they raise an interesting question for Mexico City’s nightlife industry: If people still want to meet friends, what kind of venues and experiences will persuade them to leave home? The answer might not be another club with louder music and more expensive cocktails. It could be a place where the music is good but conversation is still possible, where food is as important as the drinks, or where people can spend an entire evening without feeling pressured to keep ordering alcohol. Is Mexico’s best hangover cure a rusa or a suero? What does the perfect night out look like now? For many of the young people I spoke to, the ideal evening sounded surprisingly simple: dinner and drinks with friends, either at a restaurant or at someone’s home. Good food, music they actually like, an intimate atmosphere and, crucially, music that isn’t so loud they have to shout to hear one another. They still enjoy dancing, meeting new people and discovering new places. But they also want to talk, catch up and feel comfortable. Perhaps the problem with the traditional night out is that it sometimes asks us to choose between the things we want from socializing. We want music, but we also want conversation. We want to meet new people, but we also want to feel safe. We want spontaneity, but we don’t necessarily want to spend hours queuing or traveling across the city. And Mexico City has no shortage of alternatives. The night isn’t dead; it’s simply being redefined. What if the best place to read were also the last place you’d expect to find a book? From Tokyo to Amsterdam, book raves have been bringing reading into clubs and cultural venues, turning it into a collective experience. The idea is simple: a book, some music and the pleasure of being together, without the pressure to talk. Less noise, more pages. Silence, too, can bring people together. Mexico City has its own version of this quieter pleasure. The city’s audioramas, including those in Parque México and Chapultepec, offer spaces where people can sit among the trees and listen to music. I discovered them recently and was fascinated by the idea of spending an afternoon there reading or even learning Italian, as I did on my last visit. Just watch out for the person beside you who might have decided to take a nap and start snoring… Then there are running clubs, which have turned exercise into a social activity in its own right. From themed runs and coffee meet-ups to longer races that bring strangers together, the possibilities go well beyond a night at the club. Mexico City’s coolest alternative bookstores These activities aren’t necessarily replacements for nightlife. They’re reminders that socializing doesn’t have to revolve around alcohol, a late bedtime or a particular kind of venue. Think about your own life for a moment. When you meet your friends, does it always involve drinking? Could it be a museum, a fitness class, a walk through Chapultepec, dinner somewhere new or a Sunday morning spent running and getting coffee afterwards? None of these plans is inherently better than going dancing until sunrise. And there’s no reason we can’t enjoy both. Maybe the death of the night out is really the death of the idea that there’s only one way to have a good time. Young people still want connection, excitement, music, romance and stories to tell the next morning. They just seem increasingly willing to decide for themselves what those things look like. So, no, I don’t think the night out is dead. But perhaps the best night out is no longer the one you barely remember. It’s the one that leaves you with a good story, people you feel closer to and a Saturday morning you’re actually excited about. And you? What’s your perfect night out? Marta Delgado is a Spanish writer and marketing professional from Galicia, Spain, currently based in Mexico City. She writes about culture, lifestyle, and what it means to build a life abroad, drawing from her own time living in different countries.