I'm 41, and my cousin has young teens. I asked "Do kids today even play video games?"

And she said "Not in the way you would think. It's not about playstation or nintendo. It's about cell phones and tablets."

Which made me sad. App gaming is laaaaaame.

Most studies found that raising cigarette prices through increased taxes is a highly effective measure for reducing smoking among youth, young adults, and persons of low socioeconomic status. However, there is a striking lack of evidence about the impact of increasing cigarette prices on smoking behavior in heavy/long-term smokers, persons with a dual diagnosis and Aboriginals. nih

Huh? It's a survey

Sure, they could be lying, but why would they?

And your employee anecdotal stories mean zilch

Well, they have friends, but after spending about a year not seeing them in person, they are used to just meeting them online. At least anecdotally that's what I'm seeing with the kids of my group, that going out is a hassle and online is good enough. When they do, it's maybe a total of three or four people hanging out, no big parties to speak of.

On a related note, the schools I know of pretty much stopped having dances other than the prom. In fact, from what I hear, the ability for students to socialize broadly has been pretty much tanked since the pandemic (stricter schedules, no more lockers, and various other measures instituted to avoid congregating students after pandemic and those policies seem to have stuck, presumably because it makes the students a bit easier to manage. It's been a cause for concern for me about their social development, as while I never was big on those events, I at least remember a lot more downtime on school grounds that our kids don't seem to get.

Not just them, frankly we haven't really been seeing folks in person nearly as much since the pandemic. There are certain special occasions, but we almost never have a "random" visit for no particular reason anymore.

Teenagers going out to party - bad

Teenagers sitting at home - also bad.

What the hell are kids supposed to do? Just not exist from the period where we stop finding them cute till adulthood?

Does "hard drug" have an agreed upon definition?

I'm pretty sure cigarettes are worse. Much more addictive, harmful to the user and nearby people, and the cigarette butts I think are an environmental hazard.

Alcohol use is as old as human civilization. I don't think light usage is that hazardous.

There you go.

TLDR: Alcohol is a psychoactive, addictive carcinogen that will give you cancer no matter the consumption (though of course the more you drink the worse it becomes). It'll also fuck up your liver, but that's not mentioned in this article as it focuses on cancer.

That aside, where did you get that cigarettes are more addictive than alcohol? Only one of these will literally kill you if you quit cold turkey unprepared and it's not cigarettes.

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The risks and harms associated with drinking alcohol have been systematically evaluated over the years and are well documented.

^www.who.int

Most people I've known who smoke are addicted. They get moody and other withdrawal symptoms. No one I know has a similar relationship with alcohol. This is not a scientific study, but that's been my experience. I know there are alcoholics in the world.

Also nicotine and cigarettes are known to be addictive nida.nih.gov/publications/rese…

I'm pretty sure "stopping drinking cold turkey will kill you" is kind of hyperbolic. Most people aren't drinking that heavily. This thread started on the point of moderate drinking.

I acknowledge that even light drinking is unsafe. I wasn't aware it that plausibly that hazardous. Unfortunately, many things are unsafe and I don't think alcohol is going away any time soon. Going out for a drink with friends, there's probably a bunch of hazards there. Unhealthy foods, car exhaust, staying up late.

Among 12th graders, 66% reported no recent use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, while 80% of 10th graders and 90% of 8th graders avoided these substances entirely

I would say yes.

Among 12th graders, 66% reported no recent use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, while 80% of 10th graders and 90% of 8th graders avoided these substances entirely

Turns out, the people running this thought of that possibility.

Is it because teens can’t afford booze, cigarettes, and drugs anymore?

Per the article:

The decrease in drug usage during the pandemic was somewhat of a surprise to experts. With the lockdowns causing depression rates to rise dramatically, an increase in drugs and drinking wouldn’t have been too much of a shock. But as the biggest factor in drug use for young people is peer pressure, the lockdowns had the opposite effect.

“Drug use, particularly among adolescents, is typically a social event,” said Miech. “The social distancing policies during the pandemic were designed so that all teenagers and adolescents hardly interacted with anybody except their own immediate family.”

...

The continuing decline of teen drug, alcohol and tobacco usage is a positive sign that these industries no longer have the power they once did over the country’s youth. But a disturbing trend in pop culture shows that cigarettes could be sneakily making a comeback.

“I too see more and more smoking in the media and on these different shows I watch with my teenage daughter,” said Miech. “But fortunately, so far, it hasn’t actually translated into higher levels of cigarette smoking among adolescence.”

Who's "they"? This is a university study, not one sponsored by Budweiser/Marlboro.

Also, they didn't bother separating based on legality, but did research marijuana use and no, it's not on the rise:

The results show that a whopping 66% of 12th graders reported no use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. This is the highest abstinence rate recorded since the survey began tracking it in 2017.

Also surprising is that marijuana usage among teens is declining – despite a notable upward trend for adults across the US.