Media’s fake movement masking a real moderation trend: sober curiosity

Don’t you just love how the media must make up a term for… everything?

Existing in your mid-thirties? You Millennial

Telling your friends why you can’t afford that trip? Loud Budgeting!

Swapping out an alcoholic drink for an expensive juice? You’re now sober curious.?

Quitting drinking is so cookie-cutter in 2024 that marketers and media are scrambling to slap a label on every person cutting down on their liquid courage.?

Non-alcoholic beverage companies are creating high end bundles for you. Check out the price tag on this one:??

And the media is trying their hardest to gaslight us into thinking sober curiosity is all the rage.?These are just a few of the many articles written by major publications citing sober curiosity as the driving movement for a lowering alcohol consumption.

There’s just one problem with the Sober Curiosity Movement.?

It’s not a movement.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a global trend of consumers opting to swap out their go-to cocktail for a mocktail…

… but there’s no audience, no fanbase, no community for Sober Curiosity. (It’s kinda like “fetch” in Mean Girls. It will never be a thing.)

But don’t take my word for it… I’m just a girl.?

This research-rich article details the unpopularity of Sober Curious and, despite its lack of adoption, why self-respecting adults really are increasing their consumption of high-end mocktails at the bar and overpriced grown-up sodas from the liquor store.

Our individual, collective decision to drink less

The weirdest thing about the sober curiosity movement is… not many people have heard of the sober curiosity movement.?

The term “sober curious” gained moderate popularity in December 2018 when Ruby Warrington published her book of the same name. The media ran with her definition of sober curiosity as an intentional moderation of alcohol.

It’s a fluffy way to say I still drink, but I strongly consider choosing a no-or-low alcohol option when I do.?

Looking at the Google Search trends for “sober curious,” the peak of this term was right after the book was released and it’s maintained a steady interest over time, with a nice spike annually in December.?

But don’t let this data fool you… sober curiosity was average at best when it comes to trends.?

Let’s dive into a few trends that actually were household names — ones we all repeated simultaneously, and everyone knew what they meant.?

To understand the next few data points, you have to understand how Google Trends works. Google Trends tells you the popularity of a search term relative to other search terms. 100% would be the hottest term at peak popularity and all the other numbers are popularity relative to the top term’s peak.

For example, when we look at Google Trends for sober curiosity earlier on, all points on the chart are relative to the peak for sober curiosity.

Let’s add quiet quitting, another totally made up media term describing the real trend of just doing your basic job without going above and beyond. Quiet quitting gained widespread popularity during the pandemic as the concept was shared, adopted, commented on an contributed to a further shift in workplace behavior.

With the addition of just one massively popular trend, the trend for sober curiosity vanishes by comparison.

Just for funsies, I want to now compare these both to the biggest socially-driven trends I could think of — the current Demure trend on TikTok.?

It’s glaringly obvious that when it comes to trends, sober curiosity simply isn’t one. It’s just a term the media leaned on to contain the truth in a tiny little box.?

Which just doesn't do justice to what's really happening because the numbers are insane.

A 2023 survey by Casinos.us looked at non-alcohol trends in the United States and found that 67% of Americans are actively reducing their alcohol intake.

An overwhelming majority are overriding their default desires for boozy brunches and happy hour hangouts at the same damn time and the reasons are wide-ranging, individualized and personal.

To explain why, I’ve divided the reasons people stopped drinking into four categories: health, finances, availability of alternatives, and acceptance.?

Health: The elephant in the room we pretend to care about

In 1991, a segment on 60 Minutes (an old-timey show everyone watched) shared that researchers proved red wine reduced the risk of a heart attack.?And just like that the belief that a glass of red wine a day was healthy for your heart was born.

Within a year, red wine sales in the U.S. jumped up by 40%.?

We didn't make the stat up so we could drink wine more, but you can bet the heavy pours at your last family get together that we took advantage of the situation.?

Recently, salty researchers that don’t want anyone to have fun, debunked this study—and the receipts are piling up:?

• A 2018 research study determined no amount of alcohol is safe after analyzing alcohol use and its health effects in 195 countries from 1990 to 2016.
• In March 2022, researchers found that even one glass of alcohol a day could shrink the brain.?
• Later in 2022, researchers found that young adults who engaged in moderate-to-heavy drinking demonstrated a higher risk for stroke.?

While I don’t think the average Joe was waiting around for the latest research on alcohol consumption, data shows that the percentage of Americans who believe moderate drinking is bad for your health has reached a record high.?

Don’t get me wrong… we have always known that we’re poisoning our bodies. We just collectively agreed that the forget-about-your-worries-and-your-strife feelings attached to social boozing was worth the occasional embarrassing text to an ex.?

Apparently, that “worth the effort” calculation we were doing before is no longer adding up because the drawbacks are infinite, random, and different for everyone.

I reviewed 50 plus TikToks and learned that when we say, “I’m quitting drinking for my health,” most people are not choosing sobriety to look and feel better. Most people were running away from the feeling they had when they drank.

There’s a difference.?

People shared stories of getting physically ill, throwing up, having massive headaches, chest pains, overheating, or heightened anxiety around their words as well as unpredictable, uncontrollable actions after even a single drink (If you’re like me, any amount of Malibu Rum immediately induces leg pain).

People want to drink alcohol much more than they want to lose weight or increase physical fitness… but for many, drinking is miserable.?

So, begrudgingly, we're seeking alternatives.

Health: Drinking impairs your judgment? #MeToo

Sober curiosity also got a bump as the #MeToo movement grew. The many women that came forward during the #MeToo movement often cited a spiked glass of alcohol created the opening for men to take advantage of them.?

For the first time ever, women all over the world saw male celebrities they admired and grew up idolizing (hello, Bill Cosby) take advantage of women, using a glass of alcohol as the enabler.?

#MeToo placed a huge emphasis on alcohol-driven sexual exploitation and assault, and drove more women to explore sobriety as a feminist stance.?

If we want to ensure we don’t get taken advantage of, we must start from a place of power, both mentally and physically.

For some that means cutting down on social drinking.

Finances: The money problems we can control

An interesting fact about the data I want to highlight is that the younger consumers, 18-35, have dramatically lowered their consumption of alcohol. (Older consumers' alcohol intake has basically flatlined.)

They can’t afford to drink.

It's not what you think. These youngers can afford to buy alcohol. (You don’t need much to buy a 12-pack of Natty Daddy or the magnum bottle of Sutter Home Chardonnay.)

What they can’t afford is any impairment to their ability to hustle, make decisions and prosper in today's world.

New research discovered that younger consumers use sobriety as a means to meet work demands (think: hustle culture) amidst today’s economic uncertainty (think: inflation and tech layoffs).?

The individualized pressure to perform to unattainable levels while enduring insurmountable circumstances is a significant driver in young people turning away from drinking.?

If I drink, I run the risk of not being able to perform. Can’t have that.

Alternatives: More options, more opportunity

There is no moment that shines a light on the lackluster non-alcoholic alternatives in the U.S. more than being a pregnant woman asking for a mocktail in a dive bar in 2019 (Just me?).

Your options are Sprite with grenadine (aka a Shirley Temple) or random amounts of fruit juices mixed together with a splash of soda water (no, thanks).

Luckily, we’ve come a long way since 2019 as an Non-Alcoholic (NA) market has developed in the U.S. to include no-or-low alcohol beers, wines, and cocktails featured in grocery stores, liquor stores, and bars.?

Alcohol reduction even made its way into travel, a traditionally high alcohol-consumption opportunity. Travel booking site, Expedia, produced an annual travel trend report revealing that 40% of travelers are likely to book a detox trip in the next year.?

Of course, brands have jumped to create non-alcoholic experiences to meet evolving customer demands. Hyatt launched a program in late 2021 called, “Zero Proof, Zero Judgement” that was dedicated to adding NA beverages across select properties?in its U.S. portfolio. In 2023, JetBlue became the first airline to offer a NA beer to its offerings.?

The NA beverages industry has already grown by 10% in 2024 alone, causing both established alcohol brands and plucky upstarts to scramble to create new flavors and ingredients that support the shift towards alcohol-free options and overall health-conscious beverages.

A recent analysis by International Wine and Spirit Research predicts that non-alcoholic drink consumption is expected to increase by a third by 2026.

More growth in the NA industry means more variety and options in our alcohol-free-ish future.

YAY US.

Finally, Acceptance

I remember one of the reasons I started drinking wine was to “be cool” at my first big girl job. I couldn’t be seen in a professional setting ordering my go-to-college-girl-drink — a standard vodka cranberry with a splash of pineapple — while everyone else around me had a cultured cabernet or sophisticated straight whiskey with the giant ice cube.

Happy hour was always the standard for an after-work hang out or the catch up with friends after months of adulting. Always with a classy, alcoholic drink.?

This is no longer the case as every function I attend now features at least one non-alcoholic option and it’s become socially acceptable (perhaps just more commonplace?) to order a NA beverage.

There are now multiple times a year for people to just not drink alcohol together, including FebFast, Sober October, Sober September, and Dry July.?

Dry January is the largest of the NA months with an entire website, app, podcast, and multiple resources to support participants along their journey. According to data from CivicScience, 27% of U.S. survey respondents (aged 21+) were highly likely to participate in Dry January this year versus 24% in 2023.

Many celebrity darlings have publicized their decision to stop drinking, including Bella Hadid, Chrissy Teigen and Tom Holland.?

Now, you can “be cool” AND not drink. :)

Reaching a semi-sober tipping point

While sober curiosity may not exist, the many, many reasons to not drink have certainly reached a tipping point.?

The number of people that have had a personal reason to stop drinking and embrace a part-time sober lifestyle has reached a large enough scale and an industry is forming around us to support what we wanted to do anyway. :)