Words: Sophie Charlotte Graham (she/her)
Although pub trips have always been a staple in student culture, it can get repetitive with the same drinks, same pubs, every day.
Going back generations, the first image of a student that pops into someone’s brain is usually one of a hipster-type young person with a pint in hand. But is that still the case? The rise of sweet treat culture and café crawls has been taking over everyone’s FYP for the past couple of years. The generations of our older siblings, parents, and grandparents love to label Gen Z as an alcohol-abstinence generation who are single handedly killing pub and club culture globally. So, why can’t we get enough of our little sweet treats?
Take a quick trip to the GUU Beer Bar and one of the first things you’ll see is the plaques of drinking game champions dating back to the 70s. We can all see why previous generations prided themselves on being able to cane back the pints whilst still being able to make it to their 9am lectures the next morning throughout their time at uni. The drinking competitions are still going strong, but are the crowds starting to dwindle?
There’s no doubt that sweet treat culture is taking over from drinking culture on social media. With the rise of young people prioritising their health with frequent pilates trips, matcha meet-ups, and hot girl walks, the focus of student drinking culture has begun to slowly decline.
Looking at the main streets surrounding Glasgow Uni, there is an abundance of hole-in-the-wall coffee shops, cute Instagrammable cafés, and matcha shops to fill free periods and help you through multi-hour study sessions. There isn’t any shortage of pubs around the uni either, so there must be something else to blame if not the myriad of cafés available.
Typically, students are on a tight budget. With the price of a pint steadily rising over the years, is the financial concern of frequent pub trips the reason for the pub fall-off? When you go to get your cold brew or matcha, you’re usually only getting the one before your lecture, study session, or hot girl walk. Pub and club trips usually cost a fair few pounds because, as we all know, you never get just one drink. As for going on a night out, whether you’re buying your own drinks or rounds for the group, the cost can rack up quickly.
We’re usually getting our coffee shop recommendations from our TikTok FYPs (that seem to get a bit too local sometimes…), so sweet treat spots nearby are easy to come by. With the increase in food-reviewers on TikTok, day-in-my-life vloggers, and the urge to take a Pinterest-worthy café table pic, social media might be a bigger influence on our choices than we think. If your social circle is the health and wellness girlies or the gym bros, you’ll probably find yourself gravitating towards post pilates (or gym!) coffee shop meet-ups with your friends.
As we’ve already covered, social media might alter our choices of drink, but is it influencing us or just pushing a narrative that isn’t necessarily true? As older generations are increasingly complaining about how boring the younger generations are becoming, are the feeds of our parents just filled with the content that we want them to see? Do we want to be portrayed as the healthy generation, strategically avoiding the drunk Instagram stories that are posted for all to see and which fill us with hangxiety the next morning? Our carefully curated social profiles might actually be pushing the false narrative of an alcohol avoidant generation. With the rise of pop stars like Charli XCX reviving club culture, our generation is probably still just as night-out obsessed as ever. The popularity of Sports Wednesdays, themed Hive nights, and other GUU and QMU drinking events show that Glasgow students seem to love the drink just as much as ever.
With different flavours of matcha trickling into the mainstream and the introduction of açai bowls in cafés around the university, it’s no wonder that students are embracing sweet treat culture more than ever. It’s the perfect combination of trying something slightly adventurous whilst having a cute picture for your Instagram story all in one go. Although pub trips have always been a staple in student culture, it can get repetitive with the same drinks, same pubs, every day. Maybe having a sweet treat to look forward to as a half-time study break or just an excuse to get out of the 4 walls of your flat isn’t a bad addition into student culture. After all, it doesn’t look like the sweet treats and café crawls are going to leave our routines any time soon when they create cute, wholesome memories with our friends. I can’t exactly argue with this when I’ve had an iced coffee by my side whilst writing.
