Why 'getting drinks' is so much cooler than getting dinner

While generations past enjoyed meeting up with friends over a casual cup of coffee or experiencing stomach butterflies over a plate of pasta with a crush, millennials today are all about "getting drinks."

Now that we're (barely) old enough to actually indulge in alcohol, we can't think of anything more sophisticated than ditching the whole dinner thing in favor of dirty martinis and perhaps some small plates of apps.

We can't even get a regular Sunday brunch anymore. Drunk brunch is all the rage as millennials flock to the trendiest restaurants in town for bottomless mimosas, bloody marys, and even pitchers of sangria.

But post-grads have been legally drinking for years and yet the "getting drinks" trend seems to have only emerged in the past 10 years or so. Is this the death of dinner dates as we know them? Perhaps that's not such a bad thing. Here are the reasons why we've ditched all other forms of social interactions in favor of getting drinks.


1. Getting drinks enables us to live out our Carrie Bradshaw fantasies. Perhaps "Sex and The City" should be credited for our obsession with casual drinking. Did we ever even see the female besties actually eat a meal together? As we grew up on the show, we longed to join Samantha, Miranda and the gang at the trendiest corners of New York with colorful drinks seemingly glued to our hands at all times.

2. It makes face-to-face encounters less awkward. Given the fact that our generation relies so heavily on social media, when we're faced with real-life social scenes we don't always know how to conduct ourselves. We're so used to typing out our thoughts and expressing our feelings through emojis that when we find ourselves actually interacting with people, we need a little buzz to ease the tension.

3. It saves time. Who even has time for a whole sit-down meal these days? Most millennials spend all day working their butts off and then of course have to run home after a long day to blog or tweet for our loyal social media followers. Thus, a few happy hour drinks is all we have time for. Get in, down a few, and get out! We can grab dinner to go at Chipotle.

4. We can't afford real food. Therefore, we pay for drinks at happy hour and then head to a cheap fast-food chain for dinner. This way we get to feel glamorous as we sip cosmos on a rooftop bar without paying the price of a three-course meal.

5. We have commitment issues. Somehow "getting drinks" sounds so much less comital than a dinner date. Dinner is like a third date activity. Getting drinks is the perfect test run.



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