Have A Drink On Me

If the headline meant that you thought I might be making a recommendation on places to drink in Hong Kong (or China, for that matter), move on quickly - although I do have to say that LAN in Beijing has recently caught my eye as a "watering hole"! If you're in Beijing it's well worth a visit, in my opinion.
However, my topic is indeed drink-related, and has an impact on both the workforce and the future as I have been considering what I, and a good many others, have been talking about recently; Binge Drinking.
Many of us, in what I might politely describe as an "older" group, have formed an opinion that our children drink far more today than we ever did. Whether this is a perception brought about by prematurely damaged brain cells from having perhaps forgotten how much we used to drink when we were their age I cannot say, but clearly newspaper headlines on the subject are much more common, and action to deal with the problem, at least in the United Kingdom is now a Government priority.
Knowing and seeing the after-effects of binge drinking on some university students and white collar workers who, respectively, either miss lectures or turn up for them or for work in a state of inebriation, cannot be good for the quality of the output they are producing (let alone their health). The result? A continuous fall in standards.
And no, I am not charging off on some moral crusade about the evils of alcohol. But it had me wondering why this apparent recent phenomena existed at all. What had changed?
Extensive research through many publications into the perceived causes , tended to focus on issues like pricing strategies by booze companies, extended Happy Hours, promotions and peer group pressure - but nobody mentioned what I was expecting to find - which was simply a reflection of changes in our society.
Many children in developed countries are "parked" in front of a television from a very early age and then, when they go to schools and University they are expected to do research and prepare their work on computers. They have individual Game Boys, and they listen to music on their personal headsets - on the bus, the train, the family car, and even at the dining room table.
Is it just me tilting at shadows, or is there a pattern developing here?
It occurs to me that none of these things - televisions, computer games, MP3 players - foster any kind of social interaction. The ability of an increasing number of the younger generation, the so-called "Digital Animals", to hold a conversation seems to be diminishing.
Some of our forebears (well, not mine, they were tradesmen), used to spend leisure time in a "café society". A society where meeting friends in a café was principally for the purpose of conversation. The Public House became a replacement for the café (and was less "aristocratic"), and continued to be the place where people met - and talked.
Can I suggest we have reached a stage where, given the lack of social and conversational skills in our younger community, going and having a lot to drink in a short space of time makes up for the lack of something to say?
There is a solution, and it starts at home.