Partying

For some people there is a party every night, for some once a week. No matter how many times though, it usually involves meeting up with people, drinking and occasionally dancing. Another thing all parties have in common is that usually everybody has a great time and they are meant for relaxing and letting go of worries. So, obviously it is a bad thing to miss one, right? At least the FOMO inside tells you so.

Somebody once told me that young people can't have a good time, that they are unexperienced, they don't know what they want from life and therefore can't party 'properly'. I found this very annoying and ignorant, because I believe that this statement does not apply to me at all. But when thinking about it, I get why that person might have come to their conclusion.

Many young people say that partying is the ultimate thing to do in your free time, because it is 'cool'. But just because it is said so, doesn't mean that is is true for everybody. I think that many people fake having a good time because of the social pressure they feel.

For me personally, the joy from partying depends on who you party with. If you go out to get drunk, clearly you are trying to fill the awkward silences with alcohol. I enjoy going out with my friends sober and watching how people change due to alcohol.

A big part of partying is the telling about it later. We live in times where stalking has become legal, but what we tend to forget is that people are also aware of it and create certain personas to show-off on the net. It is very unlikely that they would post any negative aspects of their lives on facebook. As a result all the envy and false desires are created and our rational thinking is switched off. It is easy to fake content on the Internet and depict pubs and bars as the places to be.

I think that as a result the reverence of partying is created. I am not saying that going out is a bad thing, but it is important to know why you do so. I feel like a lot of people do it only to tell about it afterwards.

I never was the party-type. I used to hear things like "you never go out anywhere" "you should go out, everybody's going to be there" "have some fun, for once!" from my friends. Sometimes, because of the pressure from my friends, I would adopt this belief that i really should be going out more, that there is something wrong with me because I don't like it.
I believe that people attend many social events against their better judgement (or maybe their judgement has been clouded by peer pressure), just to fit in and not to be the 'weird outsider'. They would fear of missing out on social events in order to be accepted and associated with the 'cool people'.

This pattern illustrates how this fear can be conditioned socially and that it is actually a far more serious and potentially harmful occurrence than it might seem at first glance. It all leads to finding yourself and what you feel comfortable with.