Today's youth: sober, sensible and austere

Maybe my kids aren't so unusual after all: "The study, conducted by media agency OMD and Channel 4, compares current teens and early twentysomethings with their counterparts 10 years ago, and suggests a shift away from a hard-partying and drinking culture based around clubs and pubs in favour of a trend towards more varied, less hedonistic pursuits."
Maybe having personal and social health stuff on the curriculum really does work? It's not all good news in terms of healthful values: attitudes towards debt are concerning, I think.
So what are they doing instaed of 'wild living'?
"British youth no longer considers eating out to be a pastime reserved for the more sedate older generation. The proportion of young adults who say they regularly go out to restaurants is up from 36% to 46% (and 59% among 25- to 34-year-olds, reflecting an apparent slowing down from past hard drinking habits).
However, while the upcoming generation is more likely than its predecessor to visit galleries, exhibitions and the theatre,"
I'm really hoping that my worries about binge drinking culture are proving to be not such a huge worry after all.
What's this mean for the churches? Too early to say perhaps, except that this does seem to resonate with some core values that Christians hold dear about moderation, the importance of relationships, eating together and so on. The swing towards culture may be interesting to; we should be preparing to talk much more informedly about mainstream culture: it's a challenge to the 'turn it into subculture' reaction of much evangelicalism. I think we really will need to be engaging real mainstream culture and ideas; like the alt.worship movement has been saying for years.
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | News | The youth of today: sober, sensible and austere - but still not ready for M&S: