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Culture

Party Like It’s 2-0-2-5!

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Washington chapter.

A few days ago, The Atlantic published an article saying that Americans have been lacking party culture, and — being the daughter of my overzealous mother — I enthusiastically forwarded this article to all my girlfriends. Because, yeah, as the adolescents of the 21st century, we do need to party more. Inspired, I turned to TikTok — AKA Gen Z’s Google — for a solution to this pressing issue.

I scroll.

Video #1: Los Angeles fires. 16 dead so far.

Comment section: Prayers for Asheville, NC. No one is talking about the deceased under the mud!

Video #2: Luigi Mangione case updates. He is being tried as a terrorist.

Comment section: And there were 83 school shootings in 2024!

Video #3: RFK Jr could drastically change Medicaid access. 

Video #4: Footage surfaced of a man who died in New Orleans on New Year’s pushing a girl out of the way of the truck to save her life.

Comment section: Did you hear that Mark Zuckerberg is taking away fact checking on Instagram and Facebook?

Video #5: More on the fires, at 0% containment. View from Pepperdine University.

I exit the app immediately and stare up at my ceiling, putting two and two together — young Americans don’t party like our parents once did because it’s wildly unsafe. In any public space we walk into, our brains have been trained to find the quickest exit in case of an active shooter from years and years of drills in elementary schools. For female-presenting individuals like myself, we have to watch our drinks religiously to avoid being drugged. Happy-go-lucky New Year’s partygoers in New Orleans will never be able to celebrate the holiday again without thinking about that truck attack. Can we trust Uber drivers to take us home safely if we are alone? Can we trust men? How can we enjoy ourselves selfishly while thinking about the families suffering in Los Angeles or North Carolina or Gaza or Congo or —

The world is in complete and utter shambles, on the brink of a breaking point, and I just wanted to divert my attention span from the chaos with 10 minutes of TikTok videos. The consequences of our capitalistic actions are taking effect — earthquakes, tropical storms, urban fires, CEOs being shot at, students being shot at, grocery store shoppers being shot at, privatization of natural resources and human rights, and corruption of the media. The handful of those in power for this “democratic” oligarchy we call the United States of America have leached into every aspect of our daily lives, down to our nighttime activities like the 20-something party scene. 

How are we supposed to live in the present and frolic around like it’s 1999 when the future is so grim? When every corner of the country — let alone the world — is plagued with natural disasters and unnatural disasters and chaos and fear? Americans aren’t partying anymore because we use various forms of quick-fixes to distract ourselves from the absolute insane series of events that unfold every time we open our phones. Taming the pain from the news is easier by mindlessly scrolling for hours rather than facing other humans in real life. It is not normal to be numb to the notification of another shooting or homes going up in flames. Our humanness and joy from awes and wonders of life have been silenced, and, with it, so has our nightlife culture.

It’s interesting because I partied every other day without fear when I studied abroad last spring. Is it a generational issue, or is it just America?

I feel guilty for partying. Some might argue that in these conditions we should party more because the inevitable — the collapse of normalcy as we know it — is among us, and we should “take advantage of tonight,” like Pitbull sings. While I can agree with this logic, it can be challenging to truly enjoy myself and not feel an ounce of stress in my body when others around the world are deeply suffering (as an aside, is this where the “cortisol face” comes from? Is the “cortisol face” a result of pent-up situational distress?). Americans cannot enjoy true pleasure and ethereality because we have been stripped of our inborn pleasures (sleep, sex, community in the form of a good houseparty) in place of the more profitable industry, digital entertainment. 

So, instead of partying tonight at 21 years-old, I am spitballing this HerCampus piece at 9:07 PM on a Saturday evening. I would consider myself an optimist generally, but lately our world leaves me with nothing but disappointment. I fear that I am watching my youth slip away as everything around me seems to collapse. And with this, we collectively are losing our mortality and the sensations that make us feel alive. 

So, yeah, I agree that Americans do need to party more. But at what cost?

Maggie is a senior at the University of Washington from San Francisco, California. She is majoring in Public Health - Global Health, and doubling minoring in Data Science and Nutrition. Maggie is a tour guide for UW and the social media coordinator for the Food Pantry. She is super excited to continue on this project as a writer for Her Campus this year, and be able to share her writing pieces with other like-minded women!