Shots, shots, shots — but not the kind millennials remember.
With back-to-school season in full swing, college campuses are once again packed with welcome back bashes, football games and frat parties.
However, college parties are looking less “Animal House” these days, according to one viral video.
The social media clip — posted by Aydan Child, whose bio claims “it’s all about balance” — shows what looks like any typical “darty” (Gen Z slang for “day party”) at first glance, with young men and women packed on a fraternity’s front lawn.
But the video tells a different story, with attendees dressed in workout attire and stretching on yoga mats, before swarming the streets for a group run.
The on-screen caption proclaims, “Imagine explaining a wellness darty to someone who went to college in 2012.” Those people who did go to college in 2012 — and the 2000s — are, to put it lightly, baffled.
But they hardly think Gen Z is superior for their healthier happenings. In fact, they’re roasting the younger generation pretty hard for — as they see it — not doing college parties right.
One went so far as to call the display “truly bone-chilling,” while another argued it was “offensive to Millennial culture.”
“As someone who went to college in 2012, this is actually very difficult to comprehend,” another X user wrote. “We did bra/underwear runs (but those were only a mile, and we were drinking the whole time.)”
“As someone in college from 2008-2011, respectfully, what the hell is this?” commented another.
Many are deploring the lack of alcohol and poor choices that were the hallmarks of parties enjoyed by previous generations, lamenting that “we are losing ancient texts.”
“Please, I was pregaming at 7 am,” one TikTok user wrote, while another said that they “used to down double bottles on Barefoot pink moscato every weekend in 2015.”
One noted that, in 2009, “wellness” was “drinking a vitamin water as a chaser.” Another observed that “‘puke and rally’ has really evolved.”
Yet another simply stated that “a darty without drinking is just group fitness. Change my mind, and [let me know] when the drinking starts.”
Others jokingly posited that perhaps the wellness darty was actually an economical tactic to save money.
“Get yourself a little dehydrated so it takes fewer drinks later. I see the vision,” one person wrote under the video.
This doesn’t appear to be the first party with a wellness focus, as Child regularly posts videos of himself and his college mates going on runs, participating in Pilates with his fraternity brothers and advocating for morning ragers and run clubs over nightlife.
However, several have reiterated the point that wellness was not nearly as ubiquitous back in the aughts and 2010’s.
“Wellness was not in our vocabulary anywhere from 2014-2018,” one viewer wrote. Quipped another: “The only ‘wellness’ we knew about was The Wellness Center, where we went after contracting mono freshman year.”
It’s not a complete surprise, though, that younger generations are redefining the concept of a party.
Wellness experiences are replacing traditional social gatherings in a growing movement called “daylife,” while run clubs are the hot new social scene to meet friends and potential partners.
Gen Zers are even known for being sober-curious, drinking far less alcohol than previous generations and hanging out at alcohol-free bars and sober-friendly social gatherings.
The general response to the stark differences between how generations partied can probably best be summed up in one response on X.
“We used to be a proper country,” griped the user, including a photo of an original Four Loko drink.
