How often do you go to the pub?

Since the explosion of social media and attention seekers, pubs now see so contrived and forced. It's way OTT with pubs trying to impress and entertain…..Pubs used to be a calm, cool and understated places you could go to have a few drinks, a laugh and a chat; but lately it's all exaggerated fun and exaggerated entertainment for the sake of it

I don't know where you drink, but in my experience I don't see a massive change in pubs in the past 25 years to be honest. In most pubs I go to, its still people drinking and having a bit of craic.

That said, I'm not in any "trendy" bars so to speak so maybe its an ecosystem I'm not familiar with!

I find it hard to believe you regret being social every Friday and Saturday night. To do what, stay at home?

Do socialising on the cheap and then save for a house so you can start your life, have a family etc.

Plenty of good reasons to not spend a big wedge of money on going out every weekend.

Yeah I'd say a lot of people feel similarly. No harm in a night once in a while, but living for the weekend is surely over for young people if they ever want to own a house on their own merit.

What blows my mind is how young people are always wrong. If they don't go for big nights out and spend €100 they're killing the pub trade and being boring. But if they spend €12 on avocado toast they're definitely wrong for wasting money on luxuries. If they spend €20 a month on Netflix they're wrong because they should have gone out to the cinema and spent €30. And of course, not having a house is wrong, spending a fortune on rent is wrong and living in the family home is definitely wrong.

The young people never seem to get it right.

I suppose regret is a strong word but looking back it was just all very repetitive, same jokes, same craic. I regret probably over doing it so much and not just drink.

There is hobbies and activities I enjoy now on my weekends and wish I had done when I was younger, had no kids and could dedicate more time to it.

I have good memories of nights out but you didn't really accomplish anything.

If you have the money to spend a big wedge of money going out and save for a house, then yeah obviously you can do both. No problem. Most people don't have that much disposable income.

Yep I agree with you here, its like they should be ashamed for not wanting to fall out of Coppers at 2am every Friday night. You can have a good balance in life of going out a good bit while also having the avocado toast and a hike another weekend.

I like the other posters above look back and say "it was all very samey" - work, Thursday pints, hangover, Friday pints, hangover, Saturday pints, Sunday hangover, work. Although it was a bit different during the GAA season, this was essentially my 20's in a nutshell. Good craic, but I could have done things differently and enjoyed it differently.

But they're not dying out. Less of them, yes, but still loads of brilliant pubs doing great business.

The human population doesn't have one hive mind. You're going to encounter people with different opinions.

The number of pubs in Dublin has increased over the last few years.

Does that not get a bit samey though, you are just meeting the same people having the same conversations. In a real pub there is always the possibility of bumping into someone new or someone you hadn't seen in years that just happened to be home from Canada that week. Thats the "magic" of a real pub its unpredictability. The whole covid social distancing and maintaining "social circles" malarkey did alot of long term damage though i think to pubs

I despise alcohol so obviously don't drink it but I often go into pubs for a meal especially when I am on holiday. I usually have a coke, milk, or tea with it.

Going to the pub for a pint was never my thing but I often got dragged into that scenario when I finished work for the day which was a nice experience but something I would generally try to avoid. Since I retired that does not happen now obviously.