Stolen youth: Lost generation or convenient excuse?

Did alcohol and drugs steal our youth?

Have you ever felt your youth vanished among mass drinking gatherings and aimless weekends? One school of thought argues that the generation born in the 90s and 2000s was victimized by social engineering that promoted excess as the only form of leisure. The film “Jostel” (released 20 years ago) has become a symbol of aspirations reduced to drunkenness and drug use. But not everyone buys this diagnosis: some point to individual responsibility and a lack of initiative.

The imposed leisure model

It is argued that Spanish youth culture at the turn of the century was designed to create a conformist mass, using alcohol and drug consumption as an escape valve. The Spain that had received waves of internal migration from rural areas brought with it lower educational levels and survivalist values. The result: an environment where being «normal» meant getting drunk every weekend, and those with different ambitions were marginalized. Some estimates suggest that up to 80% of peers in certain provinces were children of migrants from «España vaciada» (empty Spain), uprooted and without a family safety net.

The turning point: the pandemic

The lockdowns of 2020 changed the patterns. According to one perspective, the generation that should have started its party era in 2020-21 discovered healthier and more constructive leisure activities: gym, reading, authentic relationships. The so-called “Birú” (a slang term for the bicho) acted as a catalyst for a change that was already brewing. Current youth, according to this view, are more patriotic, more aware of Europe's drift, and less interested in alcohol. There is talk of a «healthy and civilized generation» in contrast to the previous one.

Stolen or self-inflicted?

At the other extreme, some argue that the feeling of stolen youth is a pure excuse. They point out that there are always options: studying languages, moving abroad, betting on education. The paradigmatic case is someone who spent a course in Germany but failed to take advantage of it, ending up in Elda, without a degree, lamenting their fate. «Your youth was stolen, but you also stole it yourself», they summarize. Blaming the country or the rabble around you is a discourse that avoids looking in the mirror.

The full calculation of what was lost hasn't been made, but rates of school dropout and alcohol consumption among those under 30 have dropped significantly since 2000 levels. What remains puzzling is why the sense of theft persists among those now over 35. Perhaps nostalgia paints the past worse than it was, and the future better than it will be. Or maybe, indeed, external factors shaped a lifestyle that won't return. Better late than never.