[oggadog]

I definitely noticed this with a lot of people I worked with in engineering. They were quite shy and a bit hard to crack, but once they had a drink or two at a work event they were very sociable and easy to talk to. And outside of these situations they never really drank. So I think for them, alcohol was never really an issue.

[kitsunesoba]

This pretty closely describes how/why I usually drink as a dev.

While sober I can function socially more than well enough to get along in the day to day without issue, but it’s much much smoother if I’ve had some alcohol (but not too much).

I also tend to focus more squarely on my conversation partner when I’m buzzed, whereas sober my head is all over the place, plus I don’t get bored with the conversation or lose energy to converse as easily.

Since beginning to work from home I’ve had very little to drink, averaging 0-2 beers per month. It’s really a social thing.

[gonehome]

Humanity has been bonding over beer for thousands of years - I'd guess it's adaptive and selected for.

The cultural signaling of whether it's cool to give it up or not just comes in waves imo (outside of people with more serious drinking issues). Right now it's cool to say you don't drink so there's lots of these blog posts, same category as people that tell you 'they don't even have a TV'. It's not that interesting, but generates a lot of commentary from people in both directions and I think it's mostly some form of social status thing.

I've noticed a similar thing with young people thinking it's cool to be religious after a swing for a bit in the other direction. There's always some points you can get for doing the less common thing in certain circles.