Happy Monday! 

We’ve got a light letter today since last week was hefty. If you haven’t seen my biblically accurate guide to the 2010s yet, but you’ve been really into the 2016 throwbacks taking over your algorithms, then you need to read it. Here’s part one and part two.

I’ve been thinking a lot about nostalgia and how many people have romanticized the last decade so much that they believe this one is devoid of culture. I started jotting down notes about the culture of the 2020s, which won’t be useful for a time. Still, I’ll leave you with this post about the bygone trend of eboys/egirls. The person asked if people will take inspo from it as this generation has adopted early aughts emo looks. The answer is obviously yes.

Anyways, I have a couple thoughts on partying and risk that I want to share here, inspired by some 2016 party videos I saw. (I’ll take a break from any and all 2016 stuff after this, I swear.) Also in this newsletter, the triggering fangirl feelings arising from Heated Rivalry, the “Stateside” remix music video, and JLo’s bad week online.

Despite how deeply diabolical it was to create and/or drink, the 2016 videos of people making jungle juice have me feeling wistful. It might sound silly (because it is) but I haven’t been to a real, wild house party since before the pandemic. There is something very special about this kind of gathering because it was a less expensive, more accessible way to hang out with your friends and meet new people. You don’t need to pay for a coat check or for $17 cocktails. You were getting really fucked up (from the jungle juice, obviously), but you were in a controlled environment where so you’d hopefully do a little less damage. If you need to sleep off the alcohol a little bit, take a nap in your friend’s room. 

All this to say, young people were still taking a reasonable amount of risk. I’ve been thinking a lot about risk and how wonderful it felt to feel fearless at 18. I’m not saying that the house parties I or my peers were going to in 2016 were the safest or smartest places to be. I actually think it's a net positive thing that young people are cautious, even when experimenting with drinking (and not!). However, Gen Z has gained a reputation for not taking any chances, which is concerning for a number of reasons. 

Most of our lives, especially younger Gen Z and under, have been mediated through a screen. Everyone’s lives have become relatively frictionless, which has removed too many barriers in our day-to-day and rendered us intolerant to even minor inconveniences. This culture has prompted new goals for friction-maxxing, or reincorporating hard things into our lives for the sake of our humanity. Our society has slowly come back around to the importance of risk and discomfort because that is the only way to grow.

But it’s hard to feel willing to step out of our comfort zones when everything around us is extremely unstable. Our own risk taking is one of the only things we can control at a time of such economic, political, social, and environmental instability. But it is, perhaps, a bit heartening to know that this hesitance is not the norm everywhere. 

I enjoyed this piece in the Spectator about how Danish young adults have not stopped having sex like their counterparts across the world. It will be of no surprise that they are also drinking as much as the previous generation, as sex and relationship data often goes hand-in-hand with alcohol consumption which works in tandem with overall social wellbeing. The Spectator piece noted that Danish youth are generally set up better to succeed, which removes a lot of the stresses and barriers to drinking, partying, and sex. 

In my high school health class, it was drilled into us that young people engage in risky behavior because our brains aren’t developed and we think we’re invincible. No one ever said that a little bit of danger is good in moderation. It’s worth it to drink a little too much, get rejected, and generally be messy sometimes. It builds character and life experience! It teaches us to move forward from embarrassment, discomfort, and inconvenience. We may not be drinking blackout-inducing jungle juice anymore but we have to live a little!

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Here are sexy dance pop songs that feel a little dangerous. I’m envisioning that one rave scene in Babygirl even though this is so not the music they’re playing in that part.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.