No one shuns reading alone, listening to music alone, or watching a movie alone.
Drinking alone is more dangerous than drinking with friends.
Drinking alone is more dangerous than drinking with friends.
Plenty of people will give you the stink eye if you're by yourself in public. Some arse once loudly informed me I was a loser for being at the movies by myself. That happened once, but it was enough to make me realize that some people really can't fathom the idea of people having fun by themselves.
Drinking with friends is likely to be much more dangerous than drinking alone, unless you're an alcoholic, or your friends are abstaining. Peer pressure is real, and it goes away entirely when you're alone.
This is something public, though, while the parent only listed activities in private. Drinking alone in public is shunned even worse.
Not that I agree with that guy, of course. Enjoy your time at the movies alone, it's nothing to be ashamed of.
It is most definitely not shunned in American dive bars, nor anywhere in Central/Eastern Europe, nor in a hotel bar anywhere in the world.
Getting shit-faced by yourself in public is frowned upon because it’s annoying, but flying solo on a barstool is as common as can be, and nobody has any problem with it in many, many places.
This wasn't always the case (before the Sony Walkman introduction in 1979):
"The idea that a person could listen to music on his own was strange and novel. In Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music, Mark Katz mentions that in 1923, Orlo Williams compared someone listening to recorded music alone to “sniffing cocaine, emptying a bottle of whisky, or plaiting straws in his hair” (Katz, 20). This was an obvious exaggeration, but he emphasized the strangeness that society associated with solitary listening"
https://walkmanproject.wordpress.com/communal-vs-individual/
Hi! I'm an avid music and film lover who has been shunned for going to live music, or movie theaters, by myself. :)
I had a job where I was on the road often and although I loved being back home I did quite enjoy doing things alone.
> you can’t socialize during them
> And I don’t necessarily want to talk about them after
My wife doesn't like music nearly as much as I do, and she's particularly short, so standing in a crowd of people who are much taller than her isn't a lot of fun for her.
Ideally I would like to see the show with friends, but... it's still really fun. It's 9493% better than sitting at home, that's how I look at it.
But beer alone vs with with friends , I am not convinced former is more dangerous.
In contrast, drinking alone is more of a solemn affair. When I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself.
George[0], is that you?
If the topic of drinking alone comes up, there is always a warning or admonishment.
All of that is to say that I very much enjoy time to myself to listen to some music with my eyes closed or just to meditate or think, I'm quite happy for solitude, but not to do _things_ (see above).
I live on 40 acres alone. I'm snowed in here currently, without a care.
But I also own a bar, and bars make you lots and lots of friends. And I'm close with my family.
I don't drink alone, but just because I have no urge to drink when I'm not at a bar. I have a bottle that's been in my fridge a few years and isn't even open.
I curate my friends, preferring to have few, but who are reliable, I aim not to make friends with people I meet, and the ones I do have been the one's that have clicked.
My wife, on the contrary _loves_ doing things alone, she'll happily go see a film I want to see without me if I can't find the time (she's on maternity leave with our second child currently).
I love in London and it's very common to socialise in a pub here, so drinking alone does have somewhat of a stigma attached here.
That said, I'm not sure why anyone should be dissuaded from a scotch and a cigar once the children have gone to bed.
Alcohol destroys relationships for a lot of people. If they drank alone, it would have a much smaller effect on those relationships.
She genuinely couldn't believe I was doing that and thought I was weird for it. Obviously things worked out, but yeah.
I’ve even caught myself looking at someone by themselves and wondering with some level of suspicion “what/why are they out here” despite me doing the same myself.
Note that I was only reacting to the absolutes in the parent comment, not saying that I myself condemn people who go to the movies or do any "typical" group activity alone -- at the moment, I am also practicing the craft :)