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I think it's kind of cuts both ways.

Some of my happiest memories growing up in the late 90's early 2000's involved drinking with a bunch of friends in their basements.

My wife on the other hand drank because she was unhappy.

These things are not the same.

The author discusses at length how the conclusions we reach about social media are strongly tied to our personal values and what we consider “good” or “bad” outcomes.

Don't know about the research, but I've always assumed that drinking has some correlation with psychological pathology. I drink myself, and would self-diagnose myself as being happy. However, drinking, particularly heavy drinking seems correlated to problems.

Drinking is often (not always) an escape. So if a kid is drinking more than experimentally or e.g. occasional weekend gatherings with friends, it's a good sign they are having trouble coping with something. Same would go for smoking weed, etc. A normal well-adjusted person is not driven to get intoxicated frequently.

Why call out "drink less" but not "smoke less"? Both are recreational drugs, both are socially stimulative, but only the former has the propensity to lead to serious harm in the short term.