Drinking as a party activity

[demaina]

I mean drinking alcohol to be specific.  I don't drink it cause I've never liked the taste, but I don't care if others drink.  However, I recently got invited to a party where the plan was they were going to drink all night. 

I personally don't really consider that an activity.  If they wanted to play charades and drink while doing it, fine, but just drinking by itself doesn't really make sense to me.  It's like the assumption is that everyone drinks so everyone will enjoy it, but then why invite someone who doesn't drink?

Have you ever been invited to a party where the whole party was about getting drunk?

[lvstephanie]

Usually those type of parties are not about just trying to get drunk, but rather is more of a social event... You go to the party to talk with your friends and meet new people (esp. of the opposite sex). The alcohol just decreases a person's inhibitions, insecurities, etc. and allow a person to act more relaxed and natural when interacting with people (again mostly people that you just meet at the party, and mostly in people that you are interested in). When I was going to college, I went to a lot of "kegger" parties, where the host would buy a keg (or more) of beer (usually cheap, domestic stuff) and would allow anyone to attend, provided that there was enough space! They'd sometimes have music playing in the background, or have games going on (usually drinking games), but for the most part aside from drinking, it was just a chance to talk with people, meet new friends, and if you were lucky, perhaps "hook-up" with someone (to varying degrees, from exchanging numbers and setting up a date to actually doing the nasty in one of the unoccupied bedrooms).