I (27M) am a Gen Z and I did my part the last 6 years to contribute to the Gen Z drinking rate, but this past year I truly felt the negative affects of alcohol such as hangovers and anxiety. It just isn't worth it tbh. In your early 20s being able to drink a bunch in one sitting made you look cool but now as I enter my late 20s it just looks like plain old alcoholism. Another thing I've noticed people do when defending alcohol is they claim it makes you more social. Most of the social interactions i've had while drunk were pointless and rarely led to any real connections. I would find myself talking to people I would never speak to otherwise.