Why the gym is Gen Z's new social scene

NOT long ago, after-work drinks were a regular ritual.

- VUYILE MADWANTS!

Many millennials started their careers with 5pm debriefs over cheap wine, midweek specials, and last-minute plans for “just one drink” that usually turned into three.Sociologists even called millennials the most drinking generation, the cohort that kept the alcohol industry buzzing well into the 2010s.

If you've tried to wrangle a Gen Z friend into after-work drinks lately, you've probably heard some version of: “Can we make it a walk instead?” or “I've got Pilates at six”. It’s not personal. It’s cultural.

Happy hour, once the sacred decompression window for millennials, is being rewritten by a generation that treats wellness the way previous generations treated nightlife: as a social currency, a lifestyle flex, and sometimes, a lifeline.

Forget cocktails; 2025 is all about function. Kombucha instead of chardonnay. Matcha instead of mojitos. Mushroom coffee instead ot well, whatever used to get us through Thursday evenings.

And this shift isn’t just visible online, it’s measurable.

From “round two?” to “who's coming to spin?”

A growing body of research proves what we've been seeing on our feeds.

Recent data from Gympass, a global corporate wellness platform that analysed millions of fitness “check-ins” among more than two million users, found that the prime time for workouts is no longer early mornings; it’s 6pm to 7pm, the same window traditionally reserved for after-work drinks.