3) Is there any particularly interesting analysis of why drinking is so important to social interaction? Knowing the underlying causes might at least give me some better appreciation for why I have to learn this other than "because!"
The last time I was drunk I told a non-drinking friend of mine in fairly loud and forceful terms that he should drink too. So let me try to introspect on why I might have done that.
You didn't mention anything about experiencing lower inhibitions while drunk, and feeling more willing to do stuff like dance, loudly speak your mind on anything, etc. I think this could be a big part of why my drunk self is upset when other people don't drink--I'd like them to share this low-inhibition state with me. For one thing, I'll trust them more. This might somehow be related to people speaking their mind more naturally when drunk--if I know someone is speaking their mind to me and isn't lying or leaving things out when they talk then that's kind of a bonding experience.
But a more important factor is probably that I want to see people who normally seem fairly straight-laced behave in crazy ways, perhaps because it would lower their status, or maybe so we can share the kinship of being crazy, or so that I can know that just like me they sometimes break social conventions, take off their mask of good behavior, etc.
For what it's worth, I'm in college, I like experiencing the disorienting effects of alcohol, I somewhat like observing my speech becoming slurred (although the thrill of that may wear off) and your thoughts about the taste closely parallel mine. Oh yeah, and I enter an interesting and fairly fluid mode of socializing and ideas come differently while drunk, but those don't have anything to do with my being upset at people who don't drink.
Part of the irony of this is that, not only are some people honest and uninhibited while sober, but also some people don't become significantly more so when drunk.
Back when I drank, being drunk normally made me withdrawn and antisocial... I have a lot more fun at parties now than I used to.
It's been over a year since I graduated from college, but only recently have I felt like I'm officially entering the "adult world." Navigating the social arenas of the adult world requires the same basic skillsets as the college world, but a lot of the rules are different and I'm struggling to learn them. Among them is how to drink socially.
As a general rule, I don't drink. I don't like the taste of alcohol. I don't like paying the exorbinant prices that alcohol costs. I don't like the feeling of my brain slowing down and making it harder to string sentences together. I don't mind the physical disorientation - that part's pretty fun. But that part also seems to be slightly frowned upon in an "adult" setting. I'm not opposed to it for any particular moral reasons.
When I do drink, I prefer to get it over with as fast as possible, whether I'm officially drinking a "shot" or not. In college that at least had a sort of "daring" quality that was respected. But it's pretty obviously taboo at classy cocktail parties and even somewhat taboo at "casual adult" parties.
So there's a few separate questions I have:
1) Are there any good, cached buzzword phrases I can use that'll make it socially acceptable to not drink? "I just don't like it" seems to draw disdainful stares, and while I haven't tried it I get the sense that saying I'm morally opposed to it would make me look even more like a stick in the mud. Saying "it's ridiculously expensive" makes me look like a cheapskate.
2) If I must drink socially, is there a breakdown of the general social conventions I should be aware of so I don't need to have them pointed out to me over the course of the next few years?
3) Is there any particularly interesting analysis of *why* drinking is so important to social interaction? Knowing the underlying causes might at least give me some better appreciation for why I have to learn this other than "because!"