December is a month for overdoing it. I eat too much, I spend too much, I drink too much. From office holiday parties to gatherings at friends’ houses, it can feel like a month of almost non-stop alcohol consumption. After the drunken peak of New Year’s Eve, I’m ready for a break. But I will not be participating in Dry January. If you are, please keep it to yourself.
Dry January is yo-yo dieting for drinkers. Worse, it’s yo-yo dieting that many people will boast about on social media, engaging in a low form of virtue signalling that is of no help or interest to the rest of us.
The phenomenon began in Britain, where a charity called Alcohol Concern, looking for a buzzy way to encourage people to drink less, trademarked the name and launched the first Dry January campaign in 2013. Last year, more than five million Brits took part in it.
It’s since become popular in Canada and, if you’re on social media in any form, is hard to miss, which is why this “detox” irritates me so much. Doing Dry January is like going on a 30-day juice cleanse and then returning to cheeseburgers and chicken wings, all the while announcing your dabbling to people who follow you, with little or nothing of value or interest in it for them. The entire endeavour implies that those who do Dry January will be back at the bar come February, which doesn’t make it all that inspiring for those of us who have to hear about your progress. Do it if you want, but don’t pretend a temporary virtue binge is important to anyone but you.
There are many good reasons to give up alcohol. It is responsible for a long list of terrible problems, from drunk-driving deaths to the development of certain cancers. Abstaining for the first month of the year may help you lose weight since you won’t be consuming the calories in beer, wine and spirits. You’ll likely sleep better, too, and your skin may glow. But these benefits will be short-lived if you’re back on the sauce come February.
So, perhaps the best reason to try Dry January is that it will give you a chance to reflect on what role alcohol plays in your life. But for most people, the greatest revelation they’ll come to is that they probably shouldn’t drink so much, and that’s something every mature adult already knows well before they’re getting hammered at the office holiday party or clutching their heads in agony during their hangover on New Year’s morning.
Do it for whatever reason you want, but please spare us the social-media bragging. The hashtag #dryjanuary currently appears in more than 115,000 Instagram posts and is already generating a constant stream of tweets on Twitter. All it amounts to is admitting you’ve been drinking too much lately. But we all have. So why not put your phone down and spend a quiet night at home?
I’m well aware that abstaining has benefits; newfound energy, for instance, and better sleep. And I applaud anyone who commits to improving themselves in the long term. The new year is when our enthusiasm for positive change runs highest. Lose weight! Get out of debt! Exercise regularly! You can do it, and you can even update the rest of us on Instagram once in a while. But committing to not drinking for 31 days isn’t a great accomplishment for the vast majority of people, especially when most of us will be toning down our consumption anyway post-holiday binge.
There is nothing interesting or useful to be learned from the incessant Dry January hype. I know you probably overdid it throughout December and now you’re tired. Same here. So, take as long a break as you want. Just keep it to yourself, okay?
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