The case for the pub

A lot of writing about alcohol treats the social side as the trap. The pub is where the drinking happens, so the pub must go. For a lot of people over forty that advice costs more than it saves, because the pub, or the Friday barbecue, or the Thursday after work, is where most of their friendships are maintained.

Men especially tend to keep friendships by doing things side by side rather than by talking face to face, and for a lot of Australian men the thing they do side by side is have a beer. Take that away without a replacement and what you get is not a healthier person. You get a lonelier one, and loneliness has its own costs, which are not small.

So this app does not ask you to leave. It asks you to notice that the beer is doing two jobs at once, and that only one of them needs alcohol. Job one is the drink. Job two is the two hours with people you like. Job two is the one worth keeping, and it transfers.

What transfers

The same crew that meets on Thursday at the pub can meet on Saturday at the beach. Same people, same chat, same side by side, and a swim in the middle of it. Nobody has to make a speech about drinking less. The Thursday still happens. The Saturday is added, and over a few months the ratio shifts, which is the whole plan.

This is why Spacer has plans and a balance. A crew puts up catch-ups that are not drinks, and the app quietly counts, for each pair of mates, how many catch-ups were dry and how many were drinks. The aim is at least even. Not dry only. Even.

The mate who has stopped

Every crew eventually has one person who has stopped drinking altogether, and the pub is harder for them than they will say. Dry plans are where they get to be an ordinary member of the group again. If you want one reason to put up a Saturday walk this week, that is a good one.