The spacer

If you grew up drinking in Australia you know the spacer. It is the water, or the lemon squash, or the lemon lime bitters, that you have between beers so the night lasts and the morning does not. Nobody makes a fuss about it. The bloke ordering a spacer is still at the bar, still in the round, still in the conversation.

That is the thing worth copying. A spacer is not abstinence and it is not a statement. It is pacing. It is the move of someone who intends to be there at the end of the night and at work the next day.

Spacer, the app, takes the word and stretches the gap. The spacer is a night instead of a glass. Monday is a spacer. Tuesday is a spacer. Friday is a drink with the usual crew. The round is the week, and the pacing is which nights have something in them and which have nothing.

Why a word matters

Because the alternatives are worse. “Alcohol-free day” sounds like a health department poster. “Dry” sounds like a resolution. “Not drinking tonight” sounds like you have to explain yourself. “Spacer” sounds like a plan, and it sounds like something you can say at the bar without anyone asking why.

Try it. “Nah, spacer tonight.” It works.

The other spacer

There is a second meaning the app leans on. In a crew, the people who are drinking less give each other space: nobody checks, nobody nags, nobody counts out loud. The app does the noticing so the mates do not have to, and what the mates do instead is send a cheer when a week got kept. That is the whole social contract. Space, and a cheer.