Did I hear someone say a house party? Are you alright? Do you need help? Have you seen the news lately? While the idea of a house party might seem outrageous nowadays, it wasn’t so crazy in our parents’ time.
House parties in the previous generation were a collegiate social bonanza with a flute, guitar and tambourine being played simultaneously, céilí dancing and a few rounds of beer pong thrown in for good measure, if it were a Halloween party, blending different music genres and sporting red American party cups and wide grins.
Such house parties, a very cherished part of our parents’ generation, are now a rarity.
Today’s house party is a dreaded affair, with unanswered polls and unanswered calls winding up with a perfectly good weekend ruined. Ah, sure, why not cozy down with a pint in some pub or go for a swim in another county? Surely that’s easier.
If you need an example of how outrageous house parties have become, take a look at the Limerick incident. Just this October, the Gardaí were investigating a vandalised property in College Court, with rounds of online videos of a group of lads chucking a mattress from an upstairs window.
The University of Limerick duly emphasised the importance of conforming to the decent benchmarks of behaviour set by the large cohort of its students and the serious inappropriateness of such “anti-social” behaviour. While this may seem like overly pompous institutional chiding to some, the reported “anti-social” element hits the mark.
Rewind to our parents’ generation. College social life revolved around the Friday night house party, which you had to attend if you were not a complete and utter square. Now, the same plan requires a calendar invite, live locations, possibly Garda oversight if there’s booze involved and an Instagram decision about whether the room might be too ‘couchy” for an Instagram reel. If you’re fortunate enough to have a couch, that is.
The crazy spotlight of social media comes at a steep cost for the less glamorous parts of human nature. Gone are the days when house parties were a truly laid back affair where you could truly loosen up after a long day of work and moan about your boss without worrying about your vomit laden photos plastered over social media the very next day.
While vandalism is an inexcusable crime and should absolutely be reproached as one, the thought process that goes behind such an act of vandalism is worth considering, not just for youngsters’ entertainment but for the safety of the public. Why do such actions seem so unsurprising? Maybe because we know deep down what it feels like to be priced out of your own neighbourhoods. Or to not find a place to live when you’re fresh out of your parents’ house for college. Or it could simply be because we all know how the house party scene has all but vanished in recent years.
It might seem like a cliche to miss the good old days but if it keeps both the youth and the authorities happy, old is gold.
