Obviously drinking lowers your inhibitions so it's a social lubricant from that, but I always liked how drinking/ weed are also a helpful gauge of how long people plan to be around. Are they getting drunk? They plan to stay a while. One more beer? 20 minutes to half an hour more of socializing at least. They've switched to water? Not the time to suggest starting a game or to get into a deep conversation.
this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2026
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Except for that one guy.
Needs to drive in an hour. Already shit faced. Can't walk. Thinks switching to beer will help...
- hide his keys
- don't invite him back
Jokes on you alcohol has always made everyone hate me
Some people can be social lubricants too by bridging the gap between strangers or differing groups of people.
Things to say at a orgy.
Who brought the social lubricant?
π₯π₯
Little drummer boy and his frisbee.
Things not to say at an orgy.
When we say someone is the "life of the party" this is what we mean.
The usual perception of that phrase is that the person is wild and exciting - and they might be - but the real meaning is they get the conversation going and keep everyone engaged and interacting, and with them in the room there's never a dull moment.
Disclaimer: smoking is a nasty habit, and it's better to never start than to try to quit.
That being said, it's pretty crazy how smoking cigarettes brings people together. I'm very reluctant to talk to people I don't know, but if I go out for a smoke and I see a few other people smoking outside, they instantly became my new best friends.
Nicotine addiction isn't a habit, it's an addiction. If you smoke, quitting is the number one thing you can do to improve your health. In the US you can call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or visit Lung.org for free evidence-based resources to help with quitting.
I struggle with nictotine addiction and i know they arent great for my oral health or heart still, but as an asthmatic, the nicotine pouches like zyns have been huge for my daily health. Still trying to quit, but in te mean time, i can breath. Kind of
TIL I'm not an introvert. I'm just healthier.
Smoking is seen as a communal spiritual event in most Native American cultures.
I don't really smoke anymore, but the smoking ban in the UK (no smoking indoors from 2007) created the concept of the smoking area outside a pub/club and some of my best friendships in life ultimately started in that Petri dish
A smoking area outside anywhere in the northwest of the UK about 10-15 years ago was just peerless in calibre
When I was in highschool (just before they banned public smoking in IL) the kids that smoked all hung out in the same place outside.
TBH, and after reading some of the comments it seems to line up with this how Op post is "duh", and low effort and thinking about it more makes me wonder if this is botception and that's why it's all ringing weird bells and bothering me? The post feels like a vague dissemination of generic information (read bot/LLM) linking a wikipedia article that reads like someone non-human smashed it together (read bot/LLM). I'll leave what I started as a response before I arrived at this post. _-------------------------
I think this is the worst Wikipedia I've ever read and as a 30(?) year user that has maybe never time to criticize a wikipedia page (blatant bias or trolling aren't worth the effort), it's saying something.
It doesn't list obvious things like sports or any other activity from bingo halls, board games that would probably be some of the most common activities in the world.
Their concept of the phrase seems almost like an opinion that isn't really applied at anytjing more than an adolescent knowledge of a subject without any source material.
The one part of their writeup I (subjectively) had heard (alcohol being described as an social lubricant) was described as "negatively viewed" though that seems like a limited claim/opinion. Which feels weird and information without any synthesis.
Yeah, I thought everyone knew that. Is not knowing that why nobody makes friends anymore?
People stopped drinking which means they stopped playing drinking games.
Beer Pong isn't very fun sober.
Nor is Flip Cup without having to chug anything.
Yeah but while booze makes board games better they're still fun sober. Drinking games stop being fun when you're older even if you drink.
Weed definitely does the opposite for me. I get inside my head and overthink what I'm about to say and eventually realize the topic has changed and do it all over again.
Alcohol makes me the most outgoing person on the planet.
weed used to be a social lubricant to me, made me very savvy and perceptive almost like a super power.
then it became just this. it was great while it lasted. but i kind of want it back.
I learned a while ago that there are two types of people.
Some people can think inside their own head, and hear themselves think. They aren't "hearing voices". They ARE the voice. So they might see some guy on the bus stand up stick his ass in an elderly womans face, and start violently shitting on her. The person seeing this might in their own head say "WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!" but people around them would have no knowledge of him calling that guy an asshole.
Meanwhile, the other type of people are completely unable to hear themselves inside their own head. So every thought they have comes verbally out of their mouth. They still think about things, and they still do all the other things the first type of people do, except it's all verbal. You hear their thoughts as they have them.
I'm the first type of person, but when I smoke weed two things happen.
Number 1, I become the second type of person.
And number 2, my ability to finish my thoughts, vanishes. Instead I start one train of thought, realize halfway through it's stupid, and then switch to a completely different unrelated train of thought which makes no sense with the first half.
And all of this is happening verbally, and from my perspective in slow motion with distorted reality.
The end result is people who know me as quiet and usually pretty responsible, and smart will blurt out something like:
We should go on a boat, and buy a dinosaur to bring to the afterparty!"
Everyone just looks at me like "Now did you mean for those words to fall out of your mouth in that order? Or are you just as surprised as the rest of us?"
Internal monologue β thought
You are ADHD. That's the most ADHD brained behavior I've ever heard.
Source: I am also like this.
Oh yeah. You DEFINITELY need to come over and smoke a cone with me.
I completely agree, though I will add that when I was a chronic smoker in my teens / early 20s weed was totally a social lubricant. Now it just heightens my anxiety lol
Living in a state where itβs legal, itβs kinda awesome how the paranoia went away. Took a while, and age may also play a part, but like no one cares anymore here as long as youβre not being a moron about it. Being able to just walk into a shop and buy it like any other product also helps with that. Removes the stigma to hide it, and therefore the reason to be paranoid that βsomeone knows!β.
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...you just learned this?
TIL OP just learned this
Onlqy day you could have learnt that tbh
I still remember a girl at a party encouraging everyone to do that thing where you re-breathe the other person's exhale. She said it was to get higher but I think it was also a social lubricant.
Dogs make conversations easier too.
As I say a lot: Alcohol is a social lubricant which makes for slippery floors.
This might be the smartest thing I ever didn't think of (I probably heard it somewhere).
I kinda just do hobbies
As a teenager, I found out that this stuff works like a charm if you aren't the 'cool guy' in school. I saw the same thing in university, during smokes between classes and drinks after lectures. All the intelligent, nerdy guys became much more open and welcoming toward me.
My advice: Keep doing what youβre doing until you feel like youβre in the smarter half of the room. Thatβs the sign that youβre doing it too much.
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