Why Is Social Proof Important?

“When I first got into photography people would laugh at me for taking photos and filming holidays.

Now that’s seen as completely normal. For a lot of people it has a name and it’s content creation.

The same thing happened with van life. People have lived in campervans for decades, but giving it a name gave it a larger community which changed how people saw it.

And then there's wild swimming. Swimming outdoors has been around forever, but it has a name, a community and it’s taken off.

None of those behaviours are new, but what's changed is how we see them.

When a behaviour has a name, a community and enough people embracing it, it starts to feel normal.

That's social proof.

And I think the same thing is happening with alcohol.

When I stopped drinking in 2015, there was no social proof around choosing not to drink. 

I was met with awkward looks, questions and assumptions.

But now we have new language which helps normalises  not wanting to drink

Sober curious.

It's a term that gives people permission to question alcohol without needing to identify as ‘having a problem’. 

It’s seen as an empowering and intentional choice rather than a negative consequence.

When you add the rise of low & no alcohol, choosing not to drink has gained something it never really had before:

Social proof.

It makes me wonder, will we ever look back and wonder why choosing not to drink needed social proof in the first place?”

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