America is seesawing between sobriety and boozing it up

iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI

When a new year rolls around, social circles split into two groups. The dividing line: alcohol. There are the people doing Dry January, swearing off booze for the month to regroup after the holiday season's indulgence. Then there are the people who have no plans to shift gears — if anything, they're excited that all the January teetotaling means smaller bar crowds. But increasingly, the sober/drinking split is stretching beyond the confines of January into other months and across American culture.