I’m not questioning the need for hydration. I make it a point to drink at least 8 cups of liquids a day, and also eat plenty of foods that are high in water content.
But I don’t know why we constantly need a bottle of water next to us now. When I was a kid, we drank from water fountains at school, and had milk or water at lunch. We never had water bottles in our classrooms. If I’m exercising, I just have water afterwards…I have no desire to drink in the middle of the workout. If I were running a marathon or something, of course it would be different. But I don’t see why I need to drink in the middle of a 30 minute workout. Am I just strange?
ETA: I appreciate everyone’s input. It seems like a lot of people are in situations where they don’t have easy access to water, and that many people prefer to constantly sip water versus just drink a cup quickly when they have a chance. I have easy access to water almost everywhere I go, but I can appreciate that others don’t. Whatever works for people is what they should do.
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People hydrate differently, sure
It is just more convenient
> If I’m exercising, I just have water afterwards…I have no desire to drink in the middle of the workout. If I were running a marathon or something, of course it would be different. But I don’t see why I need to drink in the middle of a 30 minute workout. Am I just strange?
Kinda weird that you’re not thisrsty during a workout. Are you just super hydrated 247?
People have water bottles because it’s not trivially easy to have the ones that keep your water ice cold all day, making it more pleasant to drink.
The current overhydration fad is making people think they need absurd amounts of water, and the only way they can force themselves to drink that much is to have a water bottle in their hand at all times and constantly sip at it.
You’re not strange, just old-school! 😆 The rise of constant water bottle access probably comes from a mix of convenience, better awareness of hydration, and the decline of public drinking fountains. Also, people love their trendy bottles—it’s practically a personality trait now. Plus, mild dehydration can impact focus and energy, so having water on hand just makes it easier to sip throughout the day instead of waiting until you’re actually thirsty—since thirst is usually a sign you’re already starting to dehydrate!”
Earlier there were lot of free water supplies now it’s all paid. Better keep it handy.
When I grew up we all had water bottles in school
You have no desire to drink during a workout. Okay but you also only work out 30 min. Most people who go to the gym or just exercise in any way work out for longer than that.
Because I’m always thirsty but also lazy 😜
> I make it a point to drink at least 8 cups of liquids a day
You don’t need to do that. You can just drink when you’re thirsty. That’s easy when you have a water bottle.
>When I was a kid, we drank from water fountains at school
I don’t always have access to a water fountain, and I’d prefer to drink from my water bottle. Minimizes risk of catching or spreading germs.
> If I’m exercising, I just have water afterward
Cool. Is that not obviously inferior to havin water during breaks in your workout, though?
>I have no desire to drink in the middle of the workout
It might help your workout though.
>Am I just strange?
A little.
After COVID I’m not using water fountains. Actually, working in retail and seeing the amount of people cough and sneeze all over stuff is reason enough not to use anything the general public uses.
People used to buy water bottles if they were out 10 hours a day. Now in recognition of how wasteful that is, they fill a water bottle at home and carry it with them.
They don’t particularly need it the whole time, but in order to reuse a water bittle rather than discard it, you have to keep it with you all day until you get home.
Before people still had water bottles, they just threw them away between uses.
Because school and airports are only places i see public water fountains. Where will i get water unless i buy it?
You would enjoy the episode of the podcast Decoder Ring called “the invention of hydration” (35 mins). It talks about this exact phenomenon!
One reason is they don’t maintain drinking fountains. I’ve been to so many where there is no or hardly any water pressure and this is pre COVID. Also is you’re doing a lot of walking or it’s hot it’s easier and cheaper to stay hydrated.
I look back at school and realize as students we were all just dehydrated and not “falling asleep from boredom”
A decade ago, I’d just buy a bottle of water if I got thirsty while I was out. I’m a lot more aware of waste and plastic usage now, and prefer to carry a stainless steel water bottle with me.
People do not need it now. They want it.
And that people did not hydrate frequently in the past does not mean that was healthy. It just means it did not kill them.
We don’t. It’s a fashion. Somehow we survive. and somehow people in countries where they don’t do it do too.
After seeing a grown assed adult put their mouth fully on the fountain bit, that little silvery nippley bit, of a water fountain I was a full time reuseable water bottle user. People are gross and I don’t want their germs.
The people are thirsty
We’re more conscious of hydration just like diet.
Higher summer and winter temperatures, especially in the West/South coast of the USA.
A TON of Americans have kidney disease; a lot of medicines that have come out in recent years demand a high water intake.
> I make it a point to drink at least 8 cups of liquids a day
That myth needs to die. Unless you are out active sweating a ton every day, you will get most of the hydration you need from eating regular meals and drinking occasionally.
If I don’t have a water bottle with me, I won’t get the amount of water I need. Out of sight, out of mind.
Ever since I learned about germ theory, I’ve avoided public water fountains like they contain plague… cuz… ew.
In general, I have to have something to sip on all the time, though. Even just sitting at a desk my throat gets dry and I’ll cough forever. Been like that since I was in high school for some reason.
I think it has to do with liking trendy bottles as much as it has to do with there being less water fountains about and more places charging for water, etc.
When I was in school, they also suggested massive amounts of carbs daily in your diet. We learn and improve as humans.
When did you grow up, and where? Bc I was in elementary school from 88-95 in the US and we had water bottles 🤨 Some of my teachers even required them bc we weren’t allowed to go to the water fountains during class.
>If I’m exercising, I just have water afterwards…I have no desire to drink in the middle of the workout.
>But I don’t see why I need to drink in the middle of a 30 minute workout.
Both of these statements are about your experience in your own body. You are not other people. Other people’s bodies need or want things that yours does not.
For me, if I have a bottle/cup of something nearby to drink, I will drink it. If I don’t, I get dehydrated. Plus, for my job, taking a sip of my beverage helps me keep the thoughts inside my head instead of blurting them out unnecessarily.
People have become microplastic addicts
To be 100% honest, I can’t exactly explain it, if in in a situation where I’m thirsty and I can’t meet that need, I get really anxious. Most especially if I’m hot.
I also sometimes burp and get a little indesgition and taking a sip of water fixes it, and I dont wanna be in a situation where that happens and I can’t and need to walk around with a burning in my chest. Obv that’s not a constant issue, but, it makes me feel better to have water with me incase.
I also have a medical issue where I tend to be thirsty often, unfortunately.
Edited to add like others stated: I don’t like buying plastic water bottles when I’m out. So using my refillable one and taking it with my just makes sense. 🙂
it’s overstated how much water we need in a day. people don’t factor in the water contained in other drinks and food or the water produced in the digestive/cellular respiration processes
Water bottles have been a thing since i was a kid in the 80s. Everyone had one in their backpack, plus your thermos in your lunch box
You’re assuming they contain water. The vast majority of people I know with a water bottle are carrying their caffeine supply around with them.
Covid.
Public access to water changed for a lot of people and in many cases for the better. More people are turning to water and away from sugar drinks and that’s fantastic.
There aren’t water fountains anymore and people are more environmentally conscious in that many want to avoid using plastic disposable bottles
As for not drinking water while you exercise…that’s you
Most people hydrate while they workout…not before and after
When is the last time you saw an actual water bubbler? Okay, at the gym, they sometimes have those mixed ones that are both. But in general, how often do you see a drinking source that doesn’t expect a container to put water in?
How long ago were you in school? A bunch of kids had bottles with them and I was in school in the early 2000s.
When my parents were kids, they just played in the piles of coal trailings. Why do they have them all roped off now instead of installing a jungle gym or swings on them?
Because it’s convenient, it helps remind me to drink more when I see it and it means I don’t have to go anywhere when I’m thirsty
Control over hydration is the only control we get to have over our lives these days.
Because now I live in a desert :3
I grew up and must have been seriously dehydrated. Maybe I had 6oz of juice at breakfast. Three sips of putrid warm water at school (maybe I drank my chocolate milk). Came home had a snack with 6 more oz of coke then played outside until dark with no further water. Yes I’m proper GenX so I drank from the hose-but I don’t remember doing it unless we were playing in the water. I carry a 1L insulated water bottle with me pretty much wherever I go. I was diagnosed 2 years ago with proper dehydration-work outside/sweat all the time. I was drinking water but was missing minerals. I now use those hydration powders and drink about 3L of COLD water per day. It may be psychosomatic but if I don’t have access to water for a few hours I start to feel sick.
I have to constantly drink water everywhere I go or else I feel the effects of dehydration. Especially with my intestines. And that’s the only way that I can have the time to intake 60oz of water in a day.
For workouts it depends on the type of workout. If you’re lifting heavy to the point of exhausting your muscles and breathing really heavy then you generally will need water during the workout.
Back when people didn’t carry water with them most everyone was chronically dehydrated. We just didn’t know it because that used to be the norm for society.
As a small child, I spent an inordinate amount of time thirsty, trapped in the backseat of the car, with my mom telling me to “save up my spit to swallow.” Kids in the ’80s were thirsty. Just because we didn’t have unfettered access to water bottles doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have been really useful and aren’t useful now.
Watching a classmate lose their lunch in a water fountain at school, made me stop using them.
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For all that people say that we don’t need to deliberately drink water, and we can just drink when we are thirsty… that doesn’t work for all of us. I am generally too dehydrated to feel thirsty. I only feel thirsty after drinking water – I suspect my body just doesn’t remember until then, and then I end up making myself sick because I am still thirsty after drinking enough to make me nauseous.
I just had my yearly checkup and had bloodwork done. The only value which was seriously out of whack was ion gap.
Which is a sign of how much water is in your bloodstream.
I am dehydrated enough that you can see it in a lab looking at my blood, and the only way to fix that would be to deliberately schedule drinking water.
I’m just thirsty all the time lol. Plus it’s easier to drink my daily intake via a straw and I don’t want to waste money buying water. Water fountains aren’t really available in my area often, and I don’t trust the nozzles are clean.
It’s just convenient. If you always have your own water, you don’t have to rely on anyone or anything else for water.
Thirsty in class? Don’t have to wait.
No public water fountains? Don’t have to wait.
Thirsty during workout? Don’t have to wait.
If you’re serious about hydration, why would you not carry a water bottle? Seems like a no brainer.
I’m with you
My dad and sister always bring water or chocolate milk with them in the car with me it’s so annoying
I just had lunch with a guy who had this gigantic metal water bottle that he kept asking the server for more water and ice to fill with.
I’ve been carrying a Nalgene bottle or two of water with me since the mid-90’s.
I also keep a snack or two with me in my backpack, along with a lighter, multitool, a couple of bandaids, aspirin, and a few safety pins. Why not? It takes up minimal space and often comes in handy for me or someone else.
I’ve always figured that thirst and hunger are so easily avoidable in the modern developed world, why not be prepared.
Takes more water to flush out the extra poison.
I need to drink more water. Keeping the water bottle handy keeps the reminder near by. I’m also a sipper. I’m not chugging down a glass of water at once or even during a meal. So the bottle it is!
I started high school in 2003 and we all carried Nalgenes at the time. Also, most parents don’t rely on juice/juice boxes as much with young children as they did 20 years ago, most parents actively discourage juice.
Because water used to cost $1 from a vending machine or free out of a fountain.
Since covid, fountains are a relic, and bottled water now costs $5.
My tap at home is free and I know my bottle is clean. Plus it’s insulated and keeps it cold all day.
I like my water ice cold, and I also tend to get dehydrated without realizing it. Bringing an insulated water bottle with me solves both those problems.
The reason I carry a water bottle (and use a water filter jug in my fridge) is because I got a bit of a jolt when I realized how many plastic bottles of water I was going through. I felt extreme guilt. I also don’t have access to good quality water all the time. Like at work. And I also like water best when it is really cold. So and insulated cup helps keep water cold and make me more likely to want to drink it.
But I will often, at home, still just grab a glass and drink water straight from the tap.
People have heard about kidney stones and how painful they are through the grapevine.
The pussyfication of generations. That is why.
I do think you’d find a lot of variability in how much people who carry them around are actually drinking. I think to some extent it’s gone beyond its functional purpose and is just am accessory that still can serve a purpose, a thing that people get used to having with them, like chapstick or phones (yes phones are a little different but the kind of thing where you feel naked without it even if you wouldn’t be using it) or a piece of jewelry that you wear every day and feel weird without it. I’m terrible at drinking enough water but I always have one in my bag, partly because for some reason with age I get more paranoid about not having any available when I really need it, but specifically because I’m not good at drinking enough!
Some people need to have something in their hands. 50 years ago these folks were smokers. When it became illegal to smoke indoors they switched to water bottles.
My reasons for carrying a water bottle (and a large one at that – 64oz).
If I’m thirsty, I don’t have to go find a water fountain, convienience store, sink, whatever. I just have it.
My dietician has me drinking the full recommended amount of water per day which is approximately 2 of my larger water bottles. It makes it really easy to keep track of it my consumption. Did I drink the thing dry twice in the day? Cool, mission accomplished. No guesswork, estimating, or getting up to refill my glass 8 times.
That’s pretty much it.
Chronic drymouth combined with needing to speak will do that
Well, if you work construction or outside labor in Texas, your employer is NOT required give you water breaks any more.
*TEXAS LEGISLATURE 2023
As Texas swelters, local rules requiring water breaks for construction workers will soon be nullified
Gov. Greg Abbott approved a law this week that will eliminate city and county ordinances like Austin’s and Dallas’ mandated water breaks.*
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/06/16/texas-heat-wave-water-break-construction-workers/