It's a cultural thing. Traditionally, in Mediterranean societies, "drinking socially" means you are sitting at a long table with your family having a big meal and drinking wine from a small glass.

Granted, today the families are smaller, the tables are shorter, the meals are faster, the wine glasses are larger, "social drinking" spills out to drinking with friends and colleagues, and getting at least pleasantly sloshed of a night out is increasingly common, as is bingeing and getting totally smashed with your friends. At which point, yeah, the purpose of "social drinking" is getting off your tits.

We are all slowly turning into Western Europeans I guess :/