"The last real party I threw was in 2019, back when I'd sometimes have odd groupings of women over to my tiny New York apartment. At that final one-after everyone was fumbling and drunk, overheated from proximity-I cracked a kitchen window so that one of my friends could smoke, and we all clustered around her to feel the air. There was such joy in bundling together like that. I made a new friend at that party. I learned a secret that was truly bizarre."
"Lately, there's been talk of the decline of parties, how Americans today are gathering far less than a couple of decades ago. Loneliness is on the rise, teens aren't drinking or canoodling, nobody is going out. A post-pandemic social malaise has conspired with crippling tech addiction to atomize people and trap them in their homes. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 4.1 percent of Americans hosted or attended a social event on an average weekend in 2023-a 35-percent decline since 2004."
The narrator's last full social gathering occurred in 2019 and included intimate, joyful closeness that ended abruptly when the pandemic began. A watch was left behind and the narrator became a parent, moved cities, and did not host another party. Nationwide socializing has fallen markedly, with loneliness increasing, teens less socially active, and technology and post-pandemic malaise deepening isolation. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show only 4.1 percent of Americans hosted or attended a weekend social event in 2023, a 35 percent decline since 2004. Economic and cultural signs include Party City closing in 2024. Personal plans to host more gatherings were overtaken by major family tragedies and prolonged withdrawal, with only very small visits from friends.
Read at Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by.
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