Americans Don’t Party Enough. Here’s How To Change That.
No one wants to party anymore. Between 2003 and 2024, time spent attending or hosting social events decreased by 50 percent among Americans aged 15 and older, according to the American Time Use Survey. The youngest were most affected: for those aged 15 to 24, the decline was a staggering 69 percent. For that age group, face-to-face socialization of any kind has decreased by 35 percent over the past two decades.
The decline in partying among the young was perhaps summarized best by a recent Reddit post, in which a Gen Z user took to the Gen X-focused subreddit to ask if house party scenes from 1990s and 2000s teen movies were accurate. “Im Gen Z and have never been to anything like this,” they wrote. “So was this a thing that just doesn’t happen anymore, or is it just Hollywood trying to make me hate my life more.” The post gained more than ten thousand upvotes, and a flurry of reminiscing about ’90s-era high school ragers mixed with shock that few modern young people seem to have these experiences.Â
As a Gen Zer, I’ve felt this decline firsthand. I didn’t go to any parties in high school, and only heard about one ever happening (I, being an uptight dork, was wisely not invited.) Despite being a lifelong 99th-percentile extrovert, I arrived at college somewhat disappointed that I was attending a notorious party school. Roof-shaking, lite beer-fueled parties, to me, seemed essentially anti-intellectual—populated by meathead frat bros and girls who wore crop tops in February, presumably because they had yet to discover feminism.Â
Experience swiftly changed my mind. But right as I was beginning to flex my partying muscles, COVID-19 strangled my aspirations. I came out of lockdown with a rabid desire to make up for lost time, and ever since, I’ve thrown parties with an ideological fervor. Within the past year, I’ve thrown fifteen full-blown house parties with upwards of two dozen guests, and just as many smaller dinner parties or other gatherings with an average of ten or so friends.
According to Partiful, the app that I use to organize most of my events, I was in the top 0.7 percent of party hosts for 2024. And my guest list keeps growing. When I hit it off with someone, one of the first things I ask them is whether they want to come to my next party. As a result, when I threw a party celebrating my recent book deal last month, 46 people came, packing my 900-square-foot townhouse to the gills.Â
But, much to my chagrin, I’m the only regular party thrower I know. When I look back at parties I’ve attended in the past year, almost all are birthday parties—few people I know want to throw a party for the sake of throwing one. I have a healthy friend group full of people who like to socialize, but not many want to host parties themselves.Â
The sharp decline in high school parties has a few obvious culprits, namely
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