I felt like there was a downward trend in parties before COVID hit for me. This would be me in my late 30s. In our 20s I feel like we still went to a lot of parties and tried to at least "drop by" when we could. But then we had kids and it became a lot harder - but we still try to make the important things ( bdays, graduations, etc ). This was the micro ( and just where I was in life ) now, with COVID I feel like a) there are not as many parties - just kind of like a covid hangover on social gatherings and b) it is much easier to say "no" without social repercussions. One thing I don't like is that now children don't get invited to a lot of other children's birthday parties, where as I remember that was a huge deal growing up for me. You always knew which friend had a birthday coming up and it was a huge deal. Now I feel like most kids in our social circle are fine with just 2 or 3 close friends over to the house for a small gathering. It just seems like the era of big, social parties has dwindled locally/micro.

I really enjoyed this thread as it really is neat to see how other people perceive something I have noticed, but not really acknowledged.