GoKawiilData For Progress finds home entertaining still falling since 1990s
A Data For Progress survey replicating the older DDB Needham Life Style poll finds Americans hosting dinner parties and socializing at home far less than they did in the 1990s. The new data show continued double-digit declines across activities like card games, bar visits, sporting events, volunteering and community projects, extending a trend Robert Putnam flagged in his 2000 book Bowling Alone.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The findings suggest that a decades-long retreat from in-person socializing, first documented in the mid-1990s, has not reversed but deepened, which could have implications for community cohesion and mental health that researchers have long linked to social isolation. Because the survey mirrors an older methodology, it allows a more direct historical comparison than most recent loneliness studies, lending weight to claims that hosting culture is disappearing rather than merely shifting online.
- Data For Progress replicated a decades-old survey to track socializing trends over time.
- Home entertaining and communal activities have declined by double digits since the 1990s.
- The results extend a trend Robert Putnam warned about in Bowling Alone in 2000.
Source: derekthompson.org — Derek Thompson, 2026-09-29
Published there as: “You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner”
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