No Stupid Questions

Early 30s. Outside is a scam. Everything there involves spending money and dealing with people. I'll talk and play games with my friends online but don't see people unless I am at work or forced to go out.

I don't go out because post covid everything costs 100% more and is 100% worse.

I spend $60 on two beers and a mcdonalds quality hamburger + fries last week. F that. in 2019 that would have been 20 bucks. in a place that was crowded and it took me like 30m to get my food. and almost every place is like that now. double the price for half the service or quality of product.

if going out was fun and affordable I'd do it more. I went out regularly before covid. I just don't want to have to drop 30-40 bucks for a single beer and junk food meal anytime i want to socialize.

all my old spots that were affordable, chill and fun, are gone. i used to hang out in coffee shops after work because they were quiet and i don't drink.. now they all closed at 2pm. bars are noisy and crowded and want $15+ for a cocktail and $10 for a budweiser. that used to be $10 and $5.

Not young anymore, but when I see the price of live music, alcohol, etc, and combine that with things like student debt, low income jobs and the pressure of potentially being humiliated via social media, I wonder how on earth young people ever go out.

I feel incredibly lucky to have been in my late teens/early 20s during the late 90s and early 2000s. I suspect a lot of my generation dodged a fair few bullets, and never even realised it at the time.

If we invite our kids or niece/nephew to dinner they always want to go at 6/630 which feels so early.

I hate to break this to you... but it's likely because they want to do their own things as well.

At least for me, its a threshold problem. The internet means that staying at home is always going to be at least somewhat interesting, which makes it a lot harder to take a gamble on a random late night outing. It’s not just staying out late, either—Gen Z shows declines in a whole host of risky behaviors. Smoking, alcohol, drug use, teen pregnancy, are all way down in our generation. In some sense, we’ve found a drug that we prefer to actual drugs.

Cost of living and going out is insane. We don’t have the expendable income to do so.

I have two 15 years old sons. One of them is never home. He is always going out with his friends, either to the gym, or just walking around town. The other one rarely leaves the house. He'll invite his friends over to hang out, and sometimes he visits them, but they usually talk at school or online.

One difference I noticed is that back in the 1900s, we had to get a ride from our parents in order to play video games with our friends, but thanks to the Internet, it's very easy to play and socialize with your friends from home, and being in the same room now PREVENTS people from playing together.

The kids are actually socializing MORE because they don't need to meet at the same location, and I don't have to drive their asses all over town, so I'm ok with that.

I'm in my 40s, I'm not gonna go out to a concert an hour away on a weeknight because that means I'm not getting home 'til after 1 and I have to be up in the morning with a functioning brain because I have a damn job.

I don't know about your location specifically or the specific age range you're refering to, but at least where I am, school/college tends to start at like 8:00 am, and most students want to or need to work fairly busy jobs given the ongoing cost of living crisis. Considering that, it means they can't stay up late, and don't have much energy to socialize compared to older generations. Although again, this varys by area and individual.

I'm in my 30s and with constant stress of life, I have no interest in really doing much of anything besides sitting on my couch playing video games and forgeting everything in my down time.

I used to go out and party every weekend and during the week, but that was my early 20s.

I'm 29. Wife and I go out for food 4 times a week. Also to do things to get out of the house. But, I make software engineer money and we live in a relatively small city in Wisconsin. I bought my house at 27 and own a sports car.

I know shit is rough for a lot of people and inflation is nuts. I don't take my career for granted.

EDIT: Oh yeah, probably a good thing to note: no kids, we're both sterilized. Not our thing.

I am a young person and I only leave the house to go to work, but I am currently looking for a wfh job. There's nothing really interesting outside and the weather is rarely nice. If there were less roads and stores and more parks or places you could just exist in then I probably would go outside more, but that would be during the day and not at night. Usually during the evening I just lay around and relax. I am so tired and stressed from the day that I never feel like doing anything when I get home.

Your kids aren't kids and probably understand the value of a good night's sleep in order to work the next day?

I generally don't go out on week nights especially not late because I want to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep or I'm a grumpy unproductive mess. My evenings I'm making dinner, getting ready for the next day, and trying to find an hour or two to relax before doing it all over again

I just don't feel like it anymore, I'm a different person than I was in my 20s. COVID has nothing to do with it.

I recently asked my son to go to a concert (free ticket to see a band i know he likes) and he declined because it was an hour away on a weeknight

Either your son is more responsible than you or he already had plans to sneak out with his friends or gf 😂

Also are your kids and nieces/nephews more like young adults, teenagers or middle schoolers?

Covid isn't a factor for me anymore, I keep up with my shots. It's financial reasons and time restraints mostly. I got too much shit to do to have any sort of fun. My off days is catching up on sleep debt and errands. Speaking of which I need to do right now.

I'm 30ish. There is no time. Gotta go.

My daughter is in her 20s and will go out to the climbing gym at 8pm or later some nights.

My kids, the teenagers, definitely do not go out like I did - it's not money, most of what we did back then was just drink in empty parking lots, go to garage punk shows, concerts when we could. Sometimes the beach at night too. We had no money. They do similar (much less drinking, more of a police state now) but way, way less often and not usually till late.

The older set, 25-31, it varies. Some eat at civilized 8-9pm when they do go out. Some like to go at teatime then just go home.

The husband and I, we do usually go out to eat at teatime but sometimes go out for a drink, literally one, or to a concert or show.

Every single one of us, adults and teens, like outdoor concerts because they have to end by 11, noise ordinance. Or concerts at clubs that wrap them early to open afterwards as a dance club. Nobody likes staying up till 3am at a show anymore, but maybe nobody actually liked it in the first place?

This year I've been going out more than ever. COVID gave me a new appreciation for out-of-the-house activities and now I can't get enough of them.

Ironically, I met my current IRL social circle on discord during the pandemic. Most people in my old social circle started having kids over the last few years so I don't really spend as much time with them anymore.

If you don't go to dinner at like 6:30 these days then you probably won't be able to go while the restaurants are still open.