America is becoming a nation of homebodies (washingtonpost.com)

Have you been outside lately? Everyone is nuts lol.

Is it just America though? People are just going out lesser now, ever since Covid.

In the period they mention, I've gone from heavy socializing to nearly none.

It's a lot of reasons. My kids are grown. My need for new customers is sharply lower.

I've decoupled my self-esteem from societal expectations. This killed the carrot for a lot of my social behavior - like the need for small talk.

My resistance to things fades with age. Like the ever increasing heat. My tolerance of traffic. My tolerance of crowds - especially when it's enhanced by cluelessness (eg:conversations in choke points).

Plus I live with my 5 adult sons (thanks 4-income economy!) and we get on well.

A little historical context: Faith Popcorn [yes, that’s her monicker] and the concept of “cocooning”, introduced in the 1980s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocooning_%28behaviour%29