Comment by northernsausage

I live in an area of the US that pre-pandemic, it wasn't the case of "everything scheduled and planned". I'd wake up, wander down to the cafe and chat with people I knew around town... just whoever I'd see. After work I'd go to the downtown area and just stop at pubs and patio cafes and whatever and sit until someone I knew came by or I saw someone doing the same and stop and chat with them.

After the pandemic it's like everyone forgot this. The coffee shops are all students studying or people rushing in and out, the pubs and cafes are all ghost towns or groups of people being very insular. Even at events like the farmer's market there's less socializing and more "go get the things and go move on, don't look around, don't talk to people", the vendors even mention how boring it is these days without anyone just chatting anymore.

"Go out and be in the world" seems to have just died.

GCC countries are car-heavy, including a lot of drivethrus where no one gets out of their car, and yet I got the impression that social activity was remarkably healthy compared to Europe or North America. Men meeting in cafes in Oman were talking normally and not taking out their phones. There was an openness to talking to me, a foreigner, that has disappeared elsewhere. Not sure what to credit that with -- a combination of Islam and a generous welfare state?

As someone who grew up in the US and then moved to the EU; I came here to say exactly this. You leave your private house, get in your private car, then go somewhere. You could live 10 years beside someone and never know their name.

Here in the EU, I know most of the people on my street because I walk by them every day on my way to the store. In the US, even though I lived less than 1 mile/500ish meters from the store, I couldn't walk there if I wanted to.