Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out

Hanging out with people glued to phones is boring

My friends don’t do that though. Lots of people don’t. I spend time on my phone, but mostly when on the train or procrastinating going to sleep.

As far as I am concerned, I have not observed this. I see plenty of people hanging out at restaurants and elsewhere. Many places are packed. It seems like there has been this trend of journalists writing these finger in the wind op-eds opining about a society that never existed or about something which is not a problem for most people but is turned into 'a thing' for the sake of pageviews and virality.

You nailed it. I've kind of stopped having get-togethers at my house (either for friends or family) because people show up, do a brief normal-human greeting interaction, and inevitably eventually sit down and just kind of zombie out scrolling their phones. Despite efforts to strike up conversation, play a board game or whatever, people just can't put the fucking things down for even 5 minutes, let alone enough time to do some actual activity or talk. I tried to do movie night, but people are on the goddamn phones before the opening credits are even done. As a host, it's pointless--you almost have to dance around like a monkey to just get someone to look up. Same problem with going out to eat with friends at restaurants.