The underreported story behind the great decline in wine drinking is the proportional rise of people eating alone. Opening a bottle of wine lends to more of a communal gathering or meal setting. Those are fast becoming a thing of the past.
Yeah, that's a good point. The thing I recently read, which kinda shocked me, is that a bunch of nightclubs are struggling as people don't go out and party anymore. Pretty sad…
One working theory about modern times and the decline of third spaces, social drinking, children who go outside, dating, etc., centers on the idea that we've been made more comfortable safely and predictably cocooning ourselves at home surrounded by greater distractions than ever.
A predictable good average is overweighting the calculus, pushing out a "less safe" bet that might teeter on greater delight or disappointment. So we settle for predictable, even if it's largely mediated by 2D screens and isolation. Throw in the barriers to socialization now up because of a social prerequisite for prior digital mediation, and there's a bit of a doom loop at play.
I'm just curious when/where a pullback will happen. If it does. Though I think (hope) there will come a point.
The underreported story behind the great decline in wine drinking is the proportional rise of people eating alone. Opening a bottle of wine lends to more of a communal gathering or meal setting. Those are fast becoming a thing of the past.
https://www.economist.com/international/2026/01/15/falling-wine-sales-reflect-a-lonelier-and-more-atomised-world
Yeah, that's a good point. The thing I recently read, which kinda shocked me, is that a bunch of nightclubs are struggling as people don't go out and party anymore. Pretty sad…
That is sad.
One working theory about modern times and the decline of third spaces, social drinking, children who go outside, dating, etc., centers on the idea that we've been made more comfortable safely and predictably cocooning ourselves at home surrounded by greater distractions than ever.
A predictable good average is overweighting the calculus, pushing out a "less safe" bet that might teeter on greater delight or disappointment. So we settle for predictable, even if it's largely mediated by 2D screens and isolation. Throw in the barriers to socialization now up because of a social prerequisite for prior digital mediation, and there's a bit of a doom loop at play.
I'm just curious when/where a pullback will happen. If it does. Though I think (hope) there will come a point.