Derek Thompson

A widely shared essay by Derek Thompson argues that Americans have stopped hosting one another: people are overwhelmingly staying home, yet visits between friends and family keep falling. Commenters point to rising loneliness, the collapse of third places, cost-of-living pressures and home-centered entertainment as reasons for the decline of the dinner party and casual drop-in.

Writer Derek Thompson argues that Americans have stopped hosting each other for dinner, tracing what he calls the death of the American host. The essay, now heavily discussed online, links the decline of home entertaining to rising loneliness, shrinking social ties and the migration of social life to restaurants, screens and paid experiences rather than the dinner table.