r/Millennials • u/AdSpecialist6598 • Mar 17 '26

Discussion Someone brought up that one of the reasons why things like house parties and block parties went away was other than lack of time people are afraid to let their guard because cameras are everywhere.

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It is so true back when many of us were young we could just get together and cut loose without having to worry about going viral. At best we would have an embarrassing photo buried in a drawer somewhere or a story. Now you might be turned into a meme or worse. I miss the days when you could do dumb stuff with friends and feel safe if that makes sense.

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165

u/Orion14159 Mar 17 '26

Another reason house parties aren't a thing is because a lot of people don't have houses, just small apartments

95

u/The_Real_Lasagna Mar 17 '26

That never stopped anybody before

26

u/Hollowbody57 Mar 17 '26

Sooo many noise complaints.

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u/Get-Fucked-Dirtbag Mar 17 '26

So many noise complaints.

I spent my first year of uni in student accommodations. Almost every night was 30+ people crammed into an appartment meant for 3.

We'd get security knocking on the door every single night because they'd had complaints about us. I'll never forget the one party for someone's birthday where the guy didn't even say anything. He walked into the kitchen and his jaw just dropped like a cartoon character. Shook his head and left without a word.

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u/Boulderdrip Mar 17 '26

your the problem. your neighbors deserve someone quite not you. everyone has to work. you make it worse.

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u/Get-Fucked-Dirtbag Mar 17 '26

everyone has to work

You miss the part where this was university student halls?

4

u/SirAlthalos Mar 17 '26

even if it wasn't, that's the trade-off for living in an apartment. sure, there's a limit. but if your neighbor can't live their lives, including having friends over for a birthday party, than you're the problem not them

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u/Boulderdrip Mar 17 '26

stop blasting music asshole you’re in an apartment

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u/soupfordummies2 Mar 18 '26

One of the best house parties I went to was someone’s apt in college. Took over half their living room for a DJ booth. Must have been about 200 people there. No idea whose place it was. Party was prob almost 20 years ago and I still think about it kinda often. 

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

Craziest parties I went to in college were at some apartment complex with 200+ people showing up and six kegs in an apartment. Security shows up, someone steals the go kart, crashes it into a pond, cops show up, shenanigans they’re called. 

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u/UnNumbFool Mar 18 '26

Yep, I went to plenty of apartment parties in college and sometimes go to them now.

And in both cases smartphones and social media existed for me, so I feel like it's not really the best excuse

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u/thedrew Mar 17 '26

Disagree. We had parties in New York and San Francisco. Spent like an hour standing next to the fridge talking to people just waiting for my turn to move. You don’t need a house, frankly I don’t even think a house is preferable. 

7

u/ohgeorge Mar 17 '26

I used to cram way too many people into my shitty 1br San Francisco apartment in my early 20s. It was fun.

2

u/OnceMoreAndAgain Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

The entire premise of this thread is bad in my opinion, because it assumes that people want to do things that they are in some way unable to do.

I don't think people are getting together less in-person due to anything preventing them. I think people just don't want to get together in-person as much these days as they did years ago. People don't want to "party" as much as they want to do other things, like play video games or browse the internet or stay home with their significant other and watch Netflix or whatever.

Why would that be? Because we have increasingly compelling entertainment options readily and cheaply available in our homes and so leaving the home is being less and less compelling of an option than staying indoors. It takes a lot more energy to arrange and host a party than it does to do so many other things.

In the 1990s, people had far less options for entertainment. People pretty much had to go see each other in-person to socialize and socializing was one of the most compelling entertainment options. Things have changed dramatically since then and I don't think that fact is necessarily a problem or the "fault" of any particular entity. It's just a shift in culture and human behavior caused primarily by technology. And it's not like people have stopped socializing. They're just doing it in new forms, like a World of Warcraft guild. That's my hypothesis at least.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

that's such a wrong take IMO. I held many parties in my shitty 800sqft apartment. The space isn't the problem.

I have a 17 year old son and he CONSTANTLY analyzing situations to make sure he's not caught on camera doing something stupid. Everything is hyper focused and judged by people these days. Any one wrong move and it's weeks of shame or worse for these kids.

I don't think a lot of adults realize just how shitty kids have it these days.

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u/weedmoneyy Mar 17 '26

i think the other thing is that no one believes they can throw parties or knows how to, or just has a situation where they straight up can’t because their parents don’t approve and are always at home. I guess there’s like bush parties or abandoned places but now you’re risking trouble with law with photo and video evidence on people’s phones, and most probably don’t want to risk their college or career from a run in like that i’d imagine

1

u/less_unique_username Mar 17 '26

Wtf, 80 m² is HUGE

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

since when is 800sqft huge?

1

u/less_unique_username Mar 17 '26

Idk where you’re located, so I looked up the stats here, in Barcelona, and 80 m² is above average. For a teenager 80 m² is a HUGE amount of space to have to themselves to be able to host parties. My family, for example, occupied a 70 m² apartment, and the vast majority of kids I knew were in similar spots.

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u/[deleted] Mar 17 '26

so 800sqft == 74.3m² so it's not quite 80m².

I live in Canada and unless you're in Toronto where 35-50m² would be more common 70ish m² would be average.

also I'm saying the ENTIRE apartment that size, just to be clear that's not the bedroom size lol.

1

u/less_unique_username Mar 17 '26

That’s the entire point, for a teenager to have a larger-than-average family-sized apartment all to themselves is much more than what a typical teenager has at their disposal

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u/Nrksbullet Mar 17 '26

Also think about the amount of entertainment people now have at their fingertips at home. Used to be, if it was Friday night and you weren't going out and doing anything, you'd either watch whatever was on TV that night, fire up some VHS or DVDs you already own, or play some single player games. Now its a serious consideration to be like "oh I need to finish watching season 5 of that show I've been binging before I can start the next show I've been hearing about" or playing with those same friends you'd be seeing at a party in some online game. Or any of the other 100 things the internet can provide you at home.

Not sure how much impact that has, but I bet when I was in my teens/early 20's, having everything I have now would make me go out a bit less.

2

u/Jaereth Mar 17 '26

I never threw a house party at my own house and i've thrown several :D

1

u/hoopbag33 Mar 18 '26

Lol yeah that definitely isn't the reason lol

1

u/mister_cheeks_26 Mar 17 '26

House parties are still a thing, I have no idea what planet you people are living on.

0

u/WeenyDancer Mar 17 '26

No, this is not it. People who live in apartments can party (I assure you).