RIP Dinner Parties

Those evil millennials strike again!

Millennials are well known for killing all sorts of industries. Their latest victim? Dinner parties. That’s right: dinner parties. Apparently, heirloom china, antiques, and other fancy hand-me-downs just don’t quite work for those born between 1980 and 1997. There’s a variety of reasons that the dinner party is out and the friendly get together is in. No preparing a week in advance, no deciding who is going to sit next to who and no creating a tablescape to create a moment or buy expensive food. A friendly get together can be as easy as delivered pizza. Welcome to the I-cant-be-bothered generation.

Millennials Don’t Have the Space

One of the major reasons that dinner parties are out is a simple a matter of square footage. Having friends over for a real dinner party made sense when there was a sizable eat-in kitchen or even a dining room. But with younger people occupying smaller spaces where eat-in kitchens are small and a formal dining room is non-existent, there’s just no room to entertain like the old days. And let’s also face it: dinner parties are for people of a certain socio-economic status and millennials are quite a bit poorer than their parents at the same age. The space is also the reason millennials aren’t going after the antiques and China. Who has room to store those things? I just inherited a set and I put in the most out of reach cabinet I can find.

Money….Again

It’s not surprising that the poorer generation isn’t spending money on something as non-essential as a dinner party. This is the same thing that is killing shopping, casual dining, napkins, and other such products that are simply superfluous to millennials who are minding the cash that they just don’t have. They can’t afford a larger space, they can’t afford to show off class status that they don’t have and they can’t afford the space to store special dishes and other such things that would enable them to entertain as their parents might have.

Why Dine When You Can Whatsapp?

Another reason a dinner party was a great thing was to catch up with people you might not have seen in awhile. Now with modern technology, catching up with people is far easier than before. Rather than gathering people you haven’t seen in a while, its faster to just send a message on a messaging app. The world is more connected than ever before and that means that the dinner party is out and the messaging app is in.

Millennials Have No Time

The average American workweek is 47 hours. In a couple, both people are working. This means there is limited time for cooking, much less preparing a party like parents and grandparents did. When women go to work, there is no time to also be an amazing housewife. House wifery is a lot of work and for the modern, working woman, she has no time. On the upper end of the income brackets, millennials are long-hour working professionals answering emails and slack chats until late. On the bottom end, they are struggling along and trying to handle housing costs, children, and multiple unpredictable jobs. Who has time to host a dinner party? If you even have time to get together with friends, the last thing anyone wants to do is cook a big meal. Better to just have a potluck or grab take-out.

The Spectre of Millennial Death

One thing is very clear, millennials are killing everything that doesn’t serve a certain lifestyle that they’ve cultivated. The modern millennial is cash-strapped, time-starved, and looking to maximize every moment and every dollar. Excess and unnecessary trappings of pretend luxury or pretend wealth doesn’t interest my generation. We’re being honest and authentic. We’re doing what works and is practical rather than trying to be something we are not. If we’re going to spend scant dollars on eating out, the food had better be good, napkins aren’t needed, and there’s no need to host a dinner party when a simple get together will do just fine for us.