Dec. 31, 2025
America's NYE Plans: Netflix & Chill ... or TikTok & Scroll
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RSS Feed What are you doing New Year's? Apparently ... nothing. Amy and T. J. were floored to learn that TWO THIRDS of Americans don't plan to party at all on NYE, and a lot of them plan to spend the evening alone, specifically saying Netflix and social media scrolling were on the agenda.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is December thirty, first New Year's Eve, and don't worry if you plan on being alone tonight, you won't be alone. Welcome to this episode of Amy and t J Rowls. Is this one of those things where it feels like you feel obligator or you feel like a down or a loser, or you have fomo because you don't have some big party to go to on New.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Year's e It's supposed to be a big celebratory night for everybody. Yeah.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: I think that that's a reasonable and probably shared experienced by a lot of folks. You feel pressure to have fun, you feel pressure to be social, you feel pressure to have the best night of your life. Yeah, and that's sometimes it's so overwhelming, that pressure that people just they just opt out because it's too much. They can't live up to expectations.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't hell that. It certainly seems like around you everybody's got something to do. There's a party, and they're talking about it. You turn on TV, certainly you see people everybody's talking about us Eve celebrations. And then you're home alone and am I supposed to be doing that? Am I supposed to do I have a party to go to. I've spent more money than I've wanted to do on New Year's Eve before, just because the last minute pressure, though I guess I gotta do something and didn't want to do at all.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: I get that.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: In fact, I will say some of my favorite moments of New Year's Eve in the past, I ended up typically throwing a lot of parties because that way, at least I knew who was going to be there and there could be a controlled environment, so to speak. But some of my favorite New Year's Eves have been working because I got to be a part of things as a journalist, but I didn't actually have any of the expectations where I had to have certain friends here, I had to drink this or I had to do that.
00:01:48
Speaker 4: I was working.
00:01:49
Speaker 3: I got to be around it, but I didn't have to actually technically participate in it.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: You were.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: It was provided for you, of course, and that thing was provided with a lot of people tonight looking for things and have plans and might not realize overwhelmingly if you're not doing anything tonight and plan on not doing anything tonight and don't plan on going to a party. The majority of Americans are with you. The majority of Americans, according to at least one of the most recent surveys that's out there, show that robes at least sixty five percent of people do not plan to celebrate at all tonight. They're either gonna be a sleep by midnight, they're gonna be watching Netflix, or they're gonna be scrolling TikTok.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: That was shocking to me.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: I know that it's there's definitely a large percentage of people who might opt out from the parties, but hearing that two thirds of Americans will not celebrate the evening at all, I don't know why. Maybe it shouldn't, but it makes me sad.
00:02:53
Speaker 1: I mean, well, some of the details and here it will start to make sense to people as well, because it's stuff we've been talking about in this country for years, tied to social media and this we were just the loneliness effect.
00:03:03
Speaker 2: What was the one?
00:03:04
Speaker 1: We were just talking loneliness epidemic, epidemic that we're having and some people opting for it but also not knowing even how to be social anymore. But some of this survey we saw explained came to us from a group called Sunny Workplace. Now they have an app that's focused on trying to fight this epidemic of loneliness. And they used the company that did this survey three thousand Americans. That's not a small survey. Is where we're getting these answers. The question was asked, period point blank, how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The numbers break down this way. Rom Thirty five percent said at home watching Netflix or some other streaming service like that was a specific answer. They gave thirty five percent home watching Netflix.
00:03:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't say watching the New Year's Eve celebration, watching the ball drop, watching rocking New Year's Eve. No, they say literally watching a movie, a streaming service of some kind, not participating, ignoring any of.
00:04:01
Speaker 4: The celebratory moments or events that are happening around the world.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: So the second most popular answer, well, twenty four percent, when asked the question how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? Said at a New Year's Eve party. So a quarter of Americans plan to actually celebrate and to have or throw or go out to a party. That seeing you're sugar, Yeah, that seems low to you.
00:04:20
Speaker 4: That seems so low to me.
00:04:21
Speaker 3: I thought maybe it'd be more like forty percent, maybe even fifty percent.
00:04:26
Speaker 4: But that's I don't know.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: I guess I'm taking what my preferences and assuming that more people would be of like mind, and I'm massively wrong.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: But it seems like everybody's partying. When you turn on the television, it does. Does billion people in Times Square? See Eara's out there doing her thing in Los Angeles. You have to have Lucy Hale down in New Orleans, right, we see these parties on TV. Everybody's out, everybody's partying. I will tell you now that I think about it. When I grew up, my parents weren't doing New Year's celebrations. It might be a thing that really, so many people in the country are home with family, But some of the these answers seemed to suggest something different. This doesn't sound like and they're I was saying this was all singles. But I guess do families really parents go out and leave.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: The kids at home.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: I have memories, but I was always with like cousins. We were usually somewhere for the holidays around my grandparents. So I remember early on sometimes my parents going out with their siblings and we cousins would be at home with the grandparents and we'd get little hats and little horns and that kind of thing. But as a family, I remember my parents definitely going out, so I think maybe that was I was imprinted I saw them going out. I remember being a kid being excited seeing my mom put on a dress and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, and watching them go out in a date night. And they didn't do it often, so it was exciting to me to see them do that. I remember thinking about how fun it was going to be and how cool it was going to be. When I was a certain age forty eight.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: I still never seen mamma get dressed up.
00:05:57
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. The question how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The third most popular answer twenty percent said a sleep by midnight.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: That would not kind of get.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: Oh, that makes when you're not even acknowledging the new year, you're just sleeping.
00:06:11
Speaker 1: I did.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: I'm going to sleep tonight and tomorrow.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: It'll be you only sleep four to five hours a night, but you're gonna sleep through midnight.
00:06:18
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going to.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: But I get how people would just what's the big deal? This isn't my thing?
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Right?
00:06:24
Speaker 1: I equated to what would it be for you? Not not Halloween? Maybe Halloween's not so popular, but that's a night that people like to go out and get dressed up. It's a big thing, certainly here in New York.
00:06:36
Speaker 4: You know what, I don't like Santa Con. There's the one time where it's.
00:06:39
Speaker 1: Not okay, you're muddying the waters. Now, let me get back on track. The how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The fourth most popular answer was ten percent saying they want to scroll social media. That's okay, that might be the one I would shake my head out and say, that's that's unfortunate to hear.
00:07:00
Speaker 3: That actually breaks my heart because that means they want to be adjacent. They want to see what other people are doing, but for whatever reason, they don't have plans and the fact that they're planning to scroll social media that they actually were able to answer saying this is what I'm going to do. It's not a default, or I don't have anything else to do, so maybe I'll just check this out.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: They actually have an intention.
00:07:22
Speaker 3: I will be scrolling social media to celebrate or to bring in the new year. That breaks my heart because that's about not participating.
00:07:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we do? I mean, it's look, this is the group to put this out? Does focus on loneliness. I mean, I guess so many people would say, Hey, this is what I want to do. What's the big deal? There's nothing unfortunate or sad. Why don't I have to be a part of that thing or that thing? Why are you putting pressure on me to be a part of this whatever it is. I'm sure truly plenty of folks out there like, what's the big deal? I just don't want to go out? And then there is a part of the argument and the debates that will continue for youes, is that social media is doing something to us and sending us the wrong direction. And even on the most social, actual social of events that we kind of have, people don't want to be a part of it.
00:08:17
Speaker 4: People don't want to be a part of it.
00:08:19
Speaker 3: I agree with that, and that's of course everyone's right. But I guess it's one of those things I tell my kids that I know is annoying. You don't know what you don't know, And I think if you've grown up knowing, you can just.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Feel less alone and feel.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: Connected by looking at other people on social media, maybe you're texting them, maybe you're commenting whatever. So you feel like you're a part of things, but you're missing out on actual human physical connection, and there is something so valuable to that.
00:08:48
Speaker 4: That is lifeblood.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: Babies can't survive if they aren't held in touch and interacted with. As as teenagers, as young adults, as older adults, we all still need that, and I think we dismiss our need for that, we dismiss the actual sustenance that that gives us that's a part of human existence, by thinking we're kind of doing it. We're not putting ourselves at risk, we're not putting ourselves out there. We're not. I think it's scary to go out maybe sometimes and face potential rejection or feeling like maybe you're not a part of things as much as you'd like to be. So you just withdraw from it all and say, well, I've got this one little thing in my hand and I'll feel slightly connected. But it's sad because you miss out on what life is all about.
00:09:33
Speaker 4: Human connection.
00:09:36
Speaker 1: You know, some of the quotes, I'm going to save a few, and maybe the biggest one that they put out from the scientists, they use and some of the people affiliated with the group that put this out, But I wanted to jump into one of them because you just made me think of it. New Year's Eve used to bring us together. Now it just brings us back to the algorithm.
00:09:57
Speaker 2: Now.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: I know it's kind of a catchy thing in the way they phrased it, but that is true something that used to you. If you are something that used to be so communal and fun and an opportunity to be social that you might not have the rest of the year. We're opting for something else that like, we prefer it.
00:10:16
Speaker 4: It's safer, babe.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: You're not gonna be rejected, You're not gonna have a bad night, no one's gonna say something to you you didn't like. No, you're you're you're literally withdrawing to protect yourself. I mean, that is kind of the mindset. I would imagine that there's something about that, and your drops is crazy.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: I know our kids when they go into a room and the doors closed and they're on the phone for so long we've gone and forced like nope.
00:10:39
Speaker 2: Come out, Yeah you have to.
00:10:42
Speaker 1: But to think, I don't know how that isn't depressing to sit in a room alone all day, thinking you're socially interacting and you ain't seen a human being all day. Yeah, that's so. Who knows how this is going to go for a lot of people tonight. But it was surprising to Sea spec thickly that folks were naming social media now men versus women. I guess that's a fairly significant statistical gift. It is twenty seven versus twenty.
00:11:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty seven percent of men say they're going to go out tonight, but only twenty percent of women say they're going to go out tonight. That is interesting to me. I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have thought it was the opposite.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, guys gonna be disappointed tonight.
00:11:23
Speaker 4: Well, actually, women, did you hear that you might want to go out?
00:11:26
Speaker 3: There's a big disparity between men versus women.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: That doesn't happen often. This could be your lady's night if you like it's good.
00:11:35
Speaker 1: The other thing here, I guess maybe not a surprise either. Which generation was the biggest partying generation? And given that your girls sit plainly squarely in this generation, we get it.
00:11:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, gen Z thirty six percent of Gen z Ers or Zoomers plan to go out to a party tonight. And that makes that does make a lot of sense. That's the age. You've got folks who are in your late teens or I guess mid teens, all the way to your late twenties. And yes, that does tend to be the party decade. But see, I've my party decade has continued. I what I do like a party. I do like socially interacting and I do I feel fueled by it.
00:12:16
Speaker 4: But I know some people feel oppressed by it.
00:12:19
Speaker 3: Sometimes it is overwhelming, and some of these larger gatherings can be a lot I get that.
00:12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just not you know how we are. If I had my choice on New Year's e if I would not be going out to a party. I want a nice dinner out somewhere, maybe, but I don't want to be in the middle of a whole bunch of stuff. And lord knows, I don't want to be in a position to have to interact socially with strangers, with strangers and sometimes even with people. No, no, no, not that. But I'm saying, you know what parties feel like. I have an obligation to entertain too often. You know I would I will sit in the corner with a drink by myself and just looking at the room. I love that party, but what always happens Folks come over.
00:13:09
Speaker 4: They want to talk to you. Yes, that's part of it.
00:13:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I you know what, Maybe I would have said I want to scroll social media.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: You would not.
00:13:18
Speaker 4: I've never seen you scroll social media.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Well, folks, stay here.
00:13:22
Speaker 1: I mentioned the quotes that came along with it, and some of these quotes that came along with the survey from some of the doctors, the psychologists who have been looking at this stuff. We're so poignant and hard hitting. We wrote down a few that we absolutely want to share, and please we want you to take these with you on this New Year's Eve.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Stay here. We'll share when we come back.
00:13:50
Speaker 1: We continue here on Amy and TJ talking about what's some of So many of you apparently planned to do tonight. Sixty five percent, according to this survey, do not planned to be at a party at all. Most just planned to be at home streaming something. Others planned to be on social media. Others planned to be a sleep at that time, But those were the majority of the answers. Robe, you just reminded me of something in the break there I told you about it earlier, just a funny little story.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: Excuse me.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: A little question that they threw in there about if you prefer to go out to a New Year's party or prefer to go to a dentist. You would think the number was lower, but one in four actually said they would they would rather go to the dentists than go to a to New Year's Eve party.
00:14:36
Speaker 3: So that's that's twenty five percent of Americans would rather go to the dentist than attend a New Year's Eve party. You think that people were saying that to be haha, funny, funny, or they really meant that, because there was actually a follow up to that. One in five, that is twenty percent said they would rather get a root canal.
00:14:51
Speaker 4: I'm not believing that.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: I've had two. I'll go to any party you want me to go to.
00:14:58
Speaker 3: Maybe people who said that I haven't actually had a root canal before. OK, that makes more sense, but it is I get that. It is a point they're making. They'd rather be in an uncomfortable setting at the dentist office, whatever however you want to put that, rather than be in a they would say, I guess more uncomfortable situation of being in a public party or a public space.
00:15:19
Speaker 4: That's that's telling.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:15:21
Speaker 1: You know, one last question for you, would you prefer a party in your own home or going out to one.
00:15:25
Speaker 3: I would prefer a party in my own home because going out to one. Look, I'm at a certain age. I think when I was younger, I would have absolutely said I'd rather go out out. But you get to a point where, yeah, it's like boo, I've never been a club person. Loud music, the drinks aren't are weak or bad, the service is terrible. You get a lot of drunk people. It can get annoying. I understand that. But if you're in your own home, you're managing what you're serving and who is attending. There's a little bit of control there, and I appreciate that. The music's what we want, the temperatures what we want, the drinks or what we want. Yeah, I prefer a home party.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: All right.
00:16:00
Speaker 1: So the last few things we want to share with you are a few quotes that came with this survey, and I think they summed it up in ways that just makes sense. They did talk about America's party deficit. They said that the numbers have been going down in terms of people in the country who just regularly attend some type of event over a weekend. Just in the country, we're just not partying as much as we used to. I guess maybe social media has something to do with that.
00:16:27
Speaker 4: I wonder if the pandemic had anything to do with that too.
00:16:29
Speaker 1: I didn't see when the numbers started decreasing, but maybe it did have something to do with that. But just two quotes here, I'll save the best one for last, but one here saying we're evolving from primates to screen mammals and New Year's Eve shows it most starkly, this idea that we're doing it anyway. We're right, we used to be so we can't stand to be away from each other and now we're becoming these screen animals now. And I guess just at a time like this they're saying, it shows up in the most stark ways.
00:17:03
Speaker 3: You know, and I think about when you I'm sure there are plenty of studies that are being done and have been done about communities where there aren't or there isn't the technology that we have here in some more modernized Western civilizations where everyone's on their phones walking down the street, with their phones. You can't even do anything without seeing somebody multitasking while looking at a screen. I mean, it's really sad, but you think about some of the happiest cultures. It's people who have little who don't have phones in their hands, who have neighbors they can run to, who have street parties and block parties and feel this sense of community and a part of something. It's just it's we're getting so far away from what we used to be. I hope that there's some point at which we can all wake up. Literally, I think we need to wake up and look up and look eat each other in the eyes. How many people are can't even make eye contact anymore, especially younger folks, because they don't know how to do it.
00:17:59
Speaker 4: They only know how to look a screen.
00:18:00
Speaker 1: That line, we don't know how to be social and it we actually don't know what to do in social settings. And the one we're gonna leave you here, and this was the one I think wrote. We planned to do this story and putting it in our morning run this morning, and we hit on it briefly, but I thought it would just be a fun little thing. Here's some nuggets about what people are doing and I say, wait a minute, this is sad like. It hit me differently, And this was the line that got to me from the article.
00:18:24
Speaker 2: Again, one from one.
00:18:25
Speaker 1: Of the psychologists who were part of this said quote, America isn't just losing its appetite for parties, it's losing its social muscle. Think about that. Are we really raising a group of kids that doesn't don't know how to interact?
00:18:42
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, is the answer.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: I don't know how to I remembering in elementary school. So they brought some guy in. Don't know who he is, but he taught us how to shake a hand. He taught in elementary school. This is how you shake someone's hand, man or woman. You squeeze it with the same strength. I'm sitting here forty eight. Remember that from elementary school, being taught how to be social.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: Now, look our jobs.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: We have to be out there where people are built differently, but we are, and we have to admit are seeing a whole new thing developed in all of us that has us so attached and looking for interaction and affirmation, validation through a stranger on a screen, and there's a family member in the next room, there's a friend down the street that We don't even think, yeah, let me pick up the phone and call, let me walk down the street and say hello, let me go out and to the living room and maybe sit with my We don't think about it, and it's just they do.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: They say.
00:19:43
Speaker 1: Now it's showing up in the starkest ways because it's New Year's I'm thinking, oh, it's party time. And actually a lot of people are thinking not at all.
00:19:50
Speaker 4: It's sleepy time. But I do think that it's this.
00:19:53
Speaker 3: The information like this is important because we can see it in real numbers and actually be more inten about how we choose to spend our time and know that our kids are watching us. Look my daughters, you heard them. They have gotten on to me like, Mom, you're distracted. You're on your phone. If I'm doing that, how can I ask them not to? So I'm trying to make a point to put the phone down, to take less pictures. I mean, I always love that, but to enjoy more and to I know you're a big like it's in your mind, but I was like, no, but I just want one photo.
00:20:22
Speaker 4: I have reduced massively the.
00:20:24
Speaker 3: Amount because if you're even if you're taking pictures or you're taking videos, You're still not there in the moment.
00:20:30
Speaker 4: So I have tried to reduce that.
00:20:31
Speaker 3: I have tried to be intentional because we need to set the example for our kids to say, hey, and we have the memory, at least we know what it was like before all of this technology. We know what it was like to run down the street and knock on your neighbor's door and say, hey, can can Jimmy come out and play? Like we have all of those memories. Our kids don't have any of that, so it's on us to really show them how to. You can party at home, you can party as a family. You can get the hats and the glasses and watch the ball drop, and that can be just as special and fun. But it's about being together and being communal. However that looks. But putting the bones down, that would be wonderful.
00:21:09
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we certainly wish you a happy New Year, wherever you may be, whoever you may be, with the night or not, with hope you enjoy your night and maybe a good night for somebody tonight is getting a good night's sleep, and that's okay, and that's good enough. But don't let any survey, don't let any two podcasters or anybody else tell you that what you're doing tonight is the right or the wrong thing.
00:21:34
Speaker 2: Is your New year spending how you want to. But also don't let anybody make you feel guilty either if you.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: Don't have a red velvet jacket and a sparkly green dress on tonight. All right, So with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm DJ Holmes on behalf of My daremmy robot.
00:21:52
Speaker 2: Talk to you. E'll soon
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks, it is December thirty, first New Year's Eve, and don't worry if you plan on being alone tonight, you won't be alone. Welcome to this episode of Amy and t J Rowls. Is this one of those things where it feels like you feel obligator or you feel like a down or a loser, or you have fomo because you don't have some big party to go to on New.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: Year's e It's supposed to be a big celebratory night for everybody. Yeah.
00:00:27
Speaker 3: I think that that's a reasonable and probably shared experienced by a lot of folks. You feel pressure to have fun, you feel pressure to be social, you feel pressure to have the best night of your life. Yeah, and that's sometimes it's so overwhelming, that pressure that people just they just opt out because it's too much. They can't live up to expectations.
00:00:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it doesn't hell that. It certainly seems like around you everybody's got something to do. There's a party, and they're talking about it. You turn on TV, certainly you see people everybody's talking about us Eve celebrations. And then you're home alone and am I supposed to be doing that? Am I supposed to do I have a party to go to. I've spent more money than I've wanted to do on New Year's Eve before, just because the last minute pressure, though I guess I gotta do something and didn't want to do at all.
00:01:21
Speaker 4: I get that.
00:01:21
Speaker 3: In fact, I will say some of my favorite moments of New Year's Eve in the past, I ended up typically throwing a lot of parties because that way, at least I knew who was going to be there and there could be a controlled environment, so to speak. But some of my favorite New Year's Eves have been working because I got to be a part of things as a journalist, but I didn't actually have any of the expectations where I had to have certain friends here, I had to drink this or I had to do that.
00:01:48
Speaker 4: I was working.
00:01:49
Speaker 3: I got to be around it, but I didn't have to actually technically participate in it.
00:01:54
Speaker 2: You were.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: It was provided for you, of course, and that thing was provided with a lot of people tonight looking for things and have plans and might not realize overwhelmingly if you're not doing anything tonight and plan on not doing anything tonight and don't plan on going to a party. The majority of Americans are with you. The majority of Americans, according to at least one of the most recent surveys that's out there, show that robes at least sixty five percent of people do not plan to celebrate at all tonight. They're either gonna be a sleep by midnight, they're gonna be watching Netflix, or they're gonna be scrolling TikTok.
00:02:34
Speaker 4: That was shocking to me.
00:02:36
Speaker 3: I know that it's there's definitely a large percentage of people who might opt out from the parties, but hearing that two thirds of Americans will not celebrate the evening at all, I don't know why. Maybe it shouldn't, but it makes me sad.
00:02:53
Speaker 1: I mean, well, some of the details and here it will start to make sense to people as well, because it's stuff we've been talking about in this country for years, tied to social media and this we were just the loneliness effect.
00:03:03
Speaker 2: What was the one?
00:03:04
Speaker 1: We were just talking loneliness epidemic, epidemic that we're having and some people opting for it but also not knowing even how to be social anymore. But some of this survey we saw explained came to us from a group called Sunny Workplace. Now they have an app that's focused on trying to fight this epidemic of loneliness. And they used the company that did this survey three thousand Americans. That's not a small survey. Is where we're getting these answers. The question was asked, period point blank, how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The numbers break down this way. Rom Thirty five percent said at home watching Netflix or some other streaming service like that was a specific answer. They gave thirty five percent home watching Netflix.
00:03:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, they didn't say watching the New Year's Eve celebration, watching the ball drop, watching rocking New Year's Eve. No, they say literally watching a movie, a streaming service of some kind, not participating, ignoring any of.
00:04:01
Speaker 4: The celebratory moments or events that are happening around the world.
00:04:04
Speaker 1: So the second most popular answer, well, twenty four percent, when asked the question how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? Said at a New Year's Eve party. So a quarter of Americans plan to actually celebrate and to have or throw or go out to a party. That seeing you're sugar, Yeah, that seems low to you.
00:04:20
Speaker 4: That seems so low to me.
00:04:21
Speaker 3: I thought maybe it'd be more like forty percent, maybe even fifty percent.
00:04:26
Speaker 4: But that's I don't know.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: I guess I'm taking what my preferences and assuming that more people would be of like mind, and I'm massively wrong.
00:04:35
Speaker 1: But it seems like everybody's partying. When you turn on the television, it does. Does billion people in Times Square? See Eara's out there doing her thing in Los Angeles. You have to have Lucy Hale down in New Orleans, right, we see these parties on TV. Everybody's out, everybody's partying. I will tell you now that I think about it. When I grew up, my parents weren't doing New Year's celebrations. It might be a thing that really, so many people in the country are home with family, But some of the these answers seemed to suggest something different. This doesn't sound like and they're I was saying this was all singles. But I guess do families really parents go out and leave.
00:05:10
Speaker 2: The kids at home.
00:05:11
Speaker 3: I have memories, but I was always with like cousins. We were usually somewhere for the holidays around my grandparents. So I remember early on sometimes my parents going out with their siblings and we cousins would be at home with the grandparents and we'd get little hats and little horns and that kind of thing. But as a family, I remember my parents definitely going out, so I think maybe that was I was imprinted I saw them going out. I remember being a kid being excited seeing my mom put on a dress and thinking it was the coolest thing ever, and watching them go out in a date night. And they didn't do it often, so it was exciting to me to see them do that. I remember thinking about how fun it was going to be and how cool it was going to be. When I was a certain age forty eight.
00:05:53
Speaker 2: I still never seen mamma get dressed up.
00:05:57
Speaker 1: Okay, okay. The question how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The third most popular answer twenty percent said a sleep by midnight.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: That would not kind of get.
00:06:06
Speaker 3: Oh, that makes when you're not even acknowledging the new year, you're just sleeping.
00:06:11
Speaker 1: I did.
00:06:11
Speaker 2: I'm going to sleep tonight and tomorrow.
00:06:13
Speaker 3: It'll be you only sleep four to five hours a night, but you're gonna sleep through midnight.
00:06:18
Speaker 2: No, I'm not going to.
00:06:19
Speaker 1: But I get how people would just what's the big deal? This isn't my thing?
00:06:24
Speaker 2: Right?
00:06:24
Speaker 1: I equated to what would it be for you? Not not Halloween? Maybe Halloween's not so popular, but that's a night that people like to go out and get dressed up. It's a big thing, certainly here in New York.
00:06:36
Speaker 4: You know what, I don't like Santa Con. There's the one time where it's.
00:06:39
Speaker 1: Not okay, you're muddying the waters. Now, let me get back on track. The how do you prefer to spend New Year's Eve? The fourth most popular answer was ten percent saying they want to scroll social media. That's okay, that might be the one I would shake my head out and say, that's that's unfortunate to hear.
00:07:00
Speaker 3: That actually breaks my heart because that means they want to be adjacent. They want to see what other people are doing, but for whatever reason, they don't have plans and the fact that they're planning to scroll social media that they actually were able to answer saying this is what I'm going to do. It's not a default, or I don't have anything else to do, so maybe I'll just check this out.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: They actually have an intention.
00:07:22
Speaker 3: I will be scrolling social media to celebrate or to bring in the new year. That breaks my heart because that's about not participating.
00:07:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do we do? I mean, it's look, this is the group to put this out? Does focus on loneliness. I mean, I guess so many people would say, Hey, this is what I want to do. What's the big deal? There's nothing unfortunate or sad. Why don't I have to be a part of that thing or that thing? Why are you putting pressure on me to be a part of this whatever it is. I'm sure truly plenty of folks out there like, what's the big deal? I just don't want to go out? And then there is a part of the argument and the debates that will continue for youes, is that social media is doing something to us and sending us the wrong direction. And even on the most social, actual social of events that we kind of have, people don't want to be a part of it.
00:08:17
Speaker 4: People don't want to be a part of it.
00:08:19
Speaker 3: I agree with that, and that's of course everyone's right. But I guess it's one of those things I tell my kids that I know is annoying. You don't know what you don't know, And I think if you've grown up knowing, you can just.
00:08:32
Speaker 4: Feel less alone and feel.
00:08:34
Speaker 3: Connected by looking at other people on social media, maybe you're texting them, maybe you're commenting whatever. So you feel like you're a part of things, but you're missing out on actual human physical connection, and there is something so valuable to that.
00:08:48
Speaker 4: That is lifeblood.
00:08:50
Speaker 3: Babies can't survive if they aren't held in touch and interacted with. As as teenagers, as young adults, as older adults, we all still need that, and I think we dismiss our need for that, we dismiss the actual sustenance that that gives us that's a part of human existence, by thinking we're kind of doing it. We're not putting ourselves at risk, we're not putting ourselves out there. We're not. I think it's scary to go out maybe sometimes and face potential rejection or feeling like maybe you're not a part of things as much as you'd like to be. So you just withdraw from it all and say, well, I've got this one little thing in my hand and I'll feel slightly connected. But it's sad because you miss out on what life is all about.
00:09:33
Speaker 4: Human connection.
00:09:36
Speaker 1: You know, some of the quotes, I'm going to save a few, and maybe the biggest one that they put out from the scientists, they use and some of the people affiliated with the group that put this out, But I wanted to jump into one of them because you just made me think of it. New Year's Eve used to bring us together. Now it just brings us back to the algorithm.
00:09:57
Speaker 2: Now.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: I know it's kind of a catchy thing in the way they phrased it, but that is true something that used to you. If you are something that used to be so communal and fun and an opportunity to be social that you might not have the rest of the year. We're opting for something else that like, we prefer it.
00:10:16
Speaker 4: It's safer, babe.
00:10:18
Speaker 3: You're not gonna be rejected, You're not gonna have a bad night, no one's gonna say something to you you didn't like. No, you're you're you're literally withdrawing to protect yourself. I mean, that is kind of the mindset. I would imagine that there's something about that, and your drops is crazy.
00:10:32
Speaker 1: I know our kids when they go into a room and the doors closed and they're on the phone for so long we've gone and forced like nope.
00:10:39
Speaker 2: Come out, Yeah you have to.
00:10:42
Speaker 1: But to think, I don't know how that isn't depressing to sit in a room alone all day, thinking you're socially interacting and you ain't seen a human being all day. Yeah, that's so. Who knows how this is going to go for a lot of people tonight. But it was surprising to Sea spec thickly that folks were naming social media now men versus women. I guess that's a fairly significant statistical gift. It is twenty seven versus twenty.
00:11:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, twenty seven percent of men say they're going to go out tonight, but only twenty percent of women say they're going to go out tonight. That is interesting to me. I wouldn't have guessed that. I would have thought it was the opposite.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, guys gonna be disappointed tonight.
00:11:23
Speaker 4: Well, actually, women, did you hear that you might want to go out?
00:11:26
Speaker 3: There's a big disparity between men versus women.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: That doesn't happen often. This could be your lady's night if you like it's good.
00:11:35
Speaker 1: The other thing here, I guess maybe not a surprise either. Which generation was the biggest partying generation? And given that your girls sit plainly squarely in this generation, we get it.
00:11:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, gen Z thirty six percent of Gen z Ers or Zoomers plan to go out to a party tonight. And that makes that does make a lot of sense. That's the age. You've got folks who are in your late teens or I guess mid teens, all the way to your late twenties. And yes, that does tend to be the party decade. But see, I've my party decade has continued. I what I do like a party. I do like socially interacting and I do I feel fueled by it.
00:12:16
Speaker 4: But I know some people feel oppressed by it.
00:12:19
Speaker 3: Sometimes it is overwhelming, and some of these larger gatherings can be a lot I get that.
00:12:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just not you know how we are. If I had my choice on New Year's e if I would not be going out to a party. I want a nice dinner out somewhere, maybe, but I don't want to be in the middle of a whole bunch of stuff. And lord knows, I don't want to be in a position to have to interact socially with strangers, with strangers and sometimes even with people. No, no, no, not that. But I'm saying, you know what parties feel like. I have an obligation to entertain too often. You know I would I will sit in the corner with a drink by myself and just looking at the room. I love that party, but what always happens Folks come over.
00:13:09
Speaker 4: They want to talk to you. Yes, that's part of it.
00:13:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I you know what, Maybe I would have said I want to scroll social media.
00:13:17
Speaker 3: You would not.
00:13:18
Speaker 4: I've never seen you scroll social media.
00:13:21
Speaker 2: Well, folks, stay here.
00:13:22
Speaker 1: I mentioned the quotes that came along with it, and some of these quotes that came along with the survey from some of the doctors, the psychologists who have been looking at this stuff. We're so poignant and hard hitting. We wrote down a few that we absolutely want to share, and please we want you to take these with you on this New Year's Eve.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Stay here. We'll share when we come back.
00:13:50
Speaker 1: We continue here on Amy and TJ talking about what's some of So many of you apparently planned to do tonight. Sixty five percent, according to this survey, do not planned to be at a party at all. Most just planned to be at home streaming something. Others planned to be on social media. Others planned to be a sleep at that time, But those were the majority of the answers. Robe, you just reminded me of something in the break there I told you about it earlier, just a funny little story.
00:14:17
Speaker 2: Excuse me.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: A little question that they threw in there about if you prefer to go out to a New Year's party or prefer to go to a dentist. You would think the number was lower, but one in four actually said they would they would rather go to the dentists than go to a to New Year's Eve party.
00:14:36
Speaker 3: So that's that's twenty five percent of Americans would rather go to the dentist than attend a New Year's Eve party. You think that people were saying that to be haha, funny, funny, or they really meant that, because there was actually a follow up to that. One in five, that is twenty percent said they would rather get a root canal.
00:14:51
Speaker 4: I'm not believing that.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: I've had two. I'll go to any party you want me to go to.
00:14:58
Speaker 3: Maybe people who said that I haven't actually had a root canal before. OK, that makes more sense, but it is I get that. It is a point they're making. They'd rather be in an uncomfortable setting at the dentist office, whatever however you want to put that, rather than be in a they would say, I guess more uncomfortable situation of being in a public party or a public space.
00:15:19
Speaker 4: That's that's telling.
00:15:21
Speaker 2: Uh.
00:15:21
Speaker 1: You know, one last question for you, would you prefer a party in your own home or going out to one.
00:15:25
Speaker 3: I would prefer a party in my own home because going out to one. Look, I'm at a certain age. I think when I was younger, I would have absolutely said I'd rather go out out. But you get to a point where, yeah, it's like boo, I've never been a club person. Loud music, the drinks aren't are weak or bad, the service is terrible. You get a lot of drunk people. It can get annoying. I understand that. But if you're in your own home, you're managing what you're serving and who is attending. There's a little bit of control there, and I appreciate that. The music's what we want, the temperatures what we want, the drinks or what we want. Yeah, I prefer a home party.
00:16:00
Speaker 2: All right.
00:16:00
Speaker 1: So the last few things we want to share with you are a few quotes that came with this survey, and I think they summed it up in ways that just makes sense. They did talk about America's party deficit. They said that the numbers have been going down in terms of people in the country who just regularly attend some type of event over a weekend. Just in the country, we're just not partying as much as we used to. I guess maybe social media has something to do with that.
00:16:27
Speaker 4: I wonder if the pandemic had anything to do with that too.
00:16:29
Speaker 1: I didn't see when the numbers started decreasing, but maybe it did have something to do with that. But just two quotes here, I'll save the best one for last, but one here saying we're evolving from primates to screen mammals and New Year's Eve shows it most starkly, this idea that we're doing it anyway. We're right, we used to be so we can't stand to be away from each other and now we're becoming these screen animals now. And I guess just at a time like this they're saying, it shows up in the most stark ways.
00:17:03
Speaker 3: You know, and I think about when you I'm sure there are plenty of studies that are being done and have been done about communities where there aren't or there isn't the technology that we have here in some more modernized Western civilizations where everyone's on their phones walking down the street, with their phones. You can't even do anything without seeing somebody multitasking while looking at a screen. I mean, it's really sad, but you think about some of the happiest cultures. It's people who have little who don't have phones in their hands, who have neighbors they can run to, who have street parties and block parties and feel this sense of community and a part of something. It's just it's we're getting so far away from what we used to be. I hope that there's some point at which we can all wake up. Literally, I think we need to wake up and look up and look eat each other in the eyes. How many people are can't even make eye contact anymore, especially younger folks, because they don't know how to do it.
00:17:59
Speaker 4: They only know how to look a screen.
00:18:00
Speaker 1: That line, we don't know how to be social and it we actually don't know what to do in social settings. And the one we're gonna leave you here, and this was the one I think wrote. We planned to do this story and putting it in our morning run this morning, and we hit on it briefly, but I thought it would just be a fun little thing. Here's some nuggets about what people are doing and I say, wait a minute, this is sad like. It hit me differently, And this was the line that got to me from the article.
00:18:24
Speaker 2: Again, one from one.
00:18:25
Speaker 1: Of the psychologists who were part of this said quote, America isn't just losing its appetite for parties, it's losing its social muscle. Think about that. Are we really raising a group of kids that doesn't don't know how to interact?
00:18:42
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, is the answer.
00:18:44
Speaker 1: I don't know how to I remembering in elementary school. So they brought some guy in. Don't know who he is, but he taught us how to shake a hand. He taught in elementary school. This is how you shake someone's hand, man or woman. You squeeze it with the same strength. I'm sitting here forty eight. Remember that from elementary school, being taught how to be social.
00:19:01
Speaker 2: Now, look our jobs.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: We have to be out there where people are built differently, but we are, and we have to admit are seeing a whole new thing developed in all of us that has us so attached and looking for interaction and affirmation, validation through a stranger on a screen, and there's a family member in the next room, there's a friend down the street that We don't even think, yeah, let me pick up the phone and call, let me walk down the street and say hello, let me go out and to the living room and maybe sit with my We don't think about it, and it's just they do.
00:19:42
Speaker 2: They say.
00:19:43
Speaker 1: Now it's showing up in the starkest ways because it's New Year's I'm thinking, oh, it's party time. And actually a lot of people are thinking not at all.
00:19:50
Speaker 4: It's sleepy time. But I do think that it's this.
00:19:53
Speaker 3: The information like this is important because we can see it in real numbers and actually be more inten about how we choose to spend our time and know that our kids are watching us. Look my daughters, you heard them. They have gotten on to me like, Mom, you're distracted. You're on your phone. If I'm doing that, how can I ask them not to? So I'm trying to make a point to put the phone down, to take less pictures. I mean, I always love that, but to enjoy more and to I know you're a big like it's in your mind, but I was like, no, but I just want one photo.
00:20:22
Speaker 4: I have reduced massively the.
00:20:24
Speaker 3: Amount because if you're even if you're taking pictures or you're taking videos, You're still not there in the moment.
00:20:30
Speaker 4: So I have tried to reduce that.
00:20:31
Speaker 3: I have tried to be intentional because we need to set the example for our kids to say, hey, and we have the memory, at least we know what it was like before all of this technology. We know what it was like to run down the street and knock on your neighbor's door and say, hey, can can Jimmy come out and play? Like we have all of those memories. Our kids don't have any of that, so it's on us to really show them how to. You can party at home, you can party as a family. You can get the hats and the glasses and watch the ball drop, and that can be just as special and fun. But it's about being together and being communal. However that looks. But putting the bones down, that would be wonderful.
00:21:09
Speaker 1: Well, folks, we certainly wish you a happy New Year, wherever you may be, whoever you may be, with the night or not, with hope you enjoy your night and maybe a good night for somebody tonight is getting a good night's sleep, and that's okay, and that's good enough. But don't let any survey, don't let any two podcasters or anybody else tell you that what you're doing tonight is the right or the wrong thing.
00:21:34
Speaker 2: Is your New year spending how you want to. But also don't let anybody make you feel guilty either if you.
00:21:39
Speaker 1: Don't have a red velvet jacket and a sparkly green dress on tonight. All right, So with that, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm DJ Holmes on behalf of My daremmy robot.
00:21:52
Speaker 2: Talk to you. E'll soon