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Comment by JimtheCoder | Hacker News Reader

"It’s interesting to go back to TV shows and movies from even the 1980s and 1990s and see how much bigger people’s social networks were. Like people would have regularly scheduled bridge nights with neighbors and shit like that."

To be fair, those are TV shows and movies...not real life.

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My grandma and grandpa had… regularly scheduled bridge night with the neighbors and shit like that.

I'm not saying it doesn't happen.

I'm saying that using TV and movies as a reference for what real life was like in those times (or any time) may not be the best idea.

I take your point. But remember that TV shows and movies are highlighted at contemporaneous audiences. Unless they’re trying to draw attention to something out of the ordinary, the depictions of day to day life are probably going to be close enough so that at least the audience of the time doesn’t view it as unusual.

This is not true? Neither Friends nor Big Bang Theory are drawing attention to their protagonists living in massively unusual or even impossible setup. And they are as popular as it gets.

I’m not overly familiar with Big Bang Theory, but about Friends it is practically a running joke that the characters are living way beyond what people of their background could afford in new york now or back then.

Now obviously it is explained in universe (it is a rent controlled flat of Monica’s grandma), and the explanation out of universe is clear too (easier to produce the show on a spacious set, and looks better too). But it would kinda mislead you if you take it to show how a chef and waiter realistically used to live in the 90s of NYC.

My grandparents too spent a lot of time with neighbors and family members doing all sorts of activities.

Every afternoon my grandma played parchís (a Spanish board game) with her neighbors and my aunts. During the winter they instead would knit together.

Hi fellow spaniard, TIL parchis is called -Ludo- in anglo countries lmao

In my country and some others it's amusingly called "Don't get angry, man"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone

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