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Their business model reminds me of MoviePass in the sense that it appears unsustainable, and that their main plan is to grow fast until they have market power to throw around. At least the math for WeWork isn't so obviously flawed as Moviepass was. I'm just disappointed at how many companies use this playbook in the startup world. Everyone just does stupid crap in hopes of becoming the "dominant platform", at which point they can charge whatever they want and people will have to play along.

Have you read "Bowling Alone" by Robert Putnam? It's a tad outdated, but describing the same trends of growing loneliness and isolation. And sure enough, the author concluded that television was a factor (though not the primary factor.)

The book makes its case through data. Lots of clear charts and a great appendix at the end. The author spends a lot of time discussing his methodology and potential problems with it.

I tend to be skeptical, like you are, of "sky is falling" research coming from academia. Especially when the conclusion is that TV is bad for us (Sounds like my nagging parents trying to get me to play in the back yard!). But after reading this book, I'm stumped. I can't say the author is cherry picking the data. Surely there are limitations to the research, and the book is upfront about them. No, there is definitely something going on. The research makes that clear. And electronic media is likely a part of the explanation.

Also American. East coast. I've been in tons of houses with separate dining rooms, as well as living / family rooms.

And yeah, nobody used em. A friend of mine growing up had both living and family room in his house. One was used all the time. The other was untouched, pristine. Like they might have even had plastic covering the furniture. We weren't supposed to play there; it was only for formal entertaining.

My in laws also have a separate living room with a piano in it. And besides the off chance someone tried playing chopsticks, the room is unused. Infact, most of us put our coats there. The family room has a TV in it, so everyone goes in there.

Heck, the house I grew up in had both a kitchen and dining room. I think the dining room only got used on holidays when we had guests over.

Not sure why you haven't seen as much. Might have to do with the size of the house, demographics, or region.

But boy, are they stupid. Rooms everyone thinks they need, but nobody uses.

Everything old is new again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laApNiNpnvI (Xerox EuroParc 1991)