The quality of life of kids has degraded at least in the US and no not primarily from smartphones and social media.

The answer is simple, life is harder for parents.

Yes, but ours were usually much much more casual and in much smaller houses. TV makes everyone look rich. Broke people have parties too, but they're chips/dip and BYOB. Also, without the jocks vs. nerds.

My husband was just telling a story this weekend about when he was "ninth grade cool". Right before a party a cute girl asked if he had the new Prince album. He said yes and then begged his mom to take him to Sound Warehouse to buy it. Unwrapped it, shoved it in his pocket, and got dropped at the party. "Cool! What's your favorite song?" "Uhh, the first one."

Sad that kids now don't have that experience.

Do kids still go parking?

Wait there aren’t parties anymore? What

My neighbors gen z kids for the last 3 years had parties like this all the freaking time.... so yeah they still happens. Maybe its just less common.

Home security cameras probably don't help for house parties. Parents can see everything now.

Gen X. Grew up on an acreage and went to highschool in a small town a few kilometres away.

There was always some kind of party on the weekend. Either at someone's house, or a bush party/pit party. This was the early nineties. So no phones/cameras.

I'm amazed we survived.

I went to one in the early teens. I imagine it's harder for teenagers to have a secret party when their psrente are out of town these days

Its hard to through a secret part when your parents are out of town when the ring camera will let them know.

I'm older than 40 I didn't go to these parties in high school because I was a nerd. I definitely went to and hosted parties like this in my college years. It was basically, invite everyone you know and then those people would bring their friends. Bring booze and snacks.Great way to meet new people.

I mean, I'm a millennial in mid-thirties and I'd never heard of anyone actually doing a party like this either, so even in the 90s/00s these were things that seemed like 'stuff they used to do before'

Very common. The vibes and people varied based on the people throwing the party. Maybe it was a house party when someone's parents were out of town. Maybe it was a kegger at the lake kinda outta the way in the dark. And everything in between.

Also, Hollywood wouldn't have been making films in the 90s and 2000s to make you feel bad if this wasn't the case. They'd be making the contemporary teens of the day feel bad, which they certainly didn't because they could identify with the scene.

Yeah I never had this as a kid. Maybe I just wasn't invited though lol

In the 90s teenage me was way too uncool for these and never got invited once either.

Believe it or not, even adults had home parties. It wasn't just a kids or teens thing. So maybe you missed out as a teen but you can make up for it as an adult. Potluck dinners or game nights are a good way to start. We went to a potluck dinner for 8 people in a studio apartment a couple times when I was at uni.

House parties were awesome. I was never cool, but there was always room at a house party. It's a shame that these died out.

I never knew any parties like that (or at all, haha), but I’ve skimmed through the comments and am surprised people haven’t mentioned Covid.

Gen Z went through Covid lockdown during school ages. It’s possible such parties would have occurred for these people, but they got screwed out of opportunities for wild ragers because of a pandemic.

Social media. People got used to not meeting up IRL. Also kids don't get wasted as much these days, possibly because they are actually dealing with their trauma and don't feel the need to drink/smoke the pain away. Of course if you do cut loose these days it'll end up being filmed and sent to your mum on Facebook. I know half the shit I did as a kid would have been flagged for inappropriate content.

Average millennial here. Yes, amongst other parties, I had a college friend who hosted a party like this twice a week and everyone (30-50 people) would be shit faced, his dad had a night shift job so we stayed up all night playing N64, beer pong, and other fun filled debauchery. It was magnificent. Each day we'd tape plastic over the floor to keep things clean and reduce wear, guy was a social genius. Actually I eventually got bored of it but they went on for years.

We had tons of parties just like these only everyone was way better looking.

I (an older millenial) went to a prep school and big parties in huge, beautiful parties happened every few weeks when someone's parents were out if town. Kegs, red cups, the host freaking out over the mess and people making out/banging in bedrooms were all standard. Because the prep school was small, we would end up getting all our friends from other schools together so they'd end up massive, loud and rowdy affairs. Cops usually got called, but were uninterested in a bunch of kids whose parents were likely lawyers, so no one got in trouble unless they tried to drive drunk. To be young, wealthy and white in America is a good time.

Don't worry, I am broke now. Still white tho.

Yes, these types of parties were real. I don't have any theories other commenters haven't already given, just adding to the choir in case you needed more anecdotal evidence.

I didn't go to a lot of these in my youth, but house parties definitely existed, and still exist. I'm ~40.

A friend of friend just had one this weekend, and I went as a +1. I don't know what the occasion was but there was a lot of food and drink and socializing. Someone even set up beer pong like when we were younger.

Another friend of mine has pretty regular parties at his place. He just invites a bunch of people and has some food and drink, and it's a good time. It probably helps that his friend network is massive and he's generally well liked.

Lived in a townhouse with 3 apartments and 4 floors during uni. Made friends with the other tenants, opened up the whole thing to do massive parties, had over 400 people come

Like a party with lots of people? Yes. But honestly they are way better in your 20's when people have their own places and drinking is not really an issue.

This is the saddest comments thread I have ever read.

Yes, parties are real.

https://www.wikihow.com/Throw-a-Party

We kind of had that as teens. Just without the fancy decorations. We made it ourselves. Every weekend when someones parents were over night.