America: World Champion of Staying Home!
If there were Olympic medals for staying in, America would sweep the podium.
According to a recent Washington Post piece by Diana Lind, we’re spending a whopping 99 extra minutes a day at home compared to 2003. That’s enough time to stream a whole movie, bake banana bread you won’t actually eat, and still have time left over to reorganize your sock drawer for the 10th time. Every day. For weeks and months on end.
America: World Champion of Staying Home!
It’s not entirely our fault. We’ve bulldozed many of our public gathering spaces and replaced them with parking lots, delivery apps, and online “communities” like Nextdoor, where the only conversation is about reckless teens on ebikes. Work-from-home means we can now commute from our bed to our kitchen counter without changing out of pajama pants. We have 55” flat screen televisions and more media options at the push of a button than all of humanity has had up until this point in time. And while our homes have gotten cozier, our social skills have atrophied to the point where we now introduce ourselves like podcast hosts: “Hey guys, thanks for having me.”
Meanwhile, in other corners of the world, people still… talk to strangers. In Copenhagen, they host fællesspisning dinners where dozens of strangers pile onto long tables, swap bread baskets, and leave knowing each other’s names, life stories, and preferred pickle brands. In Tokyo, solo diners sit shoulder-to-shoulder in izakayas, sharing skewers and small talk like it’s no big deal. In Paris and Barcelona, cafes, bars, and brasseries are filling sidewalks, swarming with people and laughter. Even in New York City, that high-pressure human terrarium, people somehow manage to make friends — often by sheer accident, like when they’re wedged into a table with strangers because the restaurant is “slammed.”
Americans, on the other hand, will make eye contact with a neighbor for exactly one second before pretending to receive a deeply urgent text.
That’s why SIXTOP.io exists — to trick you (in the nicest possible way) into remembering that meeting people can actually be fun. We set up communal dinners at great local restaurants, fill the table with interesting neighbors you didn’t know you had, and give you a night that feels like Copenhagen without having to learn Danish. You come for the food, stay for the conversation, and leave with more than just an Instagram story.
Your couch will forgive you.
