How long ago did “Bowling Alone” come out? I spend my time between the US west coast and certain cities in Europe. I don’t think Americans, as a whole, know ho

How long ago did “Bowling Alone” come out? I spend my time between the US west coast and certain cities in Europe. I don’t think Americans, as a whole, know how to hang out and talk the way Europeans do. Part of it is our cities… there aren’t real public spaces. Everything’s commercial, or a development. Making plans to meet people involves a singular destination. In Europe I’ll meet friends out, and we’ll have other friends catch up with us over the coarse of an evening, and we’ll move from a cafe to a square to a park, and we’ll have been chatting and it’ll suddenly be 4am. In America it’s very hard to get people to commit to a thing, and that’s usually dinner or a bar.