Come on a Six-Week Adventure With Us to Rediscover the Lost Art of Hanging Out

Downtime Put Your Phone on Silent and Party Like It’s 1996 Travel back to the ’90s for a six-week experiment in real-world connection. By Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. Sign in or create an account to better manage your email preferences. Unsubscribe from email alerts Are you sure you want to unsubscribe from email alerts for Dan Kois? July 28, 20261:08 PM Have you noticed that even though you’re more in touch with your friends than ever before, you’re not actually as close to them as you wish you were? Have you noticed that even though your every whim, for food, for entertainment, for opinions that match yours, can be satisfied with the tap of a screen, you feel unsatisfied quite a lot of the time? Have you noticed that the entire world seems to be inside your head all the time, drowning out the people, places, and problems actually within your reach? You’re living life in the 2020s. We’re all right there with you. But I’ve been thinking a lot about a different time: the decade Slate was born, the 1990s. Back then, a dearth of options required us to organize our own fun and embrace serendipity as a kind of plan. I’m convinced I was more connected to the people I cared about most back then, and my nights were more memorable when I had to go to whatever stupid bar my friends told my answering machine they were at. So recently, I’ve been making a concerted effort to spend my leisure time just a little more like I did back then: an era when hardly anyone had a cellphone, when a six-CD changer and premium cable were the peak of entertainment technology, and when the inventors of Partiful were still in elementary school. I’m ready to recapture a little bit of that spirit. I’m ready to loosen the iron grip the out-of-control modern world has encouraged me to maintain on my social life and relearn how to go with the flow. It’s going to feel so good. You can join me and feel this way, too! Enter your email address below to sign up for Party Like It’s 1996, a six-week time-travel challenge in honor of Slate’s 30th anniversary. If you’ve been paralyzed by choice, felt overconnected but underinvested in your friendships, or simply been looking for a reason to wear your new tortoiseshell headband, this series is for you. Party Like It’s 1996 Six challenges to help you bring back the lost art of hanging out. If you join by Aug. 14, in time to do the challenges along with me, we’ll mail you something fun for every one you complete. (Tied up? You can still sign up any time after and take the challenges at your leisure.) Smell you later,Dan Kois Relationships Friendship Party Like It’s 1996