nyc's dominant social activity is dressing up and going to dinner, on repeat

the dominant recreational activity in nyc is to dress up, take photos, go to a restaurant, "go out", & then doing it all over again the next day.

a huge amount of the city's social life has collapsed into a loop of aesthetics cuz these activities map perfectly onto social media. they're easy to share, easy to signal, & easy to consume. also ppl just love to be seen & now that can happen irl with social media distribution for scale.

nyc still has incredible art, music, culture, comedy, parks, & some niche communities but if an anthropologist studied instagram stories, they'd probably conclude the city's primary industry is making dinner/drinks reservations.