I went thru the thread and I agree with you. Though I am from very different background your examples feel very familiar to me. Meeting some one after phone call/ text create different level of expectation where both parties are more intentional in meeting. Where as going unannounced create far less expectations on either side. Not meet at all as someone is not home, meet for short time as they are heading out soon, have long afternoon gossiping, chatting as it turns out they also had nothing to do in particular that afternoon.

> by no means are all of us talking only about the US.

> It's not clear to me whether you are intentionally obtuse or if you're genuinely struggling to pick up the context here

The submitted HN article is about the US:

"We’re witnessing the death of hosting in America."

The charts in the submitted article are also about Americans exclusively.

So yes, we are in fact talking only about the US, and I am not obtuse or missing the context. I've been aware of the context the entire time.

What did you think we were talking about?

I'm not "writing off the vast majority of the world" or "forgetting" anything. The submitted article just happens to be about the US, not the rest of the world, and the patterns of socializing in other countries may be very different.