When I’m at my wits’ end trying to come up with ways to convince my friends that we should go bar hopping, crash a friend-of-a-friend’s birthday party, or check out the new not-so-secret speakeasy everyone on TikTok is raving about, one of my go-to lines is “This is the youngest we’ll ever be.” It’s my last-resort guilt trip. Manipulative as it may sound, I want to plant the seed that, 20 years from now, they’ll look back on nights spent at home watching Love Is Blind and feel a tinge of regret—wistful for the days when they had no kids or partner to answer to and could go out without feeling “too old” to indulge in bad behavior.

Over time, that argument has become less successful. Mostly because people I know are proud to skip nights out, isolate themselves, and even brag to see who ha

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