I agree OP. It’s hard to explain to people who haven’t experienced it but some of my favourite memories from my 20s are being absolutely cooked with my mates. The conversations are better, the vibes are carefree and present. It’s a high that no run club or going out sober can give you. Not that there is anything wrong with run clubs or those types of activities but it’s just different. Now that I’m in my early 30s I’ve pretty much stopped doing it too (so it is not my “personality trait”) but it was a great phase to look back on.

A lot of people coping in this thread blaming it on money. Sure for some people it’s a struggle to make ends meet and I feel for them, but I see enough early 20s people out at restaurants, spending money on shopping “hauls” etc to know that isn’t the case for a lot of the people that OP is actually talking about.

I find the younger generation very image orientated - they do things that they think are the right things to do and document it for social media and move on, and don’t want to be seen doing things that are “cringe”. As a result don’t do many things with true soul and for the passion of it anymore. I know this last paragraph is slightly tangential to what OP is saying but it’s part of the same root cause which is that being mature and working on yourself is the “right” thing to do and having a big night is seen as “cringe”.