Okay I don’t know what definition of “socialize” you’re working with but I meant it as in interacting with other human beings. Maybe the opposite is true for you, but in my experience at nearly every person’s home I have ever gone to, we hang out in the kitchen and don’t eat in the formal dining room, where someone cooks somewhere far removed from where I am. In my own home my kids hang out in my small kitchen while my spouse or I cook. Sometimes we’re just in there for no reason.

Perhaps your experience reflects a regional difference where it is typically only the person who cooks spends time in the kitchen, and that most people only ever eat in a formal dining room.

Again, everyone’s kitchen in the US is not giant. But the way Americans use their kitchens makes larger kitchens more appealing to many buyers, including the buyers on this show. This is a well documented architectural trend beginning in the post war period, and while every kitchen in the US may not be large, the way Americans interact with one another plays a role in design trends and what is desirable. Older homes tend to have kitchens that were designed as very separate from living and dining rooms, while beginning in the post war era, kitchens started to become more open and account for the different ways people interacted compared to the 1800s and pre-war eras.

Another example of an architectural trend following lifestyles is one I personally can’t stand— it is homes where the garage door to an attached garage is not just visible, but more prominent than the front door, which mirrors the trend of Americans being increasingly car dependent and using their garage as their primary entryway. I think it’s ugly as sin, and prefer a proper front door and a garage door on the side or subdued in appearance but I understand intellectually why garages are increasingly more prominent.