Remote workers are falling behind in one major way: They're forgetting how to hang out with people

• After 2020, Americans' time spent socializing and communicating during weekdays plummeted.
• Unlike past recessions, that amount of socializing hasn't rebounded. We're not talking to each other.
• That's due to organic social opportunities falling away, and remaining ones getting more expensive.

Griffin Leeds knew something was off when someone walked into the restaurant he worked at and asked if they could buy food and sit down.

"I was like, yeah, my guy, it's a restaurant. That's the whole gig. That is what this is. That's what this business does," the 31-year-old waiter, who lives in Brooklyn, said.

That was in June 2021, when the world was first starting to reopen. Vaccines were widely available, and Americans were tiptoeing back outdoors. But it doesn't seem like they have remembered how to be there — and some have continued to opt out altogether.