Candace Bushnell: now-versus-then

 The internet’s changed everything. New York was a city that thrived without the internet. It was very, very social. It was going out, it was about being in person. It was about showing up in person and there was so much excitement and buzz. It was also a very cruel place and difficult to navigate. A lot of people, they just couldn’t make it. Also, everybody went out all the time. Like your apartment didn’t really matter. You didn’t live your life in your apartment, you lived your life outside of your apartment. It used to just be Manhattan too, everybody was in Manhattan. Not a lot of people were in Brooklyn or the boroughs. So you had a very intensified group of people who were ambitious, you know, people who had a lot of the same DNA. They left their small towns to come here. [A person] who leaves their small town is a very different person from somebody who stays in their small town. Somebody who watches TV is a very different person from somebody who goes out and goes to the movies and goes to the theater. [A person] who goes out and actively seeks entertainment is somebody who’s very different from someone who sits home and passively absorbs things. Now we’ve all become that passive person on our screens. Listen, if I finish the show at 9:30, I can’t even find a place to eat at 10:00. They’re closed at 10:00. I hear like, yes, there’s some club that’s kind of disco-y, it’s cool to go to, but it doesn’t open until 10:00 and nobody goes till midnight. Well, I gotta tell you, I’m 63, right? I’m not quite Disco Sally. I might be [getting close] but I’m not there yet. I’m not going out at midnight and staying out till 4:00. I mean, I went out at midnight and stayed out till 4:00 for the equivalent of about probably 20 years.” 

Candace Bushnell