I recently hit the gym again after not going for about 8 years. (Only to rehab a sports injury).

Back when I used to gym regularly in my twenties it was a social place where strangers would chat to each other in between sets and strangers would spot other people at random.

None of that happens anymore. Also my wife warned me not to even look in the direction of a woman working out else i might get reported and kicked out of the gym. Has it gotten that bad?

Of course gyms back then had 1 or 2 pervs, but that didn’t stop everyone else from being friendly, plus everyone knew who the pervs were.

Edit: Holy crap, didn’t expect this to blow up like this. From the replies it seems it’s a combination of wireless earphones, covid, and tiktok scandals are the main reason gyms are less social than before.

For clarification, when I say chat between sets, I literally mean a handful of words. Sometimes it might be someone complimenting your form, or more commonly some gym bro trying to be helpful and correct your form.

No one’s going to the gym to chat about the latest marvel movie or what they did last weekend.

Eg. I’ve moved to freeweight shoulder press a month or two back and sometimes my form isn’t great without a spot. I might not be remembering correctly but back when I’d do free weights, if I was struggling to keep form I’m sure most of the time some stranger would come spot me for that set at random.