I have lived in LA's Koreatown for over 25 years.

When I first came to LA in the early 2000s, the nightlife was vibrant.

On Friday nights, the madams at my favorite spots would text me, saying, "There are a lot of good girls tonight." Those were the days when the second round never ended.

Back then, if you stayed home on the weekend, you were considered foolish.

But these days? Go out to Koreatown on a Friday night.

It's quiet. Restaurants are crowded, but the nightlife is cold and empty.

People like me in their 50s saying, "Back in the day..." are now seen as old-fashioned, but the facts remain.

I believe that entertainment venues in Korea collapsed first as the MZ generation came of age.

To understand the situation in Korea, everyone knows about the booking clubs.

Simply put, it's a system where waiters take men to women's tables while sitting in a club.

If you explain this to someone in their 20s now, they might respond, "What is that? Isn't it a bit scary?"

Can things really change this much with time?

Once, booking clubs were everywhere, from Gangnam to Hongdae.

But now, almost all of them have closed down. Why? Young people just don't go. They simply don't go.

Why? Because everything can be done on their phones.

With just one app, you can see everyone within a 3km radius; who would want to be forced to sit next to a stranger in a noisy place?

Karaoke rooms are the same.

In the past, when someone said, "Let's go to karaoke for the second round!" everyone would respond, "Oh!"

These days, young employees say, "Oh, I think I'll pass. I need to wake up early tomorrow." This has become the norm.

Koreatown in LA is no different. When I arrived in the early 2000s, the Java market was a financial lifeline for the Korean community.

Now? Forever 21 has gone bankrupt, and Java has disappeared without a trace. As a result, many room salons in the LA area have closed or changed their business types.

To summarize the reasons: first, there are no people willing to spend money. A significant portion of the revenue for entertainment venues used to come from hosting clients. That culture of "Let's have a drink with the boss from the client company" has almost disappeared in Korea, so why would it be different in LA?

Second, the value for money is no longer there. Honestly, going to a room costs at least $400-500 per person. Nowadays, people would rather spend that money on a weekend trip. Or they would prefer to enjoy an omakase meal. What would be more Instagram-worthy? Obviously, the latter. In the age of social media, entertainment venues are a type of consumption that cannot be validated.

Third, the generation has changed. The culture that was popular among first-generation Korean immigrants is completely alien to the second generation.

Ultimately, this seems to be the core issue. In the past, if you wanted to meet people, you had to go out. Whether it was a club, a bar, or anywhere, you had to go out to find people. Entertainment venues were essentially a "platform for meeting."

But now? The platform has completely moved online. From the perspective of entertainment venues, just as Google killed bookstores, dating apps have killed booking clubs.

When you look at young people today, the order of meeting has completely reversed. In the past, you would meet offline → exchange numbers → keep in touch. Now, it's matching online → exchanging messages → meeting offline if things go well. The role of "first meeting" that entertainment venues used to play has been completely taken over by apps.

I don't think the decline of the entertainment industry is simply due to an economic downturn.

This is a cultural shift. People are not drinking less; rather, the way they drink has changed, and they are not meeting less; the channels through which they meet have changed.

This change, which first occurred in Korea, is now being replicated in LA with a 3-5 year delay. It has always been this way.

When a chicken restaurant becomes popular in Korea, a chicken restaurant opens in LA, and when nightlife dies in Korea, nightlife in LA dies too.

We are drinking the same water.

Honestly, I feel a bit sad. If I say that those days were good, I will be called old-fashioned again, but it was a time when there was a sense of humanity.

Now everyone is just looking at their phones. What can you do?

When times change, you have to live according to the changes. But I really hope that some good bars can hold on.

If even that disappears, people like me will have nowhere to go.