In 90s in Europe, my socializing was predominantly "walk down to the pedestrian zone and meet your friends for a walk". Not sure how it is there these days - Canadian social life today is indeed highly correlated with movies / restaurants / expenses.
I'm one of the people who do that nowadays (I'm also from Europe). I've friends who find no problem with just sitting in a public park / square, but the amount of other young people I see doing that seems to be going down year by year. Slightly, but steadily. Same with bars, at least in my city, most bars have raised prices significantly due to tourism. Wages for student jobs have gone up (the minimal student wage almost doubled in the last 5 years), but not at the same rate as prices at bars, restaurants, and cinemas.
In 90s in Europe, my socializing was predominantly "walk down to the pedestrian zone and meet your friends for a walk". Not sure how it is there these days - Canadian social life today is indeed highly correlated with movies / restaurants / expenses.