I've recently been to a couple of social events (a baby shower and a housewarming) where the only person I've known has been the host or hostess. In both cases the host or hostess has said "help yourself to food and drink" and left me to it, knowing that I've never met their other friends. Luckily I'm not shy and I can usually get chatting to total strangers. However after the most recent event where there were only about 25 guests ,( all sat in groups at tables by the bar and all already seemed to know each other and chatting among themselves ) it was very hard to find an opening into the conversation.
Which lead me to thinking, does nobody make social introductions any more (eg "Mary , this is Toasty. Toasty, this is Mary. I think you'll have lots in common. Mary likes running marathons too").....or is it just the people I know???