> And she wasn’t trying that hard anyway, because she had acquired, somehow, New Life Dreams, which had to do with Conspicuous Consumption and Keeping Up and being Visibly Awesome — dreams which are at odds with my own.

The desire to be seen and take part in society is fundamentally human. Yes, you can overdo it, but you can also underdo it. There is nothing wrong with going to nice restaurants, posting about it, discussing it with your friends, etc.

My guess is that they simply stopped having a social life with their peers (he hinted at such). That sounds horrible to me.

There is a reason that retirement communities exist. Just because you retire, that doesn't mean you exit from community.