As an older gentleman, I have lived in three coffeehouse cultures; the physical, the virtual, and now where the virtual and the real meet. I will take the firs

As an older gentleman, I have lived in three coffeehouse cultures; the physical, the virtual, and now where the virtual and the real meet. I will take the first over any. I watch people in coffeehouses today, young and old. All the human interaction is gone. People;le will still chat with the friends they know over the internet while ignoring everything around them. And now with digital books and laptops I can no longer see what book someone is reading and ask them about their insights. Everyone is in work mode 24/7 as well. The internet was a commodification of the social aspect of the coffeehouse and it has done what commodification has always done; it ruins the experience, it cheapens it and reduces it to a bland common denominator where everyone has to be nice and the same 24/7 or you can never go back. In my community we have a housing complex that if solely for people with serious mood disorders like schizophrenia. These people would also frequent the coffeeshops and interact act with everyone else in various states of consciousness. If one spoke like they usually do in pretty much any forum on the internet they are ridiculed and usually banned. There is no humanity left in the virtual coffeehouse, no space for difference, it is all an attempt for people to have their own little authoritarian safe space. Just stop trying to reinvent the coffeehouse and go outside to a real one and don't take out your phone or your laptop. Make spaces unsafe again!