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Instant Karma Coffee House
Sep. 14th, 2016 08:24 am"You get in what you dished out"
Not only do I miss this song, but I miss coffee houses where the goal was to go and INTERACT with other folks.
Starbucks is really not that. At least not the ones around here. We don't have "pubs" that provide such interactions like other countries. We have bars meant for folks that seem to get way too loud and flirty and obnoxious. We have sports bars where the focus is on the game screen and folks seem to get way too loud and obnoxious (and obnoxiously flirty with the waitresses).
Now we have Starbucks where people go to either meet up with other specific people and have more separated conversations or to go and have some alone time with a laptop or tablet (I confess, I'm one of those people as well). We don't have internet cafes for those situations, so someone wishing for a coffee and internet time, whether it be for school, work, or just to be alone and away from interactions for a short while, has to "invade" the possibly otherwise social arena of the coffee house.
The difference, I think, is that laptops, tablets, and smart phones didn't exist in the 90s. What few laptops did exist were never brought into a coffee house, because there wasn't widespread wi-fi to connect to. People who showed up at a coffee house might have still been meeting certain folks to go over to a corner for some intimate conversations, but most people went to a coffee house to interact with others. It was easy to start a conversation pit filled with tables and chairs spontaneously brought together. The moment you sat down you said Hi to the person sitting next to you. Ta-da.
I miss those kinds of coffee houses. You know, the social interaction ones versus the social media ones.
Not only do I miss this song, but I miss coffee houses where the goal was to go and INTERACT with other folks.
Starbucks is really not that. At least not the ones around here. We don't have "pubs" that provide such interactions like other countries. We have bars meant for folks that seem to get way too loud and flirty and obnoxious. We have sports bars where the focus is on the game screen and folks seem to get way too loud and obnoxious (and obnoxiously flirty with the waitresses).
Now we have Starbucks where people go to either meet up with other specific people and have more separated conversations or to go and have some alone time with a laptop or tablet (I confess, I'm one of those people as well). We don't have internet cafes for those situations, so someone wishing for a coffee and internet time, whether it be for school, work, or just to be alone and away from interactions for a short while, has to "invade" the possibly otherwise social arena of the coffee house.
The difference, I think, is that laptops, tablets, and smart phones didn't exist in the 90s. What few laptops did exist were never brought into a coffee house, because there wasn't widespread wi-fi to connect to. People who showed up at a coffee house might have still been meeting certain folks to go over to a corner for some intimate conversations, but most people went to a coffee house to interact with others. It was easy to start a conversation pit filled with tables and chairs spontaneously brought together. The moment you sat down you said Hi to the person sitting next to you. Ta-da.
I miss those kinds of coffee houses. You know, the social interaction ones versus the social media ones.
