Joe McCarthy, a good friend and fellow coffee and conversation aficionado, commented on Where Coffee & WiFi Meet Social Media, making an important observation about traditional media in relation to new media, as they affect the potential for conversation at coffee shops.
As for electronic vs. paper-based activities, I disagree that “browsing the web is little different than reading a newspaper or book for hours on end”. Others can view the newspaper title, book cover, or magazine cover when someone is reading a more traditional source of information, making the person more approachable than if he/she is reading the same information on a laptop, in which case others cannot discern the activity one is engaged in (or the information one is consuming (or producing … vs., say, writing in a notebook)
With WiFi plugged in, coffee shop staff can more easily chat with their customers online via Twitter, Facebook, and/or other social media tools, as customers can chat with fellow customers and friends afar, but their use can likewise hinder face to face conversation. When I hang out at a coffee shop with my laptop, I am conscientious that it’s use will discourage people from approaching me. I rarely have headphones plugged in, and I always raise my head from the screen when new customers enter, seats change, or whatever else. In fact, I purposely bought a 13 inch rather than 15 inch laptop to minimize how closed off I appear. Still, when I’m plugged in, I remain more closed off than others.
One of the many critiques of WiFi voiced by some coffee shop owners and customers is that more people are isolating themselves (purposefully or not) by punching their keyboard behind a laptop all day long rather than being social, talking with friends or strangers. It’s true. Striking up a conversation with someone who has a book or newspaper in their hand is easier; all you gotta do is ask what they’re reading. In Are laptops ruining the coffee shop?, Michael Jones writes:
Quietly and insidiously, ten or so years ago, technology began to invade the coffee shop. People began to bring their laptops with them rather than read the newspapers and magazines on the coffee shop tabletops. It has always been easy to interrupt that periodical reading with conversation when someone you knew came in, or a conversation at the next table became interesting.
That seems not to work with laptops. People come in, buy a coffee, open the laptop and don’t move or say a word for hours. Sometimes now, coffee shops seems to be veritable silent seas of laptops and their owners, stuck in a silent intellectual dance with each other, forgetting even that anyone else is in the place. Head down, earbuds in place, coffee gone cold, eyes getting bleary, the very picture of isolation. The only words anyone says are things like “skinny half-caff hazelnut latte,” words that would have been unrecognizable in most coffee shops a couple of decades ago.
Most people agree that nothing can replace face to face conversation and most agree that WiFi and the many social media tools made possible by the Internet are here to stay. And they probably converge more often than I realize. In Are laptops ruining the coffee shop?, one person responded with a rather thought provoking comment:
Funny, the coffee shop I frequent often has three people at a table, sharing a laptop & conversation. It’s a tool like any other, you can use it for socialization or isolation.
A lot of the Bigbucks shops charge for use of their wifi, which may increase the sense of isolation—you’re on the clock, so you’re going to take care of your laptop needs before moving on to anything else.
Coffeehouses emerged in the mid 1600′s as easily accessible places for conversation in part because of their egalitarian disposition and the way in which chairs and tables were arranged. What has yet to be determined though is slowly revealing itself, is how old media (face to face) and new media (online) will shape the culture of coffee shops in years to come.
You, me, and anyone else who spends any amount of time in coffee shops can choose to participate and continue this conversation, asking, critiquing, and discussing. In doing so, social norms will emerge that maintain the coffee shop traditions of old while creating a space for the technologies of new.
How do you see them fitting in? As French historian Anthony Rowley said in the movie Black Coffee, “It’s conversation that has made coffee a success.” And this isn’t about to change.
4 Comments
I once saw a couple at ZOKA Tangletown sharing a small table. They were facing each other with their headphones on. Their laptops were back to back. Each would type a bit and then look up. Then the other would type and look up.
They were less than a 1 meter apart sending each other electronic messages. This is why I sometimes refer to ZOKA Tangletown as a laptop refugee camp.
That certainly guarantees that they’re not overheard. Does ZOKA Tangletown have some tables that are less laptop friendly?
Maybe the outside seating along the side.
I’ve been to a few coffee shops that have isolated a few seats for laptop users, providing extra outlets etc. However, I don’t know how I feel about coffee shops trying to separate old media users from new media users. And many people use both.