What would it take to get this social aspect of cafes back? Exclusivity? No-smartphone rule? Dedicated discussion times? How do you envision us bringing this back while adapting to modern social norms?
People don't go to a cafe expecting to socialise with whoever is there, you go to see a friend that you've planned ahead to see, rather than socialise with others. Cafes have become a vehicle for social interaction, rather than a destination or activity in themselves.
As a culture (Anglo-Western), ad hoc gatherings and meetings have sort of died off. Everything is always planned ahead and booked in. It used to be common if you were passing through the neighbourhood to knock on your friend's door and pop in for a chat, but these days you'd probably be considered a bit odd if you did that, especially without ringing or texting ahead.
Maybe it's smartphones and being always connected. Maybe it's because people are time-poor and are unable to do this kind of thing any more. Maybe people don't like socialising with strangers any more. Maybe people are less social and would rather sit at home watching Netflix. It's probably all of the above.
I guess the smartphones (and the instant gratification) has filled up the hole that otherwise involved social interactions in the neighbour-hood. For instance, neighbours in my parent's village knew everyone at a very personal level. They had tea together pretty much every evening. I can't the say the same, in fact, I don't even know half their names.
The core idea is to take the best of the Internet discussion format and combine it with the strengths of an in-person community.
I’m certainly open to any suggestions or thoughts on the idea.
I genuinely hope the COVID situation isn't putting a nail on the coffin of implementation of this idea for you, and you will attempt it again once everything is back to normal.
I think with openness, consistency, and just a tiny little push (a free drink), you can build a marvelous community.
1. https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/search/?q=It%27s%20thu...
Looks like it's on hold because of COVID-19: https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/fj4u35/look_w...
The key is that they are a commercial coffee house last of all, in direct opposition of the business strategies of most high end gentrified cafes. The priority is the place as a gathering or event space for the local neighborhood or community. Look for board games in shelves, look for open mic events, look for booze on the menu, look for american spirit or clove cig butts in the ash tray outside. These are the telltale signs.
People went to cafes in part because of the lack of options. We have multiple huge industries in the modern world designed around making extremely appealing content for every possible interest. All driven by real-time analytics created by some of the best minds in applied statistics, game theory, and psychology. In order to give people free time, you'd need to eliminate the things that are currently filling our time.
people have no time to sit about chatting, because you have to work all the time for the right to exist.
I'm not sure it can ever come back. That was a different era. Perhaps "the cafe" is not the right setting anymore?
No. You can draw, write, read, build things, etc. It just requires people getting creative, which is something we've getting less acustomed to as we instead consume more and more.