Hacker News Reader

Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

What I found interesting about it is that it shows the increasing tendency toward social fragmentation is even affecting France. Robert Putnam noticed this change in 1995 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone). Networks will make the problem (or at least the trend) much worse. My wife and I have a couple friends staying with us at the moment, and it's striking how often all 4 of us are simultaneously sitting using laptops.

Historically this is quite a big change. The last social changes on this scale were probably the ones caused by cars. Though indeed this is partially caused by cars too.

View on HN

I don't wish to criticize you or your friends, but this is similar to the problem of having multiple TVs in a house. The only solution to this problem is to put the computers away and talk to each other.

In my house we have computers in an office, we have a TV in one room, but we have strict hours for the TV for the kids, we all eat meals together with no books, TV or computers allowed.

BTW I think it would be more healthy if the four of you sat in front of one TV and watched a program together (especially if you laughed at it, talked about it).

I don't think it is exactly like TV. You aren't talking to the TV. You are actually 'talking' when online, just not with your mouth.

My son often asks to 'do letters' on http://starfall.com

I was fixing a bug the other day, and when I said we couldn't do letters, he assertively said "close computer!"

Pretty insightful for a 21 month old.

If he's programming before he's potty-trained, it's all your fault. ;)

He has taken a remarkable interest in robots, so it's a pretty close race at this point.

That is an interesting perspective.

I've always thought of little cafes as France's startup industry. With the tourism and people expecting quaint little local eateries, it would seem that throwing a few tables out in a location where you had an oven and some floorspace would be a good way to bootstrap a little operation.

Perhaps your little eatery grows and you move into a larger space and attract more customers, and so on. Kind of an analogue to what many of us do with a few thousand lines of code on a little server slice somewhere.

I was curious (from my first comment) if anyone else would draw a solid link between French Cafes and startup hackery.

This is not just a French issue (although I live in France and can confirm the very real loss of Cafe life). The BBC is today reporting ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7742539.stm ) on similar issues facing the rural pub in the UK. Once a foundation of any local community - all too often they are boarded up waiting conversion to housing.

There is fragmentation, but social capital also seems to change its manifestation. Communicating with your other friends via Facebook adds to social capital.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com