Coffee shop and Internet culture - hollowed out
I've been thinking lately about the flattening, shallowing, and emptying out of culture... Be it online forums (from the concept of bulletin boards in old internet days to journaling and conversing about that, to later, less-involved, less-communal, and more-alienating things like 'offbeat bride' and even pregnancy forums (shocking - I know) that in 2012 were still at least SOMETHING akin to socializing) or coffee houses.
Coffee shops were 24 hours or, at the very least, open late. They had wooden chairs, hidden nooks, booths, rocking chairs... They held an array of lighting options from lamps, to bounced-light off red walls, to christmas strings bedecking the dim ceilings. In short, they were a place to gather, to think, to write, to read newspapers when newspapers or magazines when some of both still had interesting editorials.
Now coffee shops are largely extinct. The ones that remain are sterile and stagnant. They have metal chairs, white walls, hideous lighting, and you would never think of casually chatting with the gregarious compatriats near you.
Even the worst 24 option we had in SATX (outside of IHOP of course) was a San Antonio staple that had comfortable booths, darker decor, and old yellow lamps that hung above your table. Attached will be some pix for example, comparison, and edification in case anyone didn't grow up with what we did... as well as a cpl links - one to a write up of how it seems they were trying to close my fave coffee shop in Austin for some time, what even in 2012 you could find by way of self-expression on semi-forum-style-websites (pregnancy-related as I found it by making sure my belly looks about-right for 21 weeks;) and no there are no comments, but the feeling of the internet from that time remains), and a clip from the 1991 movie slacker set in Austin that shows (despite of course it being a stoner philosophizing filmand thus not the way my friends and I discoursed - a sad sight from where we are now).
Article on spiderhouse: https://www.statesman.com/story/entertainment/2022/01/28/spider-house-cafe-austin-ut-ballroom-north-campus-fruth-street/9212708002/
pregnancy update from a random lady (2012 internet vibes): https://www.annasaccone.com/2012/04/week-21-bump-update
slacker film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-U_I1DCGEY&t=666s