Observations

The other day I was at an eye doctor's appointment with my son, we had 30 minutes to kill so we went to a hip nearby LA coffee joint. It was packed with people. But here's the odd thing - the silence. You could hear pin drop. I noticed because I got a hair self conscious speaking with my kid because I could feel everyone able to hear us, if they opted to listen. I'm talking about 15-20 people lingering in this coffee joint, all working on laptops, etc. It was so busy, we couldn't find a place to sit for two.

I can tell you for a fact - 10-15 years ago - coffee shops just like these all around town were noisy. They were still packed with people writing their screenplays, etc, but there was a buzz about. They weren't like libraries. That's what was so odd. It got me thinking how maybe we've transported energy out of the physical world into the digital. In the old days people would chit chat with the folks around them. Not everyone, of course. It's not like there weren't introverts. But surely you would hear people TALKING in a public space. Even I (an introvert) was even chit chatting with the ordering guy. But it seemed like no one else was chit chatting. Well, they probably were - online somehow. Sigh.

I hated it.