Culture in Decline?

The last few weeks have seen a rising backlash against WIFI-hoarding laptoppers in cafes. The general complaint from cafe owners is that the offending laptopping people show up, grab a coveted seat, pay for one paltry coffee – if that – and then proceed to camp out for the entire day, often at the expense of other paying customers. It’s made such a splash that even our British brethren have picked up the story – and their cafe culture is way less advanced than ours.

On the surface, I can see why pulling the plug on WIFI hoppers makes sense: even though laptop users might make a place look busy by taking up all the seats, the truth is come lunch rush there’s nowhere for laptop-less lunchgoers to sit, squeezing the ever tighter margins of coffee shop owners everywhere. It seems that while the cafe working culture has taken firm root, as a community we have yet to learn the rules of etiquette that will keep us from stepping on everyone’s toes.

OK, so there’s some room for us laptoppers to grow up. But here’s the thing: in today’s world of A. an economic recession, where more and more people are working from home and from cafes, B. a burgeoning cafe culture that is definitely here to stay, and most importantly, C. a transparent social media culture that makes it easy for the community to interact positively with cafe owners, there’s absolutely no excuse for a situation in which cafes charge $4 an hour for internet access, or go so far as to tape over their power outlets.

We need to work toward building a true community, where laptop users and cafes alike co-exist in a symbiotic relationship that helps both grow, such that I tell everyone I possibly can about Simple Pleasures Cafe and Epicenter because they have great food and coffee, but mostly because the people who work there make me feel at home, some are even my friends, and at the end of the day they let me use the internet for hours with nary a disapproving glance. Amen.