Some Cafe Owners Pull the Plug on Lingering Wi-Fi Users - New York Times - this article deals with an increase in laptop users at coffee shops. Some proprietors find laptops users a good addition to the population found in their coffee shops, others say they are "distracting" and bad business. Small coffee shop owners want their patrons to interact and to produce human noise and laptop users do not do that. I wonder, however, how much of this has to do with seeing a "community" coalesce around a coffee shop and how much is about selling more coffee and cookies?
Part of me wants to argue that the current backlash at wi-fi users in some places is simply a common over-reaction to a new use of technology and the social and economic effects that come with it. Of course, there is the problem of the wifi users staying long, buying little and simply taking up space without making it hospitable. Surprise, simply harrassing those customers by telling them they are taking up space and not buying anything ends up in "uncomfortable" interactions. Asking them whether they would like something to drink or eat at ever more increasing intervals, however, works better. The latter requires effort from staff though. I think there must be something to the social expectations of coffee-shop behavior and just how much one is expected to buy there. In most places, not much actually and it feels odd coming up to the counter more than once or twice in the course of several hours. Someone bringing food or drinks to the table though, makes this problem go away. However, simple presence of wait staff in an establishment is actually very good at deterring laptop use there, making it rather uncomfortable in itself (some breach of social etiquette happens there in the interaction between the patron and the wait staff).
I wonder though, where the concepts of coffee and tea houses started (coffee houses are native to places like Vienna, while tea houses originated in Asia and were picked up in Russia for a while). The two establishments had some similarities and differences in how the social script of their appropriate use was developed of course.
It's been long enough since I've read about this (a decade at least I think) so my memory may be shaky, but here are a few things that I "think" I remember: Vienna coffee houses were places for the breeding of dissent at the end of the 19th century, where exhiled revolutionaries mingled with artists and writers, working and discussing politics. Russian tea houses were places for social moments, dates, intimate discussions, while Asian tea houses were places of tradition and ceremony as well as places to meet and discuss politics, work, social instances.
The nature of the Vienna coffee house actually allowed (and still does) easy working alone, sitting alone at a table for hours, drinking coffee, eating pastries and working. Sometimes engaging in conversations with other patrons one knew, who also were most likely there to work, write, read and, sometimes discuss. The way such a place is run, however, is radically different from a US version of a coffee house - small tables, really quick waitresses who will bring your coffee and initial pastry and then leave you alone for an hour or so, coming back around infrequently but with insistence. Food and drinks are ordered quickly, paid for immediately, space essentially rented. Nobody ever would ask you to leave because you aren't buying anything, but they will make it extremely easy to spend money.
There is always a question of why do people want to go do "work" at coffee houses - spaces that recently were perceived as mostly social. I suspect that people who spend a lot of time working alone (more of them now) may crave simple human companionship in the form of presence in the same space. Nobody will ask someone to "keep it down" in a coffee house. I would guess that people come to coffee houses to work for noise, for feeling like they are a part of something, even if peripheraly. If someone wants quiet, they could go to a library and such a criticism would be well placed in the context of a coffee house. Through controlling their lighting, coordinating power outlets and the design of the space itself, coffee house owners may actually be able to control the use of their space to a much greater extent than they seem to recognize in the NYT article.
