Found a fascinating piece by Carolyn Jones in the San Francisco Chronicle, reporting on a cafe that asks people not to use their laptops in the store. Apart from the financial advantage (stopping people buying a coffee and holding a table for hours) the real reason is to foster conversation and have chatter replace keystrokes. How innovative – let’s get back to talking to one another.
This is an exciting new angle for The WhiteSpace Project. As people and organisations adopt the principle of creating WhiteSpace so they can hear themselves think, cafes like this are extending the principle to creating WhiteSpace so we can hear one another.
I often find myself working in coffee shops, which have replaced libraries as the place of quiet reading and thinking. In some of these many of the patrons are working online, with only the noise of the coffee machine and the (usually quiet) staff interrupting our meditations. But as Carolyn points out, it is so impersonal, with little need to concentrate on real people. So I too am guilty of the same thing.
I don’t think it will be too long before this idea takes hold – WhiteSpace cafes that request patrons to enjoy their time in the establishment, not in cyberspace.
