wiiiifi

I’ve been noticing articles and blog posts concerning the presence of wifi in café’s and as someone who frequents Starbucks just to use their free internet, I feel like I might have something to say on this subject. As a student, the internet is essential to my education.  This is not an overreaction.  I communicate with my professors through email, am assigned electronic readings and many of my classes require that I turn in digital copies of my assignments through certain websites.  As a student, I also don’t have that much money (ie: I don’t have wifi at my apartment….this is kind of the result of a standoff with my roommate but whatever.) Thanks to the starbucks that is walking distance from my place, getting wifi is relatively easy. 

Ok. So that aside, looking at the various arguments about, the issue seems to lie more in issues of communities and interactions.  Some bloggers have argued that wifi cheapens their experience and others intentionally avoid coffee shops that offer wifi.  I agree that it is strange for a coffee shop to literally be full of people but no one notices each other…but really, how is that different from anything else we do.  Fundamentally, the question is what are coffee shops for.  Well, they’re to buy coffee or another beverage of choice but socially, what is their function in a community?  An answer to this question can differ among café-goers across the world.  They are to people watch, read the paper or book, catch up with friends …and surf the web.  I’m of the opinion that coffee shops are what you want or need them to be and despite the seemingly unifying concept of coffee that seems to unite all these shops together, coffee is not always the ultimate goal.

Back to my question about the function of coffee shops in communities…while Starbucks or any other coffee shop may market themselves as zones of engagement (cork boards with local flyers, groups tables, coffee cups with cute anecdotes about talking to strangers,) coffee shops are businesses and will do what they need to get business.  Starbucks may reel in customers for its free wifi, while repelling others who then go to café’s that intentionally do not offer wifi.  Whatever. But again, back to their significance in the community.  Beside’s the economic aspect, coffee shops are malleable according to the customer.  I’m thinking back to a previous post about the need for parks because they contribute to democracy by attracting people from varying backgrounds to interact, purely by chance, without any predetermined goals.  I don’t really buy that but it is an interesting concept to apply to Starbucks, or any coffee shop for that matter. Starbucks attracts a diverse array of customer who most of the time come in with a specific goal, a goal which determines their level of interaction –by interaction I mean with other customers….since someone can be really interactive on the internet and never say a word to the person sitting next to them. So looking at this: goal oriented participants determining their own level of interaction…this may be sad but that feels more like a real community to me than perhaps the idealized community where people are discussing their deep thoughts over coffee with  stranger.  It also seems safer.