The Death of the Modern American Coffee House

or: How the Third Place Became Our Undoing

Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I’m in college and choose not to be plastered from five o’clock onwards, but I spend far too much time in coffee houses. I like having somewhere to go that offers just the right mix of elements for me to relax: a bit of background noise, comfy seating, eclectic people, and, above all else, enough caffeine to keep me awake and wired for several days. I go there to get work done, to people-watch, to meet the folks I’ve been watching, to meet up with friends, pretty much any of the myriad of things that one can do at a coffee house within the range of legality.

However, there’s something I’ve noticed as of late, and it’s a bit of a disturbing trend to me. The mentality, nay, the lifestyle, of the modern American coffee house appears to be dying, or, at the least, being sterilized.