>there's never a shortage in basically any thriving region of people out and about doing things
The point the parent was making is that these bustling public areas you're seeing are primarily made up of affluent young people, and are not actually representative of how the majority of society lives.
You have offered no counterpoint to that at all, and yet still chose to start your comment with a rude dismissal.
Re:Inside Amazon Go
by freehunter on Sunday January 21, 2018 @07:37PM
(#16200999)
The counterpoint was the places I mentioned, which you've seemed to miss. I'm not talking about NYC and Austin and Seattle and SF, I'm talking middle America, normal small towns.
What's rude is people saying "Amazon is killing all social interaction" while not stopping to wonder why all of their social interaction is small talk at a Walmart. That's the problem. Again, like I've said over and over and over and over and everyone ignores to nitpick, that's not social interaction. That's small talk. I have no idea why you're treating standing in a checkout lane like it's the Roman Forum.
Funny thing about the truth is that it doesn't matter if you think it's true or not. It's still true. I make a living traveling for work, and I make a hobby of finding out small downtown areas and visiting them, and there's never a shortage in basically any thriving region of people out and about doing things they want to be doing.
You can point to some dying towns and say "look, these guys closed the business so that disproves your point" but forever in the history of forever, towns have been growing and towns have been shrinking. As one place wins, another necessarily loses.
Visit the Lake Michigan beach in Saugatuck MI, walk the riverwalk in Little Rock AR, head down Broad Street in Lake Geneva WI, grab a beer at Reclamation Brewing Company in Butler PA and tell me people don't socialize anymore. Grab some wings at Chase's in Norcross GA and tell me you'd rather talk about the weather with a stranger at Walmart than eat great food and have a real conversation with Chase's mom on the patio in the cool Georgia night air.
Small talk at Whole Foods isn't socializing. You want people to talk to? Go to where you want to be, and there will be people who want to be there too, and guess what, you already have a conversation starter.