The Never-Ending Lockdown
Nearly five years after the pandemic, we're at home and online more than ever
Hey readers,
I wanted to share a piece that I wrote for Slate about the “human doom loop.” You may remember the concept from a post I wrote two months ago. I tested out the idea in a conversation with Dror Poleg at the Atlantic Festival and need to give him credit for coining an alternate title — the never-ending lockdown — as we discussed the issue offstage.
As I write in the Slate piece:
Throughout the pandemic, the media focused on the idea of the “urban doom loop,” in which remote work would kill downtowns, triggering a downward spiral of reduced services that would cause people to leave cities. What went overlooked has turned out to be the bigger and even more consequential story: the human doom loop, a cycle in which people stop connecting in real life, reducing the quality of in-person activities and the physical realm itself, further discouraging IRL activities, and so on. Nearly five years after the pandemic, it’s not the real estate we need to worry about. It’s us.
I’m curious to know what you think — do you see this happening in your communities?
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
When a Whole Foods opened in my neighborhood in 2016, it featured a ground-floor café where patrons could look out toward Philly’s famed Benjamin Franklin Parkway through double-height windows. Open an hour earlier than the supermarket, the café featured elaborate pour-overs and an afternoon menu featuring wine and beer in addition to food. Although Amazon bought Whole Foods in 2017, it wasn’t until the pandemic that the new owner ripped out this so-called third space. Now the ground floor resembles an Amazon shipping facility: The windows are frosted and lined with refrigerator cases full of groceries bagged for delivery, while patrons queue in a busy gauntlet, cellphones with QR codes at the ready, to pick up and return Amazon packages.
It’s an example of a place where the pandemic tipped the balance between the digital and in-person worlds. In the past, the digital world serviced the physical one; now it feels like the other way around.
I’d love your feedback on this concept. Do you have examples of places that are building up real-life experiences to compete with virtual ones (ideally in places that aren’t the most expensive places to live)? Or do you have stories of how digital life is replacing something you valued in person? Does this bother you or not?
If this is something you think that’s worthy of more attention and discussion, please share comments below or email me, or find me on LinkedIn or Instagram. Hit the like button or restack on Substack — it spreads the word and builds and audience for the topic. And of course, I’m open for talking more over a coffee in person, too! :)
Thanks for writing this. I think about it all the time. Right now, the aspect of this phenomenon that troubles me the most is that my middle schooler is still doing school on an iPad. That is, he goes to an IRL school with IRL teachers where he spends 75% of the day staring at a screen. It feels like everyone’s just given up.
I'm not a Starbucks drinker, but I immediately think of all those Starbucks locations that recently converted to "pick up only". They're just empty rooms with no tables and a counter. No bathroom, either, which I suspect was really the point. Every time I see these I have flashbacks to the darkest days of the lockdowns. Apparently their new CEO will reverse these. I hope so.
On a broader scale, I think the dependence on delivery services were also a lasting change. The sidewalks in Toronto are now constantly clogged by Uber Eats and all those other gig workers barreling around on their e-bikes, often on the sidewalks, and jamming up the commuter trains, elevators, condo lobbies, and everywhere else. There's also the scourge of Amazon orders, which pile into our building by the truckload multiple times per day. I know delivery is essential for some people (the elderly, the disabled, etc.) but for those who can, I think it's better for our own sanity and for the vibrancy of our neighbhourhoods if we get off our asses and run our own mundane errands.