Shut off the wi-fi, or make it better?

I’m currently sitting at the big wooden table inside Murky Coffee. I’m sharing it with four others, three of whom are also on their laptops. There are four smaller tables behind me, each occupied by one person and one computer. Welcome to the new cafe culture: coffee + free wi-fi = a much nicer place to do your work than at the office.

That’s not to say that the coffee shop has been anti-social. I’ve come to know the regulars around me and conversation does draw us away from our monitors from time to time. Besides, solo activities like reading have always been a part of the cafe experience, though it’s a little easier to start a conversation about a book than about Web browsing (”I see you’re reading The Agitator, too. That’s one of my favorite blogs!”). Still, it’s disconcerting sometimes to look out across the shop and see as many laptops as people.

Seattle’s Victrola coffee shop has noticed the problem and taken the gutsy step of turning off the wi-fi on weekends:

[Owner Jen] Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year “we noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe.” Before Wi-Fi, “People talked to each other, strangers met each other,” she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. “Those people co-existed with people having conversations,” said Strongin.

But “over the past year it seems that nobody talks to each other any more,” she said. On the weekends, 80 to 90 percent of tables and chairs are taken up by people using computers. Many laptop users occupy two or more seats by themselves, as well. Victrola isn’t on the way to anywhere; it’s in the middle of a vibrant stretch of shops and restaurants on Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave. It’s exactly the kind of place that you want to sit down in, not just breeze through…

They’ve gone two weekends with no Wi-Fi, and so far, they’re pleased with the results. The staff “loves it,” she said, and regular customers are “coming up to us and thanking us.” They have received a few nasty emails. But Strongin said that last Sunday was one of the best revenue days they’ve had on the weekends in a while. “It was kind of a bold move.”

I sympathize and have taken to leaving my own laptop at home on Sundays. I also admire their willingness to shape the culture of their shop rather than just giving into the demand for free Internet. It does seem like a drastic approach, though. Perhaps a better solution would use the Internet to facilitate socializing. That’s why I like this idea from the comments section on the entry above: an experimental project called PlaceSite that works as a local social networking site. Wi-fi users in the shop log-in and have the option of posting public profiles and participating in an online message board.

How much information will people share with the strangers around them in a coffee shop? Will increased transparency make it easier for people to find common interests to talk about or will it feel too artificial compared to a delightful chance encounter? The possibilities are intriguing.

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