Coffeehouse Culture and Creativity

by Tamara Linse, Contributing Editor

An Election Entertainment, William Hogarth, 1754 (via)

In California and across the nation, some coffeehouses are taking the drastic step of cutting off the wifi for their customers.  Gone are the days (in some places) when you could buy your cup of joe and sit all day long surfing the web while chatting with friends or working on the next Harry Potter.

There was this article on Publishing Perspectives (a bit dated) and a more recent give-and-take on the Kojo Nnamdi radio show in Washington D.C.  From that show:

"If you start feeling guilty about taking up space, maybe buy a croissant or a bear claw after a few hours, just to throw the place a bone. But the days of free Wi-Fi loafing may be numbered. A few local coffee shops are fighting back against the offering that many customers consider to be standard, either by limiting Wi-Fi hours or getting rid of it altogether, opening up seats for customers who want to have conversations, use the tables to eat their meals, actually buy things." ~ Kojo Nnamdi

This makes some economic sense, especially at coffeehouses where customers are lined up at the door. New customers will buy more than the same customer for long periods.

But is capitalism the only value to be considered?

This rushed market culture erases a very important aspect of coffehouses. Steven Johnson credits coffeehouse culture with fostering the conversations that allowed geniuses to create their seminal ideas, including Darwin.  It's not the lone thinker that creates the next thing; it's the noisy group in a room swilling coffee and throwing around ideas.

Here is Steven Johnson's TED talk about where ideas come from.

And maybe it's not just the conversation. Research has suggested that caffeine boosts creativity and focus.

Coffeehouse culture is idea culture and therefore book culture.  Coffeehouses are places where thinkers gather. Ideas on the page and in the air come together in a critical mass that creates new ideas.

Is it any coincidence that Starbucks originated in the Pacific Northwest, where there is also a thriving book culture?

Finally, we would like Native Home of Hope to be a virtual coffeehouse where people turn on their wifi, sip a cup of coffee, chat with their neighbors, and come up with some great stuff.

What do you think?  Is there a special coffeehouse in your life?  Do you think coffeehouses contribute to our culture as they once did in the Enlightenment?  Is wifi a factor in that?