Human connection dies with online shopping
As I walk the desolate beige alleyways on my way to my job at the Janss Mall with jazz music softly floating around me, I cannot help but feel melancholy for the empty stores and days of customerless stretches for a mall I frequently shopped at growing up. Restaurants and stores are struggling to stay afloat, while the ones that remain rarely see a rush and have grown accustomed to the barren atmosphere of their home. While the world turns to online shopping to feed their hunger for consuming, local shops and businesses that once brought a community together wither away into a void of uselessness.
When I got my job at the mall, I mentally prepared myself for the typical teenage job, commercial experience of dealing with difficult people, and never sitting down during a shift. Instead, even in the bustle of summer and the spike of winter break, I have rarely come across a day that didn’t hit frequent lulls and go hours without seeing a customer. All around, stores and restaurants have been closing, and the ones that remain face a constant threat of meeting the same fate. I find this shift disheartening, as people slowly lose the value of face-to-face interaction and the benefit of interacting with others.
I feel that in a world dominated by the growing threat of AI, online shopping, social media and all other technological grips, it is important to maintain the pillars of community that keep us social as human beings. As the world becomes more digital, people lose their connections to the meaning of life and why we build our lives around connections with others. With every Amazon purchase made from the comfort of a home, a family business with a craftsmanship that far surpasses the quality of anything found online is chipped away at once again. By supporting local businesses and keeping community alive, we as a society can make small steps towards easing the overflow of the digital world.
My hope for my dear Janss Mall is that its wandering halls will once again be filled with happy shoppers and the erasure of parasocial influx. The small mall has so much to offer and I believe everyone has something to gain from stepping outside and supporting their community. I also hope that the digital world I have grown up in will morph into a hybrid between the future of technology and the fundamental principles of community that our societies were built on.
