Malls
On the eve of my 44th birthday I had some time to kill before a meeting I had up in Boulder, so I stopped at the mall along the way to go to the Apple store to check out the new Macbook Neo, the newish iphone's etc. Basically I was just looking to kill time. After a quick view and another hour to kill I took a walk around the mall, and it felt.. I guess, odd.
Growing up I was a mallrat. I lived in the burbs, on an acre of property with the nearest store a 7 Eleven about 3 miles away. When I was about 15 I was dating a girl and we would take the bus 50 minutes to the Smith Haven Mall and we would hang out there all day. Arrive at like 11pm and leave at 5:11pm. Its odd that I have the departure time in memory. I think its because if I missed that bus there would be hell to pay with my parents.
When I learned to drive and got my own car I still went to the mall and hung out there. We would fight over who drives, who pay's gas money but the mall was always the destination.
Thinking back and trying to rediscover what I liked about it to my current moment in a mall in 2026 and I realized that when I was 15 I needed, I wanted, I craved the signals from all the stores. The sounds, the sights the smells. They all loaded my young neurons up. Sure the internet was just starting up then. I had 2400bps dialup but it didn't match the mall. The mall was where it was at. I could see other (hopefully attractive) people at the mall. I could date people, I could see different styles, different cultures. The mall was where it was at. I experienced my first sexual act at mall fire exit hallway. It was over quick. The mall was amazing.
But today the mall is just more of the same. It feels like I am in an instagram feed, or the internet without ad blockers. Just more of the same stimulation, perhaps more since the added smells and tactile senses. Perhaps I am getting old and I don't need all the sensory stuff coming at me, or perhaps I just seek a break from that. These days I would much rather be riding my bike on some single track going through a green tunnel then being bombarded with more things to buy. It's funny though as I am in my middle age years I have more money then I did when I was 15 to buy anything in the mall, and I just have no desire in there at all.
I have heard that "malls are back" and FWIW being their on a random Wednesday at 2pm it wasn't empty, so maybe the people there spend less time on the internet, are younger and want the sensory explosion of the mall, all I can say as I get older is that its not for me.