Cocooning is the last, best hope we have for some illusion of autonomy
We spent $115.21 to see The Death of Stalin in the movie theater.
It's not like we went to a showing where Simon Russell Beale sat next to us and provided real-time commentary. It's just that we went as two adults on a weeknight and between the BART fare to the only movie theater in the East Bay where the movie was playing ($11.80), two adult weekday tickets ($26.00), a quick dinner at a local Burgermeister ($37.41), and the babysitter ($40.00), it added up. Sure, we could have foresworn dinner but that's how you end up snarfing a $12 bag of popcorn and spending the rest of the night roiling with digestive recriminations. And by the time you've committed $77.80 to one movie outing, you might as well make a night of it with dinner.
By comparison, we are spending $119 per year on our Amazon Prime membership, and we can see lots of movies via Amazon Prime. AND we don't have to pay for a babysitter. AND we can cook at home. AND we can fit in our viewing on our own schedules.
You can see where the ripple effects begin, right? We stay home and that's a babysitter who has to hustle for more customers when her date-night regulars decide to stop scheduling her. A few more couples notice that movie night is a terribly pricey date night, and that's a restaurant that sees fewer customers sitting down. Soon, there's a movie theater that has to keep a nervous eye on ticket sales and concession sales. Cocooning is cost-effective on a household level but it has a ripple effect on a community's economy.
This may well be reflective of an issue with the national economy -- when real wages are flat and costs for housing, healthcare, childcare and education keep rising, and when people are working longer hours to make the same wages, who has the time and money for regular full-service restaurant or theater outings?
There's a cultural component to cocooning too. People who spend all day in the stockyard atmosphere of an open office cherish their solo time at home. And while it's popular to credit or blame our incorporation of online socialization into the new hermit habit, the Internet and streaming services aren't to blame for our great inward turning -- people withdrawing from communal activities has been a social trend for decades (Bowling Alone was published in 2000).
Cocooning actually doesn't help us acquire or retain the necessary skills for interacting with others (or even recognizing their innate humanity) outside our highly selective bubbles. What it does do is give us the option to watch what we want, eat what we want, talk online with whom we choose to chat, and do so in our space on our timeline. If people feel so compelled to exert such control over their time, it may be a subconscious or wholly deliberate response to the perception that there's just too much outside their control.
One of the key contributors to burnout is the feeling of having no control over your time. Maybe, in a world where capricious job schedules and constant on-the-clock surveillance strip workers of any semblance of control on the job, the only resistance left is available to us in the privacy of our homes.
FURTHER READING
In the age of online shopping, where do IRL salespeople fit in? -- “Amazon has changed our world and how we like to shop,” said Annette Franz, the CEO of customer experience consulting firm CX Journey. “Customers expect to grab what they need and check out, so when they’re approached multiple times by a sales rep, it’s uncomfortable for some.” (Vox, November 21, 2019)
Why You Never See Your Friends Anymore -- "Whereas we once shared the same temporal rhythms—five days on, two days off, federal holidays, thank-God-it’s-Fridays—our weeks are now shaped by the unpredictable dictates of our employers." (The Atlantic, November 2019)
Technology Could Make or Break the Food Workforce of the Future -- "As automation, peer-to-peer transactions, and online delivery services re-shape food-system business models, the relationship between employers and workers has also begun to shift—and not always in ways that benefit workers." (Civil Eats, July 24, 2017)
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On the advice of some very wise friends who listened to me moan about my writers' block, then gently asked, "Do you want us to listen or do you want advice?" ... I'm just writing my way out of a block and toward whatever big writing goal will emerge after I've just kept writing for a while. As always, any feedback, questions or suggestions welcome either via email (reply to this) or via Twitter (@lschmeiser).