Silent Book Club Membership

A safe space for the screen addicted.

You may have noticed a lack of dispatches this week. I was conducting a workshop along with the

Near Future Laboratory

at Cranbrook Academy of Art just outside of Detroit. We imagined a variety of wonderful Design Fiction artifacts that I will share with you this weekend to make up for the gap.

Well folks, I took the janky time machine to a near future and made my way to the local library. But forget books - this place is now filled with "Silent Book Clubs," which are basically communal spaces for distraction-free screen scrolling. In this timeline, people still want to be around others, just without the burden of conversation.

I got my hands on a membership card for one of these clubs. It offers "judgment-free zones" for folks to stare at their devices for hours, free from social expectations or obligations. The marketing materials promise you can get lost in your feed, game, or implant-streamed show without fear of missing some important real-life cue or having to act engaged. It's seen as a public service for the attention-deprived.

Dozens of people together yet alone, hyper-fixated on screens and estranged from reality. No idle chatter or eye contact to be had. This future is efficiently lonely.

I decided to test out one of these Silent Book Clubs myself and let me tell you, it was peaceful as could be, in a haunting sort of way. No bothersome pleasantries to exchange or feared judgement if I wanted to scroll for 3 hours straight. I have to admit, losing myself in this little bubble was seductively easy.

But an alert popped up saying my 2 hour limited stay was expiring. Turns out you can't hog these pods for too long. On my way out, I tried making eye contact with others wandering this strange, silent library landscape. No luck - their gaze never lifted from their screens.

I tell ya, the convenience and personalization of the future comes at a steep price. Maybe I'll time jump back to my primeline and strike up a chat with a stranger just for old time's sake.