In the last city I lived in they transformed one of the major busy streets that had a lot of shops into a pedestrian zone. Businesses fought it kicking and screaming. Reading the local news and online forums you’d think that the main customer base for all businesses in the inner city were 90year olds with multiple hip surgeries who will not come anymore if they can’t park right in front of the shop. Well. The street was transformed, people got suspiciously quiet about the mass extinction of local businesses that was about to happen and all the restaurants and cafes need reservations now where before you could just walk in even on a Saturday afternoon and get a table. Some of the shops need security now to regulate the flow of people. But of course you won’t read any articles on local news about it.

I thought the same. Also how many of these offences are connected to drugs, since in most cities the area in and around a central station is where the hotspots for homeless people and drug markets are. And let’s not forget that the police has massively increased their presence in train stations in major cities. A couple of years ago they maybe had a police station nearby where you could go to, nowadays you see them patrolling major train stations regularly. No wonder they catch more crime if they patrol more instead of sitting in the station until someone comes to them.

Reminds me a bit of the 90s when a popular boyband like Take That disbanded and they had to set up hotlines for distressed teens.

People have gotten used to parasocial relationships with people they will never meet in real life and it only got worse when the “relationship” to celebrities started feeling more personal thanks to social media. People got used to feeling close to people they only ever interacted with through text, so people getting attached to chatbots feels like a logical result of this development.

I liked dating platforms way back in the days when you could make your own page, had large text fields to describe yourself and could filter by age, location and maybe a few other important things like smoking or wanting kids. Years later I tried the apps and it was just frustrating and nothing else. There wasn’t even really space to describe yourself or show your character.