Consumption has been heading in this direction for decades. Why go to the shops when Amazon will deliver? Why talk to the cashier when you can use a deadening self-checkout? Meanwhile, restaurants are closing and the ones still open are quieter. The lounge room is replacing the cafe and restaurant in what Jurgen Habermas called "the public sphere". But someone's private home cannot really be part of the public sphere, even if you invite other people over for dinner. It's just not the same. Rebecca L Spang, a history professor at Indiana University, wrote about this in The Atlantic late last year. "If brick-and-mortar restaurants become mere storefronts for delivery services, they will cease to be public spaces in any sense of the term," she warned, noting some new "restaurants" in London existed only as kitchens.
Michael Koziol, 'Why we should ban food delivery apps - or at least use them a bit less', Sydney Morning Herald