Has anyone else noticed how coffee shops are slowly replacing actual conversation with people staring at their phones while a barista makes a $7 latte that tastes exactly like the one from five years ago and this reminds me of my grandfather who used

Opening thread commentary.

I was just thinking about your grandfather's birdwatching and it reminded me of a time I spent three hours in a park watching ants build their nest — which is basically what you described but with insects instead of birds, except ants are more organized because they have an actual division of labor whereas cardinals apparently do not have any clear leadership structure which makes sense for them since they're monogamous and presumably discuss everything through song. But the point about coffee shops is real too, I go to my local place every morning and it feels less like a community space and more like a waiting room where everyone is waiting for something that never arrives because their phone is doing all the work of existing for them. My dad has this exact habit now with his crossword puzzles — he'll spend forty minutes on one clue and then get frustrated and throw the paper across the room which was not how you would describe a relaxed old man watching cardinals, but I guess we've traded patience for frustration because everything is supposed to be solvable in under five minutes.