I've noticed I'm no longer comfortably unselfconscious working in coffee shops the way I was before the Great Weirding. In 2015 or so, unless I was working with NDAed material, I didn't care if passerby randomly caught a glimpse of the headline of a working draft or in-progress text fragment/message/tweet. I didn't care if they caught sight of a 2x2 or mind-map I was making, or the title of a themed notebook I was working in. I definitely didn't care if they could see the cover of a paper book I was reading. Or overhead a non-sensitive conversation with someone I was meeting.

Now I find I don't like it. The cozy tendency has meatspace too. I don't like sharing glimpses of anything I'm working on with any non-vetted opt-in audience.

Anyone else experience this?

Blogger at ribbonfarm.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

I can relate to this so much. There’s just something different now—like the world got more watchful or judgmental

Never was comfortable with it so wrong guy to ask

I experience it as well. I just think people are more protective now due to privacy concerns and the changes brought by the pandemic.