Remember when coworking spaces actually felt like communities instead of just office rentals?

I was thinking back to 2017 when I first started this whole digital nomad thing. I landed in Chiang Mai and found this little coworking space called Punspace off the main road. It was maybe 30 people max, we all knew each other's names, someone would bring in fresh mangoes from the market, and we'd grab dinner together at the night bazaar after work. Fast forward to last month, I walked into a coworking spot in Medellin and it was like stepping into a WeWork clone. 200 people, nobody talking, everyone with noise-cancelling headphones on, and a QR code to order coffee. What happened? Did the big chains just buy up everything good? Or did the remote work boom after 2020 just change the vibe completely? I miss the days when it felt more like a hostel common room and less like a corporate satellite office. Has anyone else felt this shift?

2 comments

2 Comments

lily_sullivan8211d ago

The whole world feels like it's shifting that way honestly. Even the coffee shop near my place used to have a little board where regulars would write their names and people actually chatted at the counter. Now it's all iPads for ordering and nobody looks up from their laptops. Coworking spaces just got swallowed by that same corporate efficiency thing where everything has to be scalable and trackable instead of just letting people be people.

grant.kevin11d ago

@lily_sullivan82 That really hits hard, doesn't it? I miss those little moments of real connection that used to just happen.