In the 1980s, malls were a place to meet, to hang out, to find your entertainment while socializing. Malls made "deciding what to do" simple because they offered a variety of shopping, movies, restaurants, and arcades. But with the rise of online shopping, home video, social media, and online gaming, going anywhere at all to hang out and see what happens just seems like more trouble than it's worth. Architecture professor Ellen Dunham-Jones goes way more into detail about the rise and fall of shopping malls. -via Digg
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She also points out that while they are a place to gather, "generally you have to be spending money to be able to hang out there." Since I didn't have much money as a kid, I rarely went to the mall, even to socialize. I went to the library instead. :)