A Future of Staying Home

A life lived indoors has long been viewed as the height of economic attainment: Elites relax in palatial compounds while couriers fetch packages and convey news of the dangerous world beyond the gates. Even the restaurant is a relatively recent invention, a stop for harried travelers looking for a quick bite before it became a place people would go to voluntarily. Long before the pandemic closed down many public spaces, people in developed countries already spent 90 percent of their time indoors; they are, largely, creatures of malls, suburban homes, and automobile interiors, who go for the occasional jog or day at the beach. Modern Americans might like to imagine themselves as dogs, yearning to leap out the back door and run free, but they are actually cats, content with a sunny spot to stretch out in.