The Fall of Mall Culture and the Rise of Sewer Culture

Malls were a big part of defining the 2000's for teens and their generation. They were a popular location to hang out, with places to eat, things to buy, and a location away from the home, and thus away from the parents, which allows for more freedom. Through the years, malls have declined in popularity among youth, especially with the rise of online shopping, food delivery services, and ways of communicating online, such as social media and various chatting apps and platforms. And with the coronavirus and quarantine of 2020, it looks like "mall culture" may be officially dead. 

    There may soon be a replacement, though. "Sewer culture", that being hanging out in sewers and drain pipes in the same vain as mall culture, has the potential to be just as big, if not bigger than mall culture was in the 2000's. It can check off almost all of the same factors that made malls so popular. For starters, it's a place separate from the home, allowing for more freedom than you would have at home, which is encouraged by the natural enjoyment of exploring the sewers. See it for yourself, walk down into a drain pipe and just start following wherever it takes you; it's a fun and exciting activity to take part in that can also help to replace another dying youth location from the 2000's: skate parks. The physical activity is a nice parallel between the two that could help sewers become more popular. 

    Unfortunately, there is nothing to eat or buy down in the sewers, at least not in a safe or legal manor. I do think that it's worth mentioning that, because the sewers have very little rules, you can bring whatever food you want, which you can't do at many establishments and businesses on the surface. Also because of the rules being almost nonexistent, you can set up your own business down in a sewer, and you wouldn't have to pay taxes for it, a real underground operation. Laugh. 

    As an ending note, if you want to go and scrounge around in a sewer right now: you can! You don't have to wait until the pandemic has ended, there's generally a lack of people there so a mask isn't mandatory. However, if you still want to be safe and wear a mask (which I would personally encourage you to do so) there's actually more positive reinforcement to do so: a mask will help protect you from various other bacteria and viruses that are undoubtedly down there, and also from any creatures looking to inhabit a human body. I hope that I've been able to convince you of the prospects of sewer culture as a replacement to mall culture.