Visited Lisbon for a month and honestly the digital nomad crowd there is kind of ruining the vibe

3 comments

3 Comments

Pretty simple really. The whole point of places like Lisbon was the local culture and slower pace of life. Then you get a bunch of people wearing noise cancelling headphones in cafes staring at laptops all day. They don't learn Portuguese, they don't talk to locals, they just rent up all the affordable apartments. That pushes regular people out of their own neighborhoods. It's just bad for the city long term.

jade_jenkins26d ago

Feel you on this. It's hard watching a place you love turn into something that doesn't feel like home anymore. I used to visit my cousin in Alfama every summer, and now half the corner shops are replaced by coworking spaces and vegan bakeries that nobody from the neighborhood can afford. You see old ladies struggling to find a place to rent because every studio is listed for tourists or remote workers at triple the price. It's not even about hating newcomers, it's about watching the soul of a city get priced out one laptop at a time. Makes you wonder what's left when the people who built the culture can't stay in it.

elizabethmason26d ago

Read an article that called it "digital colonialism" and honestly it fits.