If I had told you in 2020 that shopping malls would make a comeback, you probably would have laughed in my face.

And rightly so. Online shopping has been growing for years as its convenience, ease, and value have become too hard to pass up. To a new generation of shoppers, the experience of going out to a brick-and-mortar store to try on clothing or test out a new vacuum seemed silly and archaic — why waste that kind of time at a mall when you could have someone show up at your door with your order and then just return it if you didn’t like it, often free of cost? Covid-19 only increased that value and accelerated the death of America’s malls.

Yet, today, malls are making a comeback — and with the group you’d least suspect: 18- to 24-year-olds. That’s right, the Gen Z kids are so tired of interacting entirely in digital spaces that they’ve started to return to shopping malls, finding pleasure in the same exact thing older generations did: the social experience of hanging out with your friends outside of the house. This cohort made 62% of their general merchandise purchases in-person last year, 10% more than shoppers aged 25 and older. And overall foot traffic at malls was up 4.5% in the first two months of this year compared to last.

I think the resurgence of U.S. malls is emblematic of the human experience. A little bit of anything can be fun, refreshing, cathartic, or even exhilarating. But a lot of something — say, eight hours of screen time a day — can start to feel pretty crappy. 

The same is true in the political arena, where obscenity feels like it has become the norm. But this cycle of change suggests decency might make a comeback. When I say “decency,” I mean the quality of behaving in a polite, honest, and moral manner that is anchored by courteous behavior and treating others with respect. 

We have made descents into indecency in cycles throughout American history, and this one started decades ago. But I’ve watched it accelerate in the last 10 to 20 years. At times, I understood why it might feel refreshing. Seeing a journalist send a shoe flying at President George W. Bush or a member of Congress yell “you lie” at President Barack Obama felt cathartic for opponents of those politicians in part because that kind of direct confrontation was so rare and felt genuinely honest. By the time Donald Trump hit the political scene 10 years ago, many Americans were desperate for a break from the fakeness they perceived across our politics. 

Trump, in the political arena, felt authentic, even if the claims he was making were often exaggerated or untrue. He said the quiet parts out loud. He scoffed at the sacred cows in politics Americans had lost patience with. Jeb Bush was not safe from criticism because he was a Bush. Liberal politicians bought out by corporate donors were no longer able to wear working-class slogans like costumes without being called on it. For millions of Americans, there was something refreshing, something honest in the indecency. Speaking “truth,” however crass or bombastic (or, somehow, true), was more important than norms or class. It’s part of how Trump won over so many exhausted independent and Democratic voters, especially among working-class Americans. 

But we’re now well past a little bit of indecency.