How come shopping malls are not the social place they used to be?

spaceshotx7: How come shopping malls are not the social place they used to be?
Back over 30-40 years ago, Shopping malls were a social gathering place and public forum, but now, over the recent years, mall management have completely restricted the use of shopping malls over the country to shopping purposes only, and had security guards patroling the mall to keep it that way. There also used to not be any photography bans at malls in the old days as well. I don’t know why this is?

Answers and Views:

Answer by QWERTY
Technology my friend.

Answer by outpost_road
Because of the mallrat movement. Kids would hang out at malls and steal things and harass other shoppers. Security tightened down, and here we are.

Answer by Jesse O
shopping malls are not the hang place any more, because people would rather stay home. There isn’t a lot of people there because of the economy. People would come to hang out and buy stuff if the economy was better. So that’s why shopping malls aren’t a place for socializing any more. If only the economy was better then it would be back to what it was in the old days.