William Kowinski in his article „Mallaise: How to Know if You have it“ claims that malls have negative effect on people. In author‘s opinion, shopping centres make people sick: they usually get tired very fast, feel anxious and even lost the perception of place and time.
The disease, which has got the name Mallaise, has such sypmtoms as: difficulties in concentrating, extreme nervousness or unjustified worries. This sickness affects people who usually hates shopping or just wandering around the mall. William Kowinski even confessed that he also suffers from Mallaise, when he noticed its symptoms during his stay in Columbia Mall.
As the author states, there are many side effects of this disease. For example, dismallcumbobulation, that means that people usually lost the perception of time and place. Another effect would be inability to relate to others. The author noticed that there were no normal interaction between two people as they were only talking but looking at the different sides. Lastly, plastiphobia. In other words, people just got confused by all the plastic and superficial things arroung.
Despite of this, William Kowinski acknowledges the fact that there is a combination that is called Zombie Effect. The clearest indicator of it would be apathy, automatic moves, short memory, headaches, feeling of guilt or even depression. Author compares Zombie Effect with watching TV: you can do it all day long and float for hours even without noticing it.
Agnė Valatkaitė 2
However, W.Kowinski has a cure from Mallaise and all its side effects. It‘s leaving the mall. He states that it sometimes can be difficult or even impossible as the malls are the only place to go for shopping or entertaining but still it is the one and only way to get rid of this unpleasant