I visited Seattle last year and went to several coffee shops. It seemed weird that nobody would look up if someone came in. Everyone seemed deeply absorbed in their book or smart phone or tablet.
I lived in the greater Seattle area for a dozen years or so, ending around 2003. Even early into that adventure, I remember hearing about how cold and unfriendly Seattle people were. I recall an article in a local rag, probably the Stranger, lamenting that people were lonely in Seattle because nobody would talk to strangers.
One small contrary datapoint: on my first visit to Seattle from Boston where I was living, I was walking on a downtown city street, uncrowded at the time, and an ordinary passerby made eye contact and said "hi". I almost stopped in my tracks, that interaction would have never happened in Boston at the time. There, it seemed that all strangers in public were to be perceived as threats (probably beggars) unless there was evidence to the contrary. This sort of (perceived) general friendliness was partially what motivated me to move there, that along with the mountains+water and being able to drive 20 minutes from downtown and being in the country. Yeah, Seattle folks, it really was like that on the highways once, not too terribly long ago.
