Door-Hoggers & Solo Cafe-Goers

Slowly,  I am getting used to the sirens at all hours of the day and the go-with-the-rush-or-you-will-be-run-over attitude. Do as the natives or... One thing I am definitely never going to understand (and probably my number one NY pet peeve as of now) is the door-hogger. This is just a random term I have started using to refer to people who enter the subway by taking one step inside and then just standing by the door, while a crowd is gathered to board outside and the inside of the train is empty. Seriously, I haven't seen that anywhere else. Not in DC and definitely not on any of the European subways I have ridden. No-one else really seems to notice or mind from what I can tell, so perhaps over time I won't either.

But I think the phenomenon that has struck me the most this time around is the solo cafe-goer (and this is not something particular to New York, but to the U.S. as a whole). While grabbing coffee is a social experience in most countries, or at least the countries that I am familiar with, in the U.S. it is often a solitary experience. In the rest of the world, most people would not be caught dead sitting alone in a cafe. You go to a cafe to meet up with friends, to spend time with others, to socialize. Perhaps Starbucks is not the best comparison, but I find that even at other "alternative" or European-style coffee shops most of the tables are occupied by one person, who is more often than not typing away on a laptop. It fascinates me. Perhaps Europeans or Latin Americans are afraid of being spotted alone at what is considered a social venue. Or what I think is more likely (at least if I base this judgment on myself) is that the cafe is merely a vehicle for a social experience. It is not the coffee or the wi-fi availability per se, the functionality so to speak, that I am interested in. It's the way in which the setting makes it possible for me to spend time with people I care about. If I just want coffee, then I'll make it at home. So why this difference? Perhaps it's just a difference in socializing vehicles. Here people seem to prefer to socialize over brunch, dinner or drinks. Can't say that the same is not true in Europe or Latin America, so I'm not sure that quite answers my question. Perhaps others will have better ideas.