This article explores the function and form of the sofa through the contemporary age and beyond. Sofas have many uses as we mould them to our intent as well as to our backsides. And it largely is a ?we? and not just an ?I?. Sofas are for groups, and sofas define a group. We are the ones who use, and abuse, that sofa. So far, so good. Sofas have come so far and sofas are so so good. We can?t get enough of them, especially at Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Hogmanay, or whatever your cultural group fest. Guaranteed delivery by ?whenever? you want implies the multimedia advertisements. Sofas are definitive: they define who we are and they define who we want to be. The quickest way to lift a living room is to buy it a new sofa. It changes group dynamics. It changes groups. Your pack is defined afresh. Sofas make a design statement in the reception area of a customer-focussed company. The statement is of futuristic opulence: buy from us and this is the comfort you will be able to afford. ?You?re worth it.? Sofas have iconic status in western culture. Move over the Keeler chair with the naked model posed elegantly on view: that was the observer mode. Sofas are participation mode: we sit together. Sofas provide furniture for the post-modernist age, where responsibility for each other within the pack is key. ?We relate therefore I am? is a reframed descartian idiom. Nonetheless, if you still ache after observer status, there are the sofa?s little sisters available: tub chairs or cubes where you can be cocooned or perch by yourself.