[... and I already know this is going to sound all walked-to-school-uphill-both-ways-while-barefoot-and-pregnant (wait, scratch those last two words -- that's more of a modern phenomenon), so I get that ...]
... I am increasingly concerned about the lazification of the current generation. I've seen Wall-E and I know our future (and I'm self aware enough to know that I can couch potato like the best of them)... and technology is great and all and increases productivity and makes life more efficient (just had to say that as I don't want this to be confused with an anti-technology rant by the Kaczinsky guy who made hoodies infamous way before Trayvon did) ... but I also believe that it all may be ill preparing our youth.
So about what I am specifically taking umbrage (and why don't I get those tiles in my new found love of Words with Friends)? Living Social recently released a mobile app that sounds suspiciously like GrubHub -- it's used to order takeout food with the click of a few thumb moves. That in itself I'm OK with ... having information at your fingertips has made my life easier in a myriad of ways (ooh ... that's another set of tiles for which I am now on the lookout). My beef is with the quote of the general manager of the department of the app-launching business, who praised the app in a recent USA Today article as follows:
"[He] says the new food service bypasses what is usually a 'pretty friction-laden experience' that can involve waiting on the phone when a restaurant is busy, reciting your credit card number over the phone and confirming your address 'again and again'."
To which I say: "Dear youth in whom I trust not only my future but the future of many loved ones ... if you do not have the skill set to weather such a 'friction-laden experience' as the one listed above, please know that you will be facing many more challenges of much greater heft in the years ahead. Please buck up and focus your energies on real problems -- and not the 'horrors' of (gasp) having to wait on hold or repeat your address! Hugs and kisses ... your randomly ranting friend."
THE AFOREMENTIONED ARTICLE:
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/2012/3/30/living_social_puts_new_spin_on.htm
THE AFOREMENTIONED MANIFESTO BY THE HOODIED ONE:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/unabomber/manifesto.text.htm
THE AFOREMENTIONED APP:
https://livingsocial.com/menus
No comments:
Post a Comment