Are We Slowly Turning Into Hermits?
photo credit: kretyen
I recently came across an article posted on Fast Company regarding cutting out the waiting in line at fast food chains. Wow. Now i do agree that sometimes fast food chains are not always exactly FAST but still, cutting out the waiting period at McDonald’s just seems silly to me.
This method is pretty much the same as no more waiting in line for your movie tickets. The restaurant signs up to provide this service and it costs them $150 dollars, while it is free for the customers to take advantage of. You sign online, pick out the food you want, pay online and then drive to the chain and pick it up and go home, that’s it, your done. But what does this say for the people in our economy? Are we way too impatient, are we way too lazy or are we slowly turning into hermits as we evolve?
Pretty soon the more interaction we cut out between customer and employee, there will be no more communicating with the outside world other then maybe a simple “hello, thank you and goodbye” as your walking out the door. Communication is the basis of life and how we relate to others around us and in our personal lives. I don’t think there is anything wrong with waiting your turn in line for a few minutes, we are adults, i think it’s healthy and perfectly normal and expected to wait our turn.
“The restaurant industry has been moving more and more towards the idea of self-service ordering,” Glass said. “I think we see what we’re doing in the mobile space as the final evolutionary stage of self-service ordering.”
FrugalNYC on August 5th, 2009 8:39 am
I came upon this post via Twitter.
I agree, we are getting very much impatient as technology makes things work faster and better. People tend to have higher expectations for faster service.
However, if you leave the city life (especially NYC) and head out to the less hectic areas, you may not find the same kind of problem you described. On the contrary, I think you’ll find many people who are patient and will wait in line and talk with people around them.
Personally I don’t mind waiting a few minutes here and there. It’s the extremes that make most of us angry, such as waiting on hold for 30 minutes or more with no update at all. Calling Verizon and other large near monopoly like companies can often give you this type of experience.
Once you get out of the extremes, it’s not bad. We all need balance in life.
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