I live in San Francisco. It is February 2023. If you call for any City departments, you are still greeted with a recording that says due to COVID we are not scheduling any meetings in person. Like taking off your shoes at the airport, this seems to be a permanent, annoying thing.
I didn’t know I was one of your favorites! Thank you!
Also thanks for this eminently correct post. I can’t wait for the followup. This assumption that anything that can be done on a phone is better if done on a phone makes me feel like we have all swallowed a lot of propaganda fed us by companies who are unhappy when we do anything they can’t observe.
By the way, do you get those endless ads for the Google Pixel phone where the only feature they advertise is the ability to magically erase other people from the backgrounds of your photos? Because then you can pretend you were the only tourist at the tourist attraction? What the fuck!
My husband and I both started new jobs last year. He's more change-averse than I am - he's at a different law firm, I've had many jobs and a few different careers - but we're both struggling to adapt this time. Both employers have a freestyle "policy" whereby people can go into the office or work remotely. Going in is "encouraged," but going in to a virtually empty office kind of sucks, even when it's very close to home (as in my case). I have at least one zoom meeting every single day I work. I was a full-time freelancer for years before I got another grad degree to help me get a job in an adjacent field, because I was tired of working from home. I disliked both the isolation and the lack of separation between work and home - I always felt like I should be working.
I like - and need, for family reasons - some flexibility. But my status quo is deeply suboptimal, and I'm someone with a lot of experience. What's going to happen with people just starting their careers? In all of my non-freelance jobs, I learned the most by happenstance interactions and overhearing colleagues dealing with issues, and I was lucky to have various mentors/champions. How is that going to happen now?
I have similar feelings in other realms of daily life, but I won't get into that now for fear of never shutting up...
Spot on! The now-prevalent use of QR codes is a scourge! I strongly agree with the comments from the focus group. I really dislike the trend to push everyone into using a smart phone for everything.
Another QR trend -- I usher a a few local theaters, and they have also moved to using QR codes for the playbills ! No consideration for the not-so-young demographic (and in my experience, are the majority of people who regularly attend plays).
As others have said, I want to leave my phone tucked away when I dine out, shop, go to a concert/play -- I want to interact with people, not my screen. Hell, there are even sit-down restaurants that put an electronic device right on the table so you can order, or pay your bill yourself (with the automatic 25% tip default of course). At least the screen is a bit larger than my phone ;-)
The other trend that I detest -- self-checkout in stores. More forced social distancing (for those that actually still go shopping). uh... guess this one hit my hot buttons. I guess I better stop now... end of rant.
This was so wonderful, Dan! Sometimes when we confront the tide of technology, and the way it washes over us and isolated us on our own islands, we feel as powerless as Xenophon whipping the Bosporus.* You rightly give us hope that at least we can do something about those $!&%# QR menus. Personally, I always ask for a real menu when I’m in the US, and maybe if enough of us start doing that, restaurants will capitulate.
Agree 💯 with every single point you’ve made. Most days, I believe the older generation, in their seemingly blissful unawareness of most things technology related, are secretly laughing their asses off. QR codes are the bane of my existence.
For people with children or children adjacent (extended family) there are still a lot of events that provide community. Little League games I attend are full of people. So are theater events.
Sport events--MiLB, MLB same. I attend monthly meetings of a club and special events. I think that these are people less inclined to give into Tech obsession. They use tech but watch/participate in live events. This is a conscious choice. It may end up in 10 years with people more tribalized.
Oh, thank you! I hate these so much. I've stopped going back to places that use them. I won't make stopovers in Newark airport anymore because the entire United terminal uses those hideous tablets in every food service outlet, and it feels like a depressing dystopian nightmare to try to eat anything there. Italy tried to force us to go totally digital during covid (my husband and I own a restaurant), but we refused. The last effing thing I want to do on date night is squint at the same phone that I purposely shoved in my purse before getting out of the car so that I could turn my full attention to my lovely spouse. Don't get me wrong -- I work in tech and I love & rely on my phone in many scenarios, but I think that somehow makes me more cranky when I encounter this stuff. Just because something is on a screen doesn't magically make it "innovation."
I live in San Francisco. It is February 2023. If you call for any City departments, you are still greeted with a recording that says due to COVID we are not scheduling any meetings in person. Like taking off your shoes at the airport, this seems to be a permanent, annoying thing.
I didn’t know I was one of your favorites! Thank you!
Also thanks for this eminently correct post. I can’t wait for the followup. This assumption that anything that can be done on a phone is better if done on a phone makes me feel like we have all swallowed a lot of propaganda fed us by companies who are unhappy when we do anything they can’t observe.
By the way, do you get those endless ads for the Google Pixel phone where the only feature they advertise is the ability to magically erase other people from the backgrounds of your photos? Because then you can pretend you were the only tourist at the tourist attraction? What the fuck!
Hard agree. Please write more on this.
My husband and I both started new jobs last year. He's more change-averse than I am - he's at a different law firm, I've had many jobs and a few different careers - but we're both struggling to adapt this time. Both employers have a freestyle "policy" whereby people can go into the office or work remotely. Going in is "encouraged," but going in to a virtually empty office kind of sucks, even when it's very close to home (as in my case). I have at least one zoom meeting every single day I work. I was a full-time freelancer for years before I got another grad degree to help me get a job in an adjacent field, because I was tired of working from home. I disliked both the isolation and the lack of separation between work and home - I always felt like I should be working.
I like - and need, for family reasons - some flexibility. But my status quo is deeply suboptimal, and I'm someone with a lot of experience. What's going to happen with people just starting their careers? In all of my non-freelance jobs, I learned the most by happenstance interactions and overhearing colleagues dealing with issues, and I was lucky to have various mentors/champions. How is that going to happen now?
I have similar feelings in other realms of daily life, but I won't get into that now for fear of never shutting up...
Spot on! The now-prevalent use of QR codes is a scourge! I strongly agree with the comments from the focus group. I really dislike the trend to push everyone into using a smart phone for everything.
Another QR trend -- I usher a a few local theaters, and they have also moved to using QR codes for the playbills ! No consideration for the not-so-young demographic (and in my experience, are the majority of people who regularly attend plays).
As others have said, I want to leave my phone tucked away when I dine out, shop, go to a concert/play -- I want to interact with people, not my screen. Hell, there are even sit-down restaurants that put an electronic device right on the table so you can order, or pay your bill yourself (with the automatic 25% tip default of course). At least the screen is a bit larger than my phone ;-)
The other trend that I detest -- self-checkout in stores. More forced social distancing (for those that actually still go shopping). uh... guess this one hit my hot buttons. I guess I better stop now... end of rant.
This was so wonderful, Dan! Sometimes when we confront the tide of technology, and the way it washes over us and isolated us on our own islands, we feel as powerless as Xenophon whipping the Bosporus.* You rightly give us hope that at least we can do something about those $!&%# QR menus. Personally, I always ask for a real menu when I’m in the US, and maybe if enough of us start doing that, restaurants will capitulate.
*I’m quite proud of this extended metaphor!
Agree 💯 with every single point you’ve made. Most days, I believe the older generation, in their seemingly blissful unawareness of most things technology related, are secretly laughing their asses off. QR codes are the bane of my existence.
For people with children or children adjacent (extended family) there are still a lot of events that provide community. Little League games I attend are full of people. So are theater events.
Sport events--MiLB, MLB same. I attend monthly meetings of a club and special events. I think that these are people less inclined to give into Tech obsession. They use tech but watch/participate in live events. This is a conscious choice. It may end up in 10 years with people more tribalized.
QR codes are the worst.
Well I'm convinced.
Oh, thank you! I hate these so much. I've stopped going back to places that use them. I won't make stopovers in Newark airport anymore because the entire United terminal uses those hideous tablets in every food service outlet, and it feels like a depressing dystopian nightmare to try to eat anything there. Italy tried to force us to go totally digital during covid (my husband and I own a restaurant), but we refused. The last effing thing I want to do on date night is squint at the same phone that I purposely shoved in my purse before getting out of the car so that I could turn my full attention to my lovely spouse. Don't get me wrong -- I work in tech and I love & rely on my phone in many scenarios, but I think that somehow makes me more cranky when I encounter this stuff. Just because something is on a screen doesn't magically make it "innovation."