In my ever more distracted state, I neglected to include the following. While at Sukiya, 4 other customers settled their bill with digital currency. The electronic voiced “PayPay” one hears when that service is used is a dead give away. All four used it. This is my wife’s preferred method of payment.
I, we can patronize only those places that accept cas for as long as they continue to do so, but we are few against multitudes.
The cashless society will herd us into a world without individual choice, the machine will tell you what to choose from it and will be limited and not what you want but who can argue against a machine. It is a depressing thought.
I like options and the problem here is that it is not either, or. And yes, for digital, the risks definitely will outweigh the rewards if along with it is the surveillance state. If you can blockchain and your wallet and your recipients wallet are both encrypted on both ends, then the government is left out of the transaction. In a similar fashion if I sold you my old record player for 50$ for cash, the government was nowhere in the transaction. Nor should they also need to know about my taste in music or love for whatever form I buy my records in.
I haven't enjoyed the surveillance state for years. I am glad that my bank has security in place, but should one of the things on my to-do list have to be to inform the bank I am going on vacation so they don't inadvertently freeze my account?
Here are some bonus thoughts! Or for others, just a gratuitous placeholder to be scrolled past for other serious and well thought out ruminations.
As far as touchscreens, it's a mixed bag.
I do a lot of online ordering, and most of the time, the order is wrong. They get the items wrong, or items are missing. Probably one of the reason for the high delivery fees is to offset the amount of credits they issue on a per-order basis. I remember spending three hours trying to get the one item I craved that they got wrong. The first time I ordered it, they forgot it. The second time I ordered it alone, and for some reason the driver canceled the order, until finally I managed to receive the item. I also got two refunds in the process, and it was three hours later, but they just didn't get it...I would have been fine without the refunds if they just had delivered the item.
And yes, it takes a lot more time. In a drive thru situation. Unless it was at the Popeye's Drive Thru as they probably still have people in line from the late 1980's. For other places though, the drive thru will have processed you before you complete your order. So I usually drive the the place, park, order, then get in line depending on the line length.
Why use an online app at all?
For a whole summer I got a Chicken Sandwich, and a Drink for three dollars. The big chains have deals going on, most likely as an incentive to get new app users, used to the experience of app ordering. I could tell even the workers were new to he process as they would often be confused and fumbling when I'd tell them I had an "online order."
But as far as ease of use, still easier to talk to a drive through speaker than to have to make the order. Even then though, miscommunication can occur. 25% of the time I would often have to repeat my order at the window. And although I hated doing it, very often I would look to see if my order was correct after receiving it right at the window to avoid having to go through the line again.
There are more invisible bad effects as well.
The risk of bad social interactions. One of the the problems with less face time and more screen time is it reduces our ability to properly socialize. The way we interact with people is important. Take it from someone who thought he was being caring by not being so present in others lives, it comes with a cost, and that cost is people not caring as much as they once did..
I can tell you, some of the most rewarding experiences over the last years has been when I fought the cocoon of isolation and reached out and spoke to others in a positive manner. I don't do it enough. By the convenience of screen interaction though, we could then maintain and overcompensate by being more social. The screen takes the transactional aspect of the relationship and minimizes it. So the currency now is all social, is it not? So why not make it as positive as possible?
In my ever more distracted state, I neglected to include the following. While at Sukiya, 4 other customers settled their bill with digital currency. The electronic voiced “PayPay” one hears when that service is used is a dead give away. All four used it. This is my wife’s preferred method of payment.
I, we can patronize only those places that accept cas for as long as they continue to do so, but we are few against multitudes.
The cashless society will herd us into a world without individual choice, the machine will tell you what to choose from it and will be limited and not what you want but who can argue against a machine. It is a depressing thought.
I like options and the problem here is that it is not either, or. And yes, for digital, the risks definitely will outweigh the rewards if along with it is the surveillance state. If you can blockchain and your wallet and your recipients wallet are both encrypted on both ends, then the government is left out of the transaction. In a similar fashion if I sold you my old record player for 50$ for cash, the government was nowhere in the transaction. Nor should they also need to know about my taste in music or love for whatever form I buy my records in.
I haven't enjoyed the surveillance state for years. I am glad that my bank has security in place, but should one of the things on my to-do list have to be to inform the bank I am going on vacation so they don't inadvertently freeze my account?
Here are some bonus thoughts! Or for others, just a gratuitous placeholder to be scrolled past for other serious and well thought out ruminations.
As far as touchscreens, it's a mixed bag.
I do a lot of online ordering, and most of the time, the order is wrong. They get the items wrong, or items are missing. Probably one of the reason for the high delivery fees is to offset the amount of credits they issue on a per-order basis. I remember spending three hours trying to get the one item I craved that they got wrong. The first time I ordered it, they forgot it. The second time I ordered it alone, and for some reason the driver canceled the order, until finally I managed to receive the item. I also got two refunds in the process, and it was three hours later, but they just didn't get it...I would have been fine without the refunds if they just had delivered the item.
And yes, it takes a lot more time. In a drive thru situation. Unless it was at the Popeye's Drive Thru as they probably still have people in line from the late 1980's. For other places though, the drive thru will have processed you before you complete your order. So I usually drive the the place, park, order, then get in line depending on the line length.
Why use an online app at all?
For a whole summer I got a Chicken Sandwich, and a Drink for three dollars. The big chains have deals going on, most likely as an incentive to get new app users, used to the experience of app ordering. I could tell even the workers were new to he process as they would often be confused and fumbling when I'd tell them I had an "online order."
But as far as ease of use, still easier to talk to a drive through speaker than to have to make the order. Even then though, miscommunication can occur. 25% of the time I would often have to repeat my order at the window. And although I hated doing it, very often I would look to see if my order was correct after receiving it right at the window to avoid having to go through the line again.
There are more invisible bad effects as well.
The risk of bad social interactions. One of the the problems with less face time and more screen time is it reduces our ability to properly socialize. The way we interact with people is important. Take it from someone who thought he was being caring by not being so present in others lives, it comes with a cost, and that cost is people not caring as much as they once did..
I can tell you, some of the most rewarding experiences over the last years has been when I fought the cocoon of isolation and reached out and spoke to others in a positive manner. I don't do it enough. By the convenience of screen interaction though, we could then maintain and overcompensate by being more social. The screen takes the transactional aspect of the relationship and minimizes it. So the currency now is all social, is it not? So why not make it as positive as possible?