Replaced by a kiosk
Let me make this perfectly clear. I long for the good old days, when you could walk up to the counter at Hartsfield-Jackson or Reagan National or name your airport, flip out your billfold and buy a ticket for Anywhere.
Security concerns coupled with advancing technology have made getting on an airplane a major production.
I’m chill with the security, but all this computer jazz about checking in online three days in advance and providing the airline with a biography and life history is a bit tiresome. Having to create a PDF of my vaccination validation was also a challenge.
Keep in mind that I have never had so much as one computer class, in Word or anything else.
One of the computer programs that I deal with every day is the Adobe Premiere video editing package. When they send out updates, it usually takes me three or four days to figure out where everything I need is hidden in the update. That’s a waste of productivity in my humble opinion.
And then there is the difference between using my PC for a project and trying to work out of the office using my mobile phone. The difference between the program on the computer and the cellphone is aggravating as well. I miss my old Royal typewriter. I couldn’t help but laugh the other day when I went down to my bank to make a withdrawal. I had run out of checks and the bank no longer has withdrawal slips in the lobby. I gave the teller my account number and he printed out a withdrawal slip for me to sign — and then reached into a drawer and pulled out scissors to manually cut the withdrawal slip so that he could run it through his machine.
Doesn’t that strike you as a little bizarre in this crazy high-tech world we’re living in?
Then there’s the hassle of going shopping. I went to one of the few remaining department store locations in Rome the other to buy a couple of shirts for an upcoming trip. First off, I had to wait in a line that was 9 people long. There have been times in the past when I would have simply put the shirts back on the shelf and left the store. This time, I needed the shirts so I waited dutifully in the line.
Fortunately, it was after work hours so it did not involve a loss of productivity during the work day. When I finally got to the counter, the kind lady wanted my phone number and email. I said you’ve already got them in your computer. She politely told me she needed them again.
Why do I have to give a store my phone number and email to buy a couple of shirts? Why can’t I walk in with a couple of $20 bills — make that a $50 and a $20 — and just buy two shirts?
Ostensibly, technology is supposed to make life easier for us. I know it makes it easier for XYZ store to target me for a blitzkrieg of email promoting the next time shirts are on sale. But three or four of those emails a day? It’s worse than the junk mail that now only comes once or twice a week.
I can’t even begin to tell you how many calls I get EVERY DAY, SEVEN DAYS A WEEK, regarding Medicare supplements. If it’s not a Medicare supplement, it’s a car warranty. Thank God that smartphone lets me know it’s a spam risk. That’s technology which is really is helpful!
I think I may have told you this before. I don’t particularly like the me that I have become. I haven’t kept up with advancing technology gracefully. Shoot, my smartphone is almost a dinosaur. It’s an iPhone 6S and I can’t put any more apps on it because storage is full.
A friend who is leading a trip that I am going to be taking asked me earlier this week if I had downloaded the Delta app.
Nope!
How do you expect to check in? When I walk up to the counter and speak with the customer service rep. She’s been replaced by a kiosk. Crap!
How long is it going to be before George Jetson greets me at the curb at Hartsfield-Jackson and spews out a luggage tag before directing me electronically to the gate?
It’s no wonder unemployment is right at 3% nowadays. Computers and robots are doing everything.
It’s been kind of interesting in recent weeks to follow the news and hear the crazy high number of jobs that are being associated with the new Rivian and Hyundai EV manufacturing facilities. Estimates are running as high as 15,000 at the two plants together. That’s really a staggering number, given the fact that you know as well as I do that both of those facilities will be using robots like never before. How many people does it take to run a robotic welder?
Maybe the employment numbers are a reflection of the mammoth number of vehicles those plants expect to churn out.
Somebody better get busy with charging stations at Circle K and Mapco.