I love technology. I love that I can check my email on my phone, type a word into a search bar and get information on a topic instantly and I’m beyond thankful that I’ve never had to put a disgusting, bacteria-ridden pay phone up to my ear.
But over the past year or so, I’ve been trying to think outside of the 21st-century box that we’ve been raised in and use something outside of technology when I can — they’re called people.
Remember people? Employees? If not, maybe you’ll remember your parents handing them these green pieces of paper called “dollar bills” when you were young.
Remember now? Good.
The convenience of self-checkout grocery scanners, ATMs that can make deposits and websites that ask if you would like a side of breadsticks with your pizza are all neat and handy. But every time you use one of those, you’re allowing big business to cut out the middleman — also the little man — and replace a would-be employee with a machine.
Do you know where the hourly wage for the guy who takes your pizza order goes when he doesn’t have a job anymore? Not to the machine, but to the bigger, deeper pockets of the “higher-ups.”
Fast and easy is what we’ve become accustomed to. We live in a world where everything is so quick and convenient that we sometimes forgot how our country got to where it used to be — or at least where it was a short time ago — by people relying on other people for services that created jobs.
Waiting in a grocery line for an extra three minutes or filling out a deposit slip isn’t all that difficult. In fact, if you’re even willing to go into a bank, they’ll give you a lollipop! For free! I’ve even taken two before and they’ve not said a word about it.
Don’t judge me. I’m not some hippie trying to “stick it to the man.” I’m actually about the furthest thing from a hippie you will find. Come to think of it, I kind of despise hippies, but only because they don’t usually have jobs.
And jobs are what we need right now. So next time you are choosing whether to buy your movie ticket from a machine or a person, or debating iTunes versus a local music store, think about where your money’s going. It might be a couple minutes of waiting or an extra stop on the way to class for you, but for someone else, it’s the difference in whether or not the bills get paid.
