My life, my few friends’ lives, my family members’ lives, shit just sucks all around. I can’t remember the last time I went somewhere for lunch and paid less than ten dollars. God, remember when fast food used to be the cheap option with somewhat of a reputation for being poor people food? I sure as hell do because that was like 10 years ago (in my experience at least). It’s so incredibly, incredibly fucking ominous to see that all the cashiers are gone and have been replaced by kiosks.
And part of me understands that this is just the natural progression of technology or whatever the fuck, but there are days where I go without talking to someone in real life. The same shit is happening at pharmacies, grocery stores, even Godamn doctors offices. Am I just being too glass half empty? Every part of this seems like a living nightmare and it just continues to get worse
Every time I go to one of the aforementioned establishments, they’ve added another camera or put another item behind a paywall. This just seems to me like brick and mortar stores are becoming high security centers in an effort to push everyone to purchase online.
I don’t think the downstream effects need to be mentioned here. Gee wonder why everyone is hyper-individualistic
I don’t think that necessarily follows. Now, sure, I’ve never been to China, I have no idea what it’s like over there, so this comment is pretty much purely hypothetical.
All I’m saying is that I don’t think automating away service industry jobs is necessarily bad for social cohesion. Like, if I had friends and the ability to hang out with them somewhere pleasant, I don’t think I’d mind ordering food from a kiosk instead of a person. The issue here in America is that I don’t have friends, and there is basically nowhere to hang out that’s pleasant that doesn’t cost a bajillion dollars. It’s definitely true that the majority of my social interaction happens with customer service people, but those aren’t real relationships, they’re never any deeper than like 3 sentences of pleasantries, they can’t replace genuine human connection (and shouldn’t have to, even though they kind of do for many people, me included).
I don’t think the automation is the problem, I think it’s the lack of third spaces, the lack of any sort of community social events I would enjoy (or could afford), and just generally living in a society where everyone is struggling to make ends meet, where everyone is stressed and miserable.
There is no community in America, only disjoint pockets of shared loneliness. What OP is noticing is that the substitutes for this lack of real community (work socialization, social interaction in stores & restaurants) is being replaced by automation, making the brief periods of respite from loneliness fewer.
There are very few free public places to meet people. Fewer people have the money to go shopping, bar hopping, or clubbing than ever before, so the only places for social atmosphere are out of reach for many.
Right, I think you and I are saying the same thing. My only point is simply that it’s not automation of service industry jobs that’s causing this loneliness. I commented mostly to say: I don’t think China is worse socially than America, even though China has more automation of service industry jobs than America does.