Wednesday 21 July 2010

Are we obslete?

As an unemployed student, I've had a lot of time to think about the more important questions that life poses, such as why is it that some people would rather use the self service checkout in their local superstore than the till? As I qued for my local Tesco's self service checkout I began to grow increasingly concerned at the presence of woman ahead of me who appeared to have done shopping for the whole month. In comparison to the 3 items in my hand at the time I questioned her logic and wondered why she simply didn't go to a till.

With the introduction of these self service checkouts I was very skeptical of their purpose, even to the extent of thinking that a secret scheme was being employed to train the public to scan their own items in attempt to eventually phase out all till workers. The sad thing is that whilst at the time I may had just been entertaining myself with far-fetched themes as I often do, there appears to be truth in my figment of imagination. Train ticket machines, Sat-Nav and all manner of things invented to make life easier, these are all items that are being commonplace in everyday life, so what's the problem?

Well, personally I don't take too much issue with the application of technology in order to assist the everyday person, however, there comes a point where technology begins to eliminate necessity of a human presence. Maybe this is just the rant of a student who is struggling to find employment for the summer (and in part this is true) but when a touch screen can apply successfully for a job position ahead of a competent individual, it's time to worry.

No comments:

Post a Comment