A week or so ago, my wife and I had a check we needed to deposit in the bank. The problem was that it was a Saturday and our bank was not open.
“Maybe we need to get hooked up with online banking,” she said. “You can just take pictures of checks and they are deposited automatically.”
I’m naturally backwards and leery of technology. Sure, that would be convenient, I guess, no trip to the bank, no waiting in line. No chatting with a friendly teller or running into an old friend you haven’t seen in a while. It’s very much in line with how most things get done now.
You can sign up for meal delivery kits that will automatically ship you everything you need to make a lovely dinner. Just think, you don’t have to go to the store, deal with crowds and get stuck forever at the checkout behind some mega-coupon person with a giant photo album full of cost saving clippings. You also won’t see what specials are available and won’t see any ingredients that might inspire you to get a bit adventurous in the kitchen.
Speaking of the grocery store, you pretty much don’t have to go there at all anymore. Why, all you need do is go online, select what you want and it can be delivered right to your door. It is a big time saver and, again, no crowds, no trying to find a parking spot. Granted, you might get green bananas instead of the ripe ones you really wanted…and maybe they’ll have to sub in Jimmy Jack’s Great Value Poo Paper instead of the pillowy soft Charmin you might prefer, but that’s a small price to pay. You might miss bumping into your third grade English teacher too, the one that really inspired and motivated you when you needed some direction in life. That’s OK, though; you can exchange cat memes with one another on social media, which is just as good and meaningful conversation as catching up. Really, you can buy anything online now, negating the need to go look at clothes, cars, grills or houses. No muss, no fuss and no human interaction. Don’t forget that you can pay your bills online, so you can skip going to the water company or cable company. Sure you have friends that work at one and a cousin at another, but you’ll probably see them at some point…or, you know, there are always cat memes.
Going to the office is so passé now too. Most people can work from home. No office, no getting up early…no relationships with coworkers, no meeting new people and making new friends. That sounds great, doesn’t it?
Heard of telemedicine yet? Well, sending a picture of an infected body part used to be considered a form of harassment; now a doctor that you may or may not know can use that to diagnose ailments. Skip the waiting room…and friendly nurses and an in-person meeting with a person you trust dealing with the most important thing that there is. Just think of all the time you are saving that you can allocate to other things…like spending more time on the computer away from people. I’m sure that is totally disconnected in any way from our country’s mental health crisis. Yes, all this technology helps us live a very convenient lifestyle…and conveniently makes us reclusive and dependent on phones and computers.
“No,” I told my wife. “I think I’ll just take that check to the bank myself on Monday.”
