As a former employee of an independent coffee shop, I have encountered dozens of people in their “café offices.” These are the people who come into a coffee shop and spend hours using the establishment’s free wifi. As an employee who works on tips, these people were the bane of my hourly wage existence. Sitting for hours, taking up space, and ordering one $3.50 latte is not helping me pay my tuition. While my job depended upon my patience of this, I have found a significantly satisfying cure. A comedic performance group, “Improv Everywhere” launched a running prank called “Mobile Desktop.”
This prank was composed having people enter Starbucks locations with large desktop computers and setting up as one would with a laptop. They brought the desktop monitors, modems, keyboards, speakers, and mouse. The Improve Everywhere members ordered coffees in order to secure their patron status and set up around the store. The reactions of the staff members as well as other customers were that of shock and confusion. Without believing this was a stunt, the customers and staff believed this was a new trend. After being questioned about it, they said they didn’t understand the point of bringing an entire desktop computer with you to a café.
This prank proves just how reliant everyone is on technology. The fact that an obviously ridiculous prank can be misinterpreted as a new trend shows just how blindly the world yields to “technological advances.” We are a generation enslaved by the new ipod or playstation. We need the next new thing in technology simply because it is the next new thing. The advances in the new versions of the products are minimal but never the less, they must be purchased. This prank not only satisfied my vengeance for idle nontipping laptop users, but also revealed just how influential technology is on society today.
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