Starphones? Cellbucks?

After two years of trial service, Starbucks is implementing a new payment option. In an effort to expedite service, Starbucks will now begin offering mobile payment options in all their locations. The new payment option will allow customers to download an application on participating cell phones. Customers with Blackberry, Iphone, or Ipod Touches will be able to download a bar code onto their phones. After placing an order, customers pull up their bar code on their phone and allow the cashier to scan it. This scan will be deducted from a credit established by the customer online. Starbucks believes this new payment option will be highly successful thanks to cell phone dependence. As vice president Brady Brewer put it, “everyone always carries their cell phone.”

It is obvious cell phones have become a staple in our society, very rarely leaving our hands. This concept prompted the idea that switching payment methods from a credit card to a cell phone would improve productivity. After nearly two years of testing the mobile payment out, Starbucks thinkers proved themselves right. Customers would rather spend the extra minutes online adding the application, and linking it to a credit card, than spend the extra seconds on line taking out a credit card. The new mobile payment system supersedes gift cards, and will be only a matter of time until other companies install like systems in their locations.

The increase of cell phone dependence that will follow this new system makes me think Starbucks engineers may have bought stock in Apple.

"Happy New Year, TAKE A SHOT!"

The stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve is the most congested time for cell phone lines. At twelve o clock, of that time zone, hundreds of thousands of people place calls and pen text messages wishing their loved ones a happy new year. This surge in cell phone traffic clearly has an effect on service. Some cell phone services are completely shut down for hours due to the heavy traffic flow.

As a result of the heavy traffic flow and service shut down, many young people have begun a New Years Eve drinking game. The game is essentially a race. The rules require everyone involved to send a text message to someone else at the same party. The message of the text message is a command. This could range from a drinking instruction, to a request for the removal of clothing. The person who receives the text message within the first 15 minutes of the New Year must complete the task commanded to them. Everyone would like to see the person of their choosing complete the task they messaged, but not be subjected to the task they have been sent. This requires your cell phone service to be good, but not great.

It is amazing that a technological glitch can be transformed into a drinking game, and that people would actually be hoping for sub-par service on their cell phone. It is a testament though, to how enslaved we are to technology. The fact that people would delay their celebrations in order to hit send really says a lot about how tightly knit society is with technology.

Profession

Within his short story, “Profession,” Isaac Asimov extensively examined western education and where he felt that it was leading our society. By strumming up a fanciful and yet tasteful science fiction tale, Asimov indiscreetly offered up a philosophical analysis on the value of original thought to his readers. Initially, Asimov painted the picture of a world where individual thought was discarded, and humans were treated as though they were merely machines.

Instead of taking the time to learn information the old fashioned way, doctors fed individuals all of the information needed to perform certain professions with a tape that resulted in retaining a lifetime of knowledge within a matter of a few mere minutes. As the story progressed, the main character George grew increasingly uncomfortable with this system and went out on an adventure where he would seek to challenge it. He wanted to encourage individuals to learn the old fashioned way, through books. The problem was that no one wanted to learn through books when they could easily retain knowledge from a tape.

I believe that the story made two specific arguments for and against Western education. In the most obvious sense, he stated that while advanced technology opens worlds of possibilities (such as universal networks of interconnected planets), but relying upon it makes the user increasingly lazy over time. In the story, George’s friend did not want to learn about new equipment because the instant tape that could teach him was not available to him. He rather lose the Olympics and a chance to go to Novia (for his dream job on a dream planet) than open a book and learn the hard way. This part of the book pointed directly to the point that I made above.

While Asimov made the point above, he fooled his audience by making it seem that individual thought was entirely unimportant and perhaps even unnecessary in this futuristic society. It was only at the end of the book when George’s acquaintances explained that he was special since he had the power for not only original thought, but had the mental capacity to comprehend and invent ingenious ideas. It was then that George was told that original thought was necessary to power the systematic educational system that he had witnessed for his entire life. Through the culmination of these two ideas, Asimov states that while original thought and intellectual exploration were the most respected and highest forms of learning, that mass production and a simplified system is necessary to move a society forward as a whole.

I happen to agree with both parts of Asimov’s thesis, although I do not think that it is fair. In today’s society it is entirely obvious that originality and genius are considered to be the most precious gifts. At the end of the day a novelist does not contribute as much to the maintenance of daily life as an electrician or a plumber. At the end of the day, an expressive artist is usually starving, because while his work may be ingenious and original, it does not support the maintenance of society. His paintings do not put food on anyone’s table, and it certainly doesn’t build houses. Ultimately this type of higher thinking is a luxury. We have seen this throughout history. First and foremost, the members of a society are mainly concerned with survival, maintaining food, shelter, and clothing. It is only after those needs have been met that they will take the leisure time to throw themselves into the appreciation or participation of higher learning and original thought. Take the Pax Romana as an example. Since the Roman’s basic needs were met, food was plentiful and wars were minimal. These favorable conditions gave Romans the opportunity to take leisure time in studying and advancing. This is why at this time we saw a surge in the discovery of knowledge and in the production of art.

Furthermore, I think that Asimov’s thesis is deeply related to my present life as a student. Although many students may not consider it this way, to study is a luxury. While at school I devote most of my time to intellectual exploration, and the rest of that time to sleeping, eating, partying, relaxing, and the like. I’m in a lucky position where my parents are paying for my education because they have made enough money to take care of the family’s visceral needs. And now make the investment in my future so that I too can one day afford to take care of a family’s visceral needs. While I am here, I am simply here. I do not need to worry about where my next meal is coming from and don’t have to think about fixing a leak in my roof. I don’t have to worry about fixing the heat. There are other people who are there to do those types of things for me. They are paid to do them and they do them all day long. The man who makes the school food and who fixes the buildings is busy doing his work and does not have the leisure time to pursue original thought. Regrettably, there are more maintenance men than there are philosophizing men; this is because in order for someone to have the ability to foster creativity another man must pick up his slack to support the basic structure of the community. This is a simple fact of life that has existed since the Neolithic revolution when the first towns were invented.

Deck the Halls with Narsocism

Now that the holidays are coming up, people are scrambling to find the best gifts for their loved ones. In traditional self-absorbed behavior many people are asking for gifts based upon their Facebook information. In order to fill this need, a new company has emerged. Ninuku Archivist is now cornering the market on the world’s most egotistical gift. They are offering a service that, or a fee, Ninuku Archivist will compile the incredibly unimportant and self indulgent information from a person’s Facebook page. After collecting a sufficient amount of life altering information, the service will create “chapters” which can easily be printed out and turned into a book.
The service is incredibly convenient and can even be accessed by joining the group on your Facebook.

This gift is successful in displaying just how narcissistic society has become. It has become so severe that no long photo albums or scrap books will fill our need for our own self worship. Now we need a printable version of all of the incredible gems of wisdom we type into our statuses. It will be such an asset to have these printed copies of pictures of us drunk at frat parties, and taking self portraits in our mirrors. Heaven forbid we forget the times we “liked” comments, and beat our friends on Farmvile.



http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/turn-your-facebook-into-an-actual-book-with-ninuku-archivist/


http://technabob.com/blog/2010/11/26/ninuku-archivist-facebook-book/

The Greatest Prank Ever.

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.