It is all about the light

We were promised a simpler life.

Technology, we were told, would make everything easier. Computers would do the boring stuff. Smartphones would put the world at our fingertips. The internet would eliminate paperwork. Automation would free us from tedious tasks so we could spend our precious time doing things that matter.

Well, I would like to file a complaint.

Here I am, on a Sunday afternoon, already exhausted just thinking about the list of things I have to do starting tomorrow. And somehow, many of these things have become considerably more complicated than they were 15 years ago.

Apparently, technology has not eliminated unnecessary steps. It has simply created new ones.

1. Parking

In the past, if I drove downtown Sacramento, I would pull into a parking garage, take a ticket from a machine, park my car, and go about my business. When I left, I handed the ticket to a person, paid cash, and drove away.

Done. Humanity survived.

Now, I park somewhere and am immediately confronted with a QR code.

I point my phone at it, which opens a website that may or may not load. Then I have to download an app. Then I have to create an account. Then I have to enter my email. Then I have to create a password. Then I have to enter my credit card information. Then I have to confirm something.

All I wanted to do was park the damn car.

At this point, I have invested more time establishing a relationship with the parking company than I will spend parked there.

2. Restaurants

Going to a restaurant used to be beautifully simple. I sat down. A human being handed me a menu. I looked at the menu and decided what I wanted to eat.

Now there is a QR code on the table.

I take out my phone, photograph the little square, wait for the website to load, enlarge the text because apparently menus are now designed for microscopic ants, and scroll through 14 pages of photographs, descriptions, disclaimers and possibly the restaurant’s privacy policy.

And some restaurants have taken this even further: I am expected to order my food from the phone.

Apparently the waiter has been promoted to QR code.

I am beginning to wonder whether, eventually, the restaurant will simply send me the ingredients, a YouTube tutorial, and wish me luck.

3. Going to the doctor

Going to the doctor used to involve three basic steps: make an appointment, show up, and talk to a human being.

Now, after making the appointment, I receive a series of increasingly urgent messages telling me that I need to “check in.”

Hours before my appointment, I am filling out forms on my phone asking me questions I have already answered approximately 47 times.

Then I arrive at the doctor’s office and fill out more forms.

Then I wait.

Then I finally see the doctor, who spends approximately five minutes with me before saying, “Okay, we’ll see you next time.”

I leave.

And then, because apparently I haven’t done enough work already, I receive another message asking me to evaluate my experience.

“Your feedback is important to us!”

I am sure it is. Otherwise you wouldn’t be asking me to spend another ten minutes providing it.

4. Logging into anything

Once upon a time, logging into a website required a username and password.

It was annoying, particularly because every website had different password requirements. But at least the ordeal eventually ended.

Now I type in my password.

Then the website sends a code to my phone.

I type the code into the website.

Then it asks me to prove that I am not a robot by identifying all the squares containing buses.

Except the bus is only partially visible in one square.

And apparently I need to click the square containing the rear-view mirror of a bus to prove my humanity.

Sometimes I am asked to identify traffic lights, bicycles, motorcycles, crosswalks, mountains or fire hydrants.

5. Reading the news

I used to buy a newspaper.

That was it.

I paid for the newspaper and read the news.

Now I go online, find the article I want to read, and am immediately informed that I have reached my monthly limit of three articles.

Fine.

I create an account.

Then I discover that I need a subscription.

I enter my credit card information.

Then I have to remember to cancel the subscription three months later because I only wanted to read one article about why the squirrels in my neighborhood are behaving strangely.

And let’s not forget the grand foundation upon which all of this technological “convenience” rests:

I need a phone.

First I need to choose a phone.

Then I need a phone provider.

Then I need a plan.

Then I need to activate the phone.

Then I need to transfer my information.

Then I need to learn how to use the phone.

Then I need to keep the phone charged.

Then I need to update the phone.

Then I need to update the apps.

Then I need to remember all the passwords for the apps.

And after all that, I can finally use my phone to save myself 30 seconds by ordering a coffee.

We were promised that technology would give us more free time.

Instead, it has given us passwords, QR codes, verification codes, apps, accounts, subscriptions, notifications, updates, Captchas and an ever-growing collection of tiny boxes we must click to prove that we are human.

Maybe technology really has made life simpler.

I’m just not sure for whom.

The FEATURED PHOTOGRAPH, “Dancing with the wind”, is part of my “Expatriated” collection and was featured at the Personal Narrative exhibit of the Photo Place Gallery in 2019.

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Wall Art Botanical Images

Wall Art Photography projects

Wall Art landscapes and miscellaneous

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