Self-serving technologies

A recent column in the International Herald Tribune about “self-service technologies", via [pasta and vinegar] made me think...

If you want a boarding pass issued for a flight, you do it yourself. If you want to check out food at the supermarket, you do it yourself. Even if you want to buy toys, jeans, furniture, or best sellers, you find them and order them on the Web - yourself.

The world today is one of self-service technologies, in which human interaction seems a relic of the past. (…)

It was more the phrase "self service", that triggered in my head how so many technologies are actually self serving (not the technologies, but the action they facilitate). Technology often acts to iron out the bumps that exist within capitalism; placing the impetus and effort on the consumer, isolating and reducing contact with people, feeding and creating our desires.

I respect and get excited by the growing trend towards DIY within technology adoption, but I think there is something to be said for having things done for you (and others)... by people.

Comments

[Anne]

I always remind myself that DIY ethics are very much tied to cultures that place a high value on individualism. Arguably, the historical shift away from craft has a lot to do with the hyper-individualism (in terms of both production and consumption) associated with the industrial revolution and late capitalism.

For example, early craft guilds impacted our experiences of community and town planning, as well as influenced our collective adoption (or refusal) of new technologies:

http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/guildhall/guilds/development_guilds.html

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/mbloy/c-eight/distress/luddites.htm