Finding a quiet moment for yourself in our 24-hour news cycle, internet, text, and phone world is challenging. Sometimes we find little pockets of time (like when I walk my dog) where no one can reach us and we get a short break from an otherwise frenzied world.
I don't especially like pumping gas because its kind of a 5-minute boring errand but on the bright side its a few minutes of peace and quiet...just me and my car and all the traffic whizzing by the road. I have always enjoyed knowing that, for that brief moment in time, I am not in touch with the world at large. But now even that little break has been ruined by technology.
I don't especially like pumping gas because its kind of a 5-minute boring errand but on the bright side its a few minutes of peace and quiet...just me and my car and all the traffic whizzing by the road. I have always enjoyed knowing that, for that brief moment in time, I am not in touch with the world at large. But now even that little break has been ruined by technology.
Technology can be a wonderful thing. Technology has brought us laptop computers, huge TVs, online shopping, internet porn, the ability to share 5 gazillion cat photos/videos with our friends, and the ability to pay for things with your credit card just by swiping it in point of service (POS) machines like gas pumps.
Remember when you used to have to pull up to the gas pump and then get out of your car and walk into the store to pay for your gas before you pumped it? Annoying. And if it was raining or snowing, a pretty messy errand. But probably a good thing for shop owners who had a decent chance at selling you convenience store items while you were inside paying for gas.
Enter the automated gas pump. Now we can quickly pay for and pump gas without having to leave the vicinity of our car and (bonus) not have to talk to anyone. Its a quick and conversation-free experience...which, when it comes to pumping gas, is my favorite kind. Or at least it was until technologists and marketing people got involved and conspired to ruin my nice quick and quiet gas pumping experience.
Now, when you pull up to a gas pump, there is an excellent chance that it will talk to you and spew information ranging from public service announcements (don't drink and drive!) to sales pitches (would you like to purchase an additive which will clean your engine while you drive?) to advertisements (Cottonelle is on sale for $2.99 today only so come into the store!).
It annoys me beyond reason. I view the time that I am pumping gas as a few quiet moments where I am not available for phone calls, email, texts, or any conversation at all. And now that 5 minutes of peace and quiet have been stolen from me.
OK so they have stolen my peace and quiet and for what? So that they can try to sell me an additive that can automatically be added to my gasoline at the pump to clean my engine. Well if it is that freaking great and SO important to the overall well being of my car why isn't it already in the gasoline? If it was that important I would hope that Exxon or Chevron would already put it in my gasoline. Are they withholding a crucial ingredient to my car's well being? I doubt it; and that is what pisses me off even more - they are ruining my nice quiet gas-pumping time to try to sell me an additive that I don't even need.
I don't really mind the public service announcements as much because I figure that the police probably need all the avenues of communication they can get to tell people not to do stupid things when they drive. However I still don't want to be sold to or talked to by a machine while I am putting fuel in my car. That is my time, not yours. So to the marketing and tech assholes geniuses that thought up this grand new opportunity to communicate with the public: you can suck it.
That's all I have to say about this.
