I am an early adopter.
Obviously I’m not talking about music or fashion, but technology.
I. LOVE. TECH.
Actually, I should be more precise, I love gadgets.
Robot dogs, rabbits, cats and birds.
Cameras, games systems, phones and televisions.
Computers, lights, guitars and cars.
If it’s got some sort of cool gadget in it, I will either buy it or at least pay to try it.
In short, I am sad.
This addiction [and it is an addiction] has seen me spend untold amounts of cash on upgrades and silliness [robot ball anyone?] but one thing I’ve never done is spend my cash on something that tried to make me change my behaviour without addressing my concerns, especially if it concerns accessing my bank account.
What the fuck am I talking about?
This …
I know companies want us to live in a cashless society …
I know we use internet banking without a second thought …
I know we think nothing of handing our credit card details to shops via the internet or phone …
I know I’ve personally been ripped off by credit card fraud from Tunbridge Wells to Timbuktu …
… but I’ll be fucked if I’m going to use a separate machine to ‘tip’ someone via my debit/credit card.
Why?
Well, it’s not because I’m a tight bastard [though I absolutely LOATHE how some restaurants automatically add a tip to your bill, meaning you have to specifically ask to have it taken off if you don’t agree with it – which I am more than happy to do, let me tell you] it’s because it makes no sense. No sense at all.
If this machine is by a cash register, then I assume you will have purchased something … and if you’ve purchased something, then I’m pretty sure you’d give any tip you want to give directly to the person taking your money.
I very much doubt you’d pay the teller and then shove your card into another machine to hand over a tip – not just because it takes more time, but because you can choose how much you want to pay at the bill is presented to you.
And god-forbid this machine becomes the new ‘charity collection jar’.
I know it might make sense in terms of getting people to hand over cash – given more and more are living via cards, than coins – but sadly, I think this would end up with them obtaining even less money than they do already.
Why?
Because handing over some coins doesn’t have the same emotional concerns or consequences as handing over your card … especially when coins don’t give access to your entire bank account.
The problem with this sort of tech is that it might make sense in ‘theory’ but life doesn’t work like that.
Humans are suspicious, cautious, hypocritical beings – regardless of age – and to get people to embrace a completely new way of behaving needs time, trust, education or incentive and this device, as far as I know, has none of those … which goes to show that while technologists are incredibly smart, some are not very clever.