The Human Cost of Automation or "My Miserable Travel Experience"

The F Word with Laura Flanders

Automation automation everywhere. Wherever you look, robots are in, and precarious work is getting precarious-er. Take telephone operators, it’s been years since I spoke to one. I kinda miss'em. Bank tellers are probably next. Business Insider reports that banks could see a 30% reduction in staff over the next ten years and along with the tellers are the bank branches in which they work. Mobile bank apps don’t need real people or real estate, it turns out. The automated world’s an efficient and cost-conscious world. At least that’s what we’re told. It’s what I was told, for about 20 minutes straight, not long ago, when on hold with an airline company. When they finally did pick up – or rather a computer picked up, and took my details several times over: date, time, mothers maiden name. A mechanical voice then finally told me that I would save money and time by entering all that data, again, into a form online. Every minute of my time and custom they assured me, is valuable and valued; But before they were finished, they hung up on me. Date, time, mothers maiden name, Having finally put all that in again and purchased a ticket, I arrived at the airport. I checked in online, but still I’m greeted by a screen that asks sincerely about my packing and then directs me to a person who wont touch my bag but tells me to lift it myself onto a scale and then carry off to a distant conveyor belt. There’s a retirement home somewhere filled with unhappy baggage handlers and travel agents. I'm sure of it. Finally, though, I was through the security check, now the most up close and personal part of the whole experience – and into the departure lounge, once the site of cheap restaurants and dark sports bars. The chatty wait staff have all been replaced by iPad like tablets on every table, I discovered. Glowing green, they reflect the irate faces of all the frustrated customers. No chatty waiter, no barman with an eye on your flights. Only a harried food carrier who says she can only respond to the computer. It’s all enough to make you almost relish the crush of crowded flesh against flesh on the actual airplane. Someone somewhere may be saving money. But efficient - for whom? Not me if you tally up all that screen time. And what’s the price do you think, if we put one on human to human connection?