In my job, I talk to dozens, nah scratch that – hundreds of people everyday. My day begins in conversation with the people in my lift, the security staff at my apartment, taxi driver, family, friends, staff, boss, customers, potential customers, partners, building maintenance staff. The day ends in dialogue with the taxi driver, family, friends, security at my apartment, and people in my lift. Then……silence! Sweet, sweet silence!
The evenings, or my few hours of shoosh time, allow me to attend to personal affairs i.e. pay bills, book or change flight details, tag myself into friend’s vacation pictures on Facebook – that I do not appear in (I recommend this), tweet a few Mel Gibson jokes, and check my share portfolio – which resembled the budget of a small Pacific nation in 2006, but today is scarcely enough to buy a Domino’s pizza.
As you can see, I love the Internet. Or the “internets” as George W. Bush calls it. I especially love it as an expatriate living in South East Asia. I save money and time on phone calls, and I don’t have to face the humiliating rejection of a disconnected call because the Customer Service Agent believed my attempt at speaking the local dialect to be either a crank call or the sound of a person being choked to death over the phone.
Moreover, I love enterprises that allow me to access my account, pay bills, check order status, problem initiation, transfer money, change billing details 365/24/7, all without requiring me to TALK TO ANYONE! Oh, the serenity will set you free…