A while back, I stopped at a coffee shop and asked for a
latte with warm milk instead of hot. The latte was a typical one consisting of
milk and two shots of espresso coffee. The server informed me that I only had
the choice of cold or hot milk. Puzzled, I asked “Why is that?” She explained that the machine heated the milk
at a specific temperature. “And?” I asked puzzled, still not understanding how
that impeded her from providing me with a warm cup of milk. “We only have hot
and cold milk,” she replied, “Do you want it hot or cold?” To which I responded, “So, you have hot milk and
you have cold milk, so why can’t you make a warm milk latte?” She ignored my
question completely and said “So is it a hot latte then?” Compassionately and to turn this into a teaching moment, I replied,
“Please cancel the latte and make it a double shot of espresso.” She complied,
and with coffee at hand, I asked her for a cold milk and a some hot milk and Voila! I magically created right in front of her eyes a mini latte with
warm milk. I was so shocked by this
experience that I called my best friend and said, “I just ordered a warm latte, but apparently, this place does everything with machines, so they only
had hot or cold milk and could not make it for me…” He quickly interrupted me and asked, “Why
didn’t they just mix the milks?” to which I responded “Right? Thank you very
much!”
This incident left me thinking, ‘Are we creating a generation of machine operators who no longer think
for themselves?’ Yet, I filed it away under ‘Unique incidents.’ Recently,
I stopped at a DK off I-75. Again, I was
in a hurry, but wanted to sit down in the restaurant and enjoy a cup of coffee
instead of having it in the car, so I asked for a latte with warm milk. The conversation
quickly turned into, “We only have hot milk or cold milk. Which one do you
want?” Saddened by the lack of simple
problem solving displayed by the server, I proceeded with my questions and this
time, the server working the drive-thru window also confirmed what my server said. As I asked the common sense question “If you
have cold milk and hot milk, why can’t you make warm milk?” someone else behind
the counter explained that they only had two temperatures of milk. A man was standing next to me in the next
register and also didn’t have any suggestions.
You already know the rest of the story; except this time, I just stuck
with an espresso. This got me thinking
about the incompetence we might be creating if the lights ever go out.
I thought about the setting of NBC’s Revolution, a
television show about survival and chaos that emanated from a permanent
worldwide blackout. I thought of how blessed I am to have grown up with less
technology because if I ever had to do without it, I would feel the terrible
inconvenience, but I would like to think that I could still figure things out—like
add cold milk to hot milk to make it warm.
Going back inside my head, I thought, If the lights went out, would people in third world countries be more
likely to continue happily with their lives and would not feel the chaos? Are we creating a generation so hooked on
technology that we would be incompetent without it? Don’t get me wrong, I have much hope for this
new generation. I have a son in college and I truly admire his ideals and those
of his friends. I believe his generation might actually bring us peace; that
is, if my generation doesn’t blow us off the map first. There’s much to admire
about the new generation, the future leaders, like their sense of equality and
acceptance of others and respect for others’ lifestyle choices. Their economy
of words in speaking is an art learned from their right-to-the-point texting. They say only what needs to be said. I know
sometimes, I wish I was more like that.
My generation loves to communicate. We love to share what’s on our mind,
we love a dialogue as much as a good debate. We often say more than we should, but that
stops us none. Now, we are given blogs. So grateful for blogs. I think there’s much
to be said about “I’m not just blabbing on, I’m blogging.”
While, we have much to learn from the new generation. We
also have much we could be teaching them. I wonder if we are doing them a disfavor by
not training them on alternatives to just pushing a button.
