Your Way Or My Way?

On Sunday I witnessed a scene that made me wonder about how people think and what's important to them in the first place. It was shocking to say the least as honestly, I haven't seen such behavior in my circle of friends. I'm kind of isolated from such way of thinking and I have to be grateful for that, even if the person who created the situation thinks otherwise.

We went to a restaurant, to celebrate a birthday. It was a 25 minute drive, out of the city. You can't really think this is a huge distance or a sacrifice as in my home city of residence, it may take you that much just to cross from one end to the other outside rush hours, or even more.

The location was selected based on previous experience as we all have been there several times before and knew what to expect. Unfortunately what we got was less than what we were hoping for, but that's a story for another post.

The previous night we checked online if the place is still open and bumped into the online menu too, so I kind of knew what to expect in regards of dishes they were offering.

When we arrived at around 2pm, the restaurant was empty and the terrace was almost empty too, except for a couple of tables where people were having lunch. This is never a good sign in my eyes as there must be a reason behind it, but what can you do?

We set down to a nicely laid table and the waiter was there the next minute to take our orders for drinks and this is when the shocking incident started.

There was a tablet (or a tab if you prefer the short form) on the table which the waiter turned on and invited us to check the menu out on it and order. One of the guys from our group got annoyed right away and asked for a printed out menu, which obviously the waiter didn't have. The guy's face turned red and told the waiter that in that case he's not going to order anything and that he also has a message to the manager, that this type of hospitality is unacceptable and they need to change it, if they want to survive. The poor waiter started by apologizing for the inconvenience (what else could he do honestly) and told us he's working with what has been provided and offered to assist the angry guy using his own device. There were a few more rounds of back and forth arguments, among which I also offered to read the menu to our guy but he was set up for a scandal from the start, as I gathered later. We only meet twice or three times a year so I'm not really familiar with his mindset and behavior but now I'm starting to learn how he thinks and it's shocking honestly.

To give you a bit of context, to understand the situation, the angry guy turned 50 last year, he has a law degree but working in a different field, so he's not digitally or otherwise illiterate, that was not the cause of his outrage but he is wired to protest against almost anything new. Honestly I've never met anyone like him and don't know if I could get used to such mentality and behavior, or live with it.

First of all, I think we can agree on the fact that technology is evolving, life is changing and no matter how much you don't like it, it's not going to stop.

The last time I visited this restaurant was in 2020, right after the covid lockdown was lifted and to allow businesses to operate and keep people safe, the terrace of the restaurant opened with some strict rules, one of which was the digital menu available through a QR code. Six whole years have passed and they did not deviate from this habit, they thought a digital menu is the future, not the printed one.

The funny part was our guy's arguments for not using the tab, among which the strongest was the health issues a tab touched by everyone can cause. It was ridiculous of course and his wife told him that a physically printed out menu is even worse as tabs are cleanable and cleaned regularly while a printed out menu can't really be cleaned properly and gets thrown away once it looks bad, but till then thousands are touching it. The funny thing is, you could scan the code with your phone and avoid touching the tab, but our guy was more stubborn than you can imagine and this shows that he was just looking to pick a fight.

After realizing this, I chose to stay out of it and let him go home hungry, if his stupid and not even valid arguments worth more to him than to use the damn code and have some nice meals, but it got me thinking what life can be like with such a mentality.

Imagine protesting like this at a restaurant, just to send a message to management. He goes home angry and hungry too, not to mention he ruins the day as well as it's not pleasant for the others to assist the scandal instead of enjoying a pleasant day. Management takes note of his protest, doesn't give a damn as he's just one in a million and moves on. Who's going to get their life made harder each day? What is he gaining by such behavior? Kind of feel sorry for him as the rest of his life is going to be extremely difficult.

Digitization is ongoing, in one or two years the changes you're going to see will be tenfold or even more and those who can't adapt will be literally left behind. This guy can keep protesting about anything and everything and get nowhere with it. Literally nowhere. What I don't understand is what is there to gain with such stupid behavior as the only outcome of this is you get yourself more trouble and make your own life more difficult with your own hands.

I would have understood his protest if it were about his privacy but a menu doesn't require logging in or providing any personal details, unless you count your fingerprint left on the screen, which obviously can be avoided by using your own device. So I see his behavior as childish and sheer stupid.

No matter how frustrating it may be that things are not working as you want, some thing you will never be able to change. The difference between him and me is that he wakes up looking to create problems for himself, while I'm looking for solutions to problems.

Sometimes I think these people are going to be forced to move to a less developed country, in order to be able to live the life they imagine for themselves. Less developed however doesn't mean better or safer but hey, you reap what you sow, right?

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Your Way Or My Way?

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