As the times change, when Facebook replaces MySpace and friends twitter, g-chat and Skype each other over writing letters and sending postcards, I wonder whether these differing methods of communication actually help us to stay connected or keep us at a healthy distance.
Owning and operating a cafe has posed its technological challenges around staying organized and communicative with the right people at the right time. We have seen technological applications that have certainly helped our business grow and some that have actually decreased our efficiency or our ability to stay present.
I will be the first to admit that technology is one of my weaknesses. The way that some people have affinities for records or magazines or comic books or shoes and bags, I am addicted to gadgets. And I am usually one of the suckers that falls for first generation and newly released models, which typically aren’t the best of the best. What I like about technology aside from the novelty and the newness of it, is its potential to help make our lives easier or maybe offer us the ability to do more work with less effort so that we can be more engaged in things that we want to have draw our attention.
Here is a small example of technology that, in my opinion, has not brought us forward. Below, is a super automatic espresso machine that with the single push of a button, will grind, dose, and tamp the espresso. With a second push of a button, you can heat/steam the milk. To me, this is an example of losing the craft of making a beverage, a way in which technology has not helped better something, but actually eliminated the human element out of it. Ironically, the person is still standing there, they are just not doing anything now.
This Volkswagon green beauty is our espresso machine at Bloc, a custom painted LaMarzocco FB70. (We picked this color green to match our logo). This machine is considered a semi-automatic, but is actually pretty low-tech as far as espresso machines go. Not only did we save money by going lower-tech, the relative simplicity of this machine reduces the number of areas where things can go wrong. The mechanisms that control the group heads are not electrical, therefore, there is little possibility of non-functionality because of an electrical component.
Making an espresso based beverage is certainly a skill and something we appreciate as a craft. It takes lots of practice and training to perfect our practices and make great drinks. More importantly, though, this machine allows us to do something while keeping the human component very present in the process. Every aspect of preparing and making the drink requires careful observation and human attention.
I guess I am just reminding myself that it is important to consider how technology affects our experience of something that we already do. I suppose that’s why I still write letters over emailing certain friends….