Dan Morris: App-ocalypse Now - coffee stats fresh wake-up call to overreliance on tech in young
According to fresh research we were treated to this week, a growing number of young people are apparently too shy to set foot in a coffee shop.
Stats provided by multinational health tech firm Philips suggest that seven per cent of Gen Z-ers have admitted they are too intimidated to approach a barista, and that almost half (47 per cent) are choosing to order their ‘Joe’ through delivery apps so as to avoid a wrong order or awkward interaction, skipping the cafe experience entirely.
Whatever next…
This so-called ‘coffee anxiety’ among the young apparently doesn’t stop with cafe staff interaction. One in ten Gen Z-ers are supposedly now turning to AI to figure out how to make a cup of coffee, with two out of five (38 per cent) also saying that making it for someone else fills them with dread, for fear of getting it wrong.
Members of Generation Z are currently around 13 to 28 years old. Aside from obvious points about the WWII generation having been drafted for service at this age and having had a lot more to be anxious about than making or ordering a brew, stats like this are of course generally embarrassing, but also concerning.
The bit that bothers me the most is that social interaction is apparently being avoided because technology is providing another solution – and I’m mostly concerned here with regards to the younger half of Gen Z, namely the teenagers.
I remember being a young teen, and basic interaction with retail staff was actually quite an important part of social development.
If you think about your world as a 13 or 14-year-old, chances are it is populated almost exclusively with people who have a vested interest in talking to you and being nice to you – parents, teachers, friends, etc.
At such an age, it is important to learn how to navigate the rest of the big wide world, which as an adult will surely involve interaction with plenty of people who have no reason to really care about you at all.
Buying a butty, a magazine or, indeed, a hot beverage over the counter from an actual human is one of the practices that, as a young person, is surely vital to the honing of social skills used when dealing with strangers or new people, and, frankly, to the continued development of good manners.
It might seem extreme to say, but without these basic interactions, you could end up with a 16-year-old who finishes school having barely spoken to someone who doesn’t love or like them. I can’t think of a worse grounding for someone potentially about to enter the workplace.
The main point being, if young people are nervous to talk to shop assistants, parents and carers should encourage them to do so rather than allow them to rely on apps and online purchasing. If you do the latter, you ain’t being kind to them.
It’s another branch of a terrible tree that has taken root in the world, and one that I have ranted about copiously before. But as a father, it frightens me, and we need to make sure we are all doing as much about it as possible.
Said tree is the ‘tech tree’ – the one that, while providing many benefits to modern living, is also leading to the death of genuine social interaction in young people.
Social media allows them to avoid physical interaction with each other outside of school. Apps let them avoid dealing with Joe Public. Digital technology is fostering a generation of youngsters whose social skills will be behind the level they should be at when they reach adulthood, unless we work harder to counter this by discouraging their reliance on it.
If we let youngsters avoid buying a coffee because they are scared to talk to someone, we are keeping them scared – and that’s not going to help them when it comes to job interviews, is it? My views on this subject (as you will doubtlessly have surmised) are very strong – perhaps even extreme. But I am far from alone, and suspect that many other parents reading this will be of the same mind.
No one wants to deny children and youngsters the many ways in which modern technology can make their lives better, and help them. But in this regard, I fear it is not helping them.
The ‘coffee conundrum’ is not the straw that breaks the camel’s back – but if and when more stats like this arise, that straw will come.
For the benefit of young people everywhere, this needs to be nipped in the bud right now, and reliance on apps needs to be strongly discouraged. If you’re too scared to buy a cuppa, the next Churchill, you will not be…
