'These services are antisocial in every sense of the term. They encourage us to sit slovenly on the couch and have food pumped in.'
It was a ripper week for debating civility. As the dust settled on another football grand final, ABC chair Ita Buttrose kicked things off by lamenting the death of the Aussie "larrikin" and sounding the familiar warning that political correctness has gone too far.As climate protesters blocked city streets, we learnt just how fast some people junk the "right to protest" when it interrupts their commute.
I raise these issues only as a precursor to my own contribution to the civility wars: that we should ban, or at the very least discourage, the use of food delivery apps such as Uber Eats.They encourage us to sit slovenly on the couch and have food pumped in, rather than go out to a restaurant.This is not about taking misplaced pride in withdrawing from the culture or the zeitgeist. But the more I see of these apps, the more I'm convinced I'm right.
Technology evangelists typically promote every alleged advance as a positive. They say anything that makes life easier and more convenient must be a good thing. The apps' popularity proves their virtue. In other words, these are people living in dense, accessible areas who can afford to patronise restaurants and are happy to pay someone else to bike their dinner direct to their apartment so they can stay on the sofa watching Netflix. The other day someone told me they had a meal delivered within the same block.And you see the evidence all the time: Deliveroo cyclists darting around city laneways on a bright, sunny Sunday while their customers are cooped-up indoors awaiting lunch.
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