Freed: Everything in the world is being updated, except for us |
I was in a crowded downtown cinema bathroom last week, with newfangled taps you wave your hands under to get water flowing. I waved, then waved again, but nothing happened. So I moved to the next sink and waved some more.
But nothing happened, again.
Moving to the third sink, I felt like an idiot everyone there was watching, especially the guy at the first sink, which was somehow working for his hands.
But miraculously, the third one worked for me.
When this happens, I always figure my waving technique is wrong: that I wave too quickly, or too slowly, or these sinks just don’t like my hands.
But at a recent dinner a friend complained about the same problem, only she thought her hand was “too thin” to trigger the automated tap.
Another person thought he was holding his hands at the wrong angle and he needed a modern “sink seminar.”
We’ve all washed our hands in public perfectly for decades, but now we’re inadequate.
It’s the same with new electronic soap dispensers you must touch, or wave at just right.
But if one doesn’t work, you don’t know if it’s your technique, or there’s just no soap left.
That’s only until you turn to leave when soap shoots onto the counter, after a several-second delay.
They’re both examples of sleek new electronic designs, which........