Silicon Valley made us fear friction. But what if it is the secret to a better life? |
Picture this: it’s Friday night, and you don’t have anything in the fridge. What do you do? If you’re anything like the 3.5 million Australians who have downloaded UberEats, you could have groceries or a steaming bowl of pad thai delivered to your doorstep without so much as getting off the couch.
Don’t know what to watch? You can mindlessly scroll TikTok for bite-sized entertainment, or visit a streaming service if you’re after something longer than 10 minutes.
Need to write a birthday card for an aunt you haven’t seen in a while? ChatGPT has you sorted.
Looking for company? Hinge, Tinder or any number of dating apps can hook you up (although no guarantees on the quality of your match).
Heck, if you’re in China, there’s now even an app that allows you to verify someone hasn’t died without actually contacting them yourself.
Since its inception, the north star of Silicon Valley tech bros has been a life without friction: designing seamless user interfaces that promise ease and convenience. But is this a good thing?
In July, US author and economic commentator Kyla Scanlon spearheaded these ideas in an episode of The New York Times podcast The Ezra Klein Show.
Is constant convenience making us miserable? Credit: Dionne Gain
“Basically, the idea of friction is that there is value in things being a tiny bit difficult,” she said.
“When we use digital tools, there really isn’t a lot of friction. For instance, dating apps make dating very easy. DoorDash makes getting things to your house very easy. You can have this frictionless existence, whereas in the physical world, there’s a lot of friction.”
It’s understandable that this “frictionless existence” is so appealing when so many parts of the “real” world feel unbearable.
Widespread suffering, hate, a dying planet, rising cost of living: retreating into a TikTok feed of endless cat videos or ghosting a friend is a natural reaction to what has become known as........