Civilization rests on tools to do things and mediate actions
between people. That’s probably a
truism, but it’s a broad concept that lets us examine just about everything
that people do and every way we do those things. Jones and Hafner state that all cultural
tools come with built-in affordances and constraints (3). Fire affords us heat for our camp. It can also burn our camp to the ground.
Two cultural tools with possibly less-dramatic affordances
and constraints are smart cards and cash registers. They also happen to work quite well together
in something called electronic commerce, which is of some importance to 21st
century life. A “smart card” resembles a
typical credit card, but with a computer chip embedded in it. This gives it more uses than the old-fashioned
magnetic-stripe credit card. In full
disclosure, I should state that I work on the technology side of the credit
card processing industry, and know more about the subject than I ever wanted
to.
Credit cards in general mark a shift in mediation comparable
to Jones and Hafner’s example of the wristwatch. Instead of the physical weight of cash or
change in your wallet or purse, your entire budget might be represented in one
flimsy piece of plastic. That plastic is
easy to whip out and swipe. By removing
the physical awkwardness of counting out money, it takes away a psychological
barrier as well, making it easier to spend money. Smart cards chip away a little more at those
barriers. Some can be waved in front of
a device that reads the card data in radio waves. No swiping required, and usually not even a
signature or a PIN. This affords a great
degree of convenience, but constrains our need or ability to consider how
significant the bytes we just waved away were to our budget.
The devices that read smart cards will increasingly be found
on cash registers. These devices have
gone from being mere repositories of cash and coins to computer terminals
linked to inventory systems, banks, and even marketing software. Souped-up cash registers, or point-of-sale
(POS) devices, afford businesses the ability to instantly update their inventory
as it changes, move customers quickly through purchases, and monitor their
buying habits.
The conveniences of electronic commerce also constrain
us. If a server goes down, and every POS
device in the store loses its connection, what happens? How many times has a customer heard a cashier
lament “the system” being down or having problems? It’s understandable in that the conveniences that
both the customer and the cashier are used to have vanished, and both seem
helpless. On the other hand, the same
transaction used to be handled with an exchange of cash or coins and some
calculations. How would our ancestors
have felt if, after a half-day trek across the prairie to the general store,
the clerk told them he couldn’t make a sale because he ran out of paper to
record their purchases?
In the same way that we don’t really “know” the time before
looking at watch, we’re not really exchanging money with a card the same way we
do with cash. We’re using a different
tool to mediate a similar action. We’re
also mediating different relationships with each other. Customers and merchants don’t have to
exchange many words—if any—to make a transaction. By removing physical money and mental
calculations, there’s hardly any time to converse. Without falling too deeply into dystopian
laments of budget-ignorant consumers silently shuffling through checkout lines,
the affordance of speedy and accurate transactions are real. I’ve been to countries where haggling is
expected. The rustic charm of playing
psychological games every time you want to buy something wears off eventually.
Socrates was wrong when he worried that writing would turn
our minds to mush (11). But it did
fundamentally change civilization; a less robust memory may have freed up a
more creative mind. Likewise, removing
more and more thought from the exchange of money will leave lasting changes to
society.
Jones, Rodney H.,
and Christoph A. Hafner. Understanding
Digital Literacies: A Practical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2012.
Neil, I appreciate your explanation about credit card technology and electronic commerce and some of the effects they have on us and our spending mindset and habits. I agree that the ease in which it takes to make a purchase electronically (without ever having to count out the cash) has affected me. I find I am more impulsive so in recognition of that fact, I strive to use restraint and stick to an old-fashioned budget. I am wondering though, with all of the information stored on the smart cards and the ease of use, how much of an impact does that have on identity theft? and are there (surely, there has to be) specialized security features as well?
ReplyDeleteNeil--very thoughtful response. I'm reminded of two things that you touch on in your post. One is an article I read about Target. Target (and many other businesses) tracks customer's purchases, anticipating what s/he buys in order to "push" certain purchases. This is why we get personalized coupons. But what was really interesting to me is the example given in the article was that Target knows you're pregnant before anyone else does. It tracks the kinds of items you buys and makes a determination. Even more interesting, it is apparently right most of the time. Another thought I had was the threat of identify theft from smart cards. December of 2013, for example, Target computers were hacked, creating worries about identity theft. It was mainly the red card that was affected, but I thought how I use my debit card for all purchases and was then fearful that someone would be able to get into my bank account. Nothing happened to me, but I'm sure someone, somewhere was affected. Yet, we still go about our shopping, continuing to use those cards because that's how business is done. I'm not even sure I could write a check anymore. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't know why but for me it is much easier to spend money here in the US than in Germany. And one point might be that it is more common here to use your card to pay for purchases. Many people in Germany still use cash a lot, especially for everyday purchases that are not very expensive. It is also very very uncommon to use your card for a purchase of something that is like one or two dollars; or to use it in a bakery, a night out in a club or a bar.
ReplyDeleteAnother example that comes to my mind is an American teenage girl, aged 14 now, that I used to take care of five years ago. I visited her and her family during Christmas Break and we went shopping that one day. She had a debit card and I was so surprised, maybe a little shocked how easily she spent the money on it. She just put $20 on her public transportation card and said she would do that almost every week and it didn't seem like she cared a lot to spend it on unnecessary rides. I just thought, wow you really don't know how hard it is to earn money :-). But she's still young, so hopefully she will learn it.
Yes, I've found that when I force myself to stick to cash, it's much harder to spend money. This is what I meant when I wrote of cards breaking down a psychological barrier to spending. Your card's weight doesn't change when you use it, even though you've lost some money.
DeleteRegarding security of smart (chip) cards, they are generally safer than our current magnetic stripe cards. The Target incident Dr. Bridgeford mentioned was largely due to the cards involved NOT being chip-enabled. Whereas a magstripe card transfers your personal information from card to terminal, a smart card does most of the processing on the card itself, in the chip. This way, the minimal amount of data moves around.
ReplyDeleteThat said, as our topic suggests, there are constraints with all affordances. The true benefit of switching to smart cards is that the US, as the last major holdout, has become the target of fraudsters attracted to our outdated technology. Switching will require some minor changes in behavior, as all tools do.