Rusty Saber: High-tech gadgets unfortunately become part of daily life

Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.

New trends have appeared on the scene that change the way traditional things are done. It probably comes as no surprise to readers that I haven't been quick to embrace some of them. However, in 21st-century America, new trends are hard to ignore. Some I've accepted; others I tolerate, albeit grudgingly.

When "service"' stations were replaced by trendy pump-it-yourself gas emporiums, I didn't like it one bit.

They once were called "service" stations because a service attendant came to the car to pump the gas, wash the windshield, check the radiator, oil, battery and air pressure in the tires, and sweep the floor mats.

As service stations began fading into folklore, I said I would never pump my own gas; however, I've gone along with it. I didn't have a choice. It was that or ride a bicycle. In Springfield traffic? No way!

To make the gasoline buying experience as impersonal as possible, enter the trend of paying for gas at the pump with a credit card. Occasionally, I do it, but I don't like it. There is something I don't like about sticking a credit card into a gas pump and being handed a receipt. If a human being won't service my car, I want to pay one for the service I perform.

Likewise, when ATMs first came on the scene, I turned up my nose at the idea of the card poked into a slot of a thingamajig to get cash in return. Early ATMs weren't very reliable, doling out cash only if the machine felt like it. I didn't want anything to do with this thing. I vowed to do my banking with a real bank teller. It took a while, but ATMs have won me over. My initial aversion was based mostly on the reliability factor. ATMs today are easier to operate and more reliable.

I wrote in a long ago column that the "Temporarily Out of Order'' signs that seemed to constantly adorn ATMs should be replaced by Temporarily in Order." Today, I'm fine with ATMs. I don't often say this about high-tech, trendy gizmos, but I don't know how I got along without them.

There is nothing new about the trend of drive-up windows at fast food restaurants; they have been around for decades. I don't care how long they have been on the scene, I don't like them. Usually I go inside rather than order from a machine with a vocabulary limited to May I take your order" and "Do you want fries with that"? Nor am I keen on taking my food from an arm extending from a hole in a wall. My philosophy is: Always eat in restaurants and drive in cars and never switch the two.

A brand new trend I have sworn to ignore with every fiber of my being is automated checkout at supermarkets. I've gone along with some trendy notions of doing business. Well, I'm drawing a line in the sand. I want a flesh-and-blood person to check me out at the supermarket and take my money. As an experiment, I have twice put the automated check-out system to the test; buying only one item. I didn't miss out on human contact because store employees on hand for such emergencies twice had to bail me out. If this trend turns out to be another pump-it-yourself or walk, I could probably master the art of self-checkout of a few items without having to call in the experts. However, I can't visualize shoppers checking themselves out of a supermarket with baskets loaded with enough items to fill a box car. No way!

The self-service method as it exists today may be short-lived. I understand that some stores have fitted shopping carts with wireless computers containing hand-held bar-code scanners so items can be scanned on the spot. All you have to do is pay the already figured total at the door. This development is so new that I need to think about it before deciding I don't like it. In fact, this and other eye-popping, automated-shopping doodads will be the topic of a future column.