It seems like every day that passes, I locate another place where rhetoric has gone to die. Today, I spent half an hour frustrated over a doctor’s office automated answering machine. All I wanted to accomplish was to refill a prescription. That’s it. And I know that doctors have a lot to get done throughout the day, what with saving people’s lives and all. But I just wanted to speak to a real human for five minutes so I could have medicine waiting for me when I get home.
But what was I greeted with? An endless array of “press-this-number-for-this” choices, none of which seemed to actually fit the description of what I needed. Once again, I was reminded that machines cannot adequately do what humans can.
My question is why. Why does the world continue to try to end communication between two people? Are we all really that busy?! We can take the time to create these machines to replace our conversations, but we can’t take the few minutes to have these conversations ourselves? It’s nonsensical. It doesn’t make an ounce of sense.
Rhetoric is such an important aspect of society. We use it to communicate and share ideas. It is the basis for getting things done in society. Which is why its so frustrating that its being replaced. It took half an hour for me to get a prescription that should have taken five minutes.
But clearly, I’m just about the only one who feels this way.