January 14, 2003
Too tired to cook?... Let's take five with Moira Gunn. This is "Five Minutes".
In homes across America, at roughly 6 o'clock every night, two weary adults sit quietly, recovering from the day's activities. Whoever is hungriest breaks first. And the words he or she says are nearly always the same: "Pizza? Or Chinese?"
Some couples have a rule that whoever picks the food has to place the call, but however it works at your house, eventually somebody has to pick up the phone.
This familiar American pattern is actually a modern invention, and it's reached new heights with the introduction of personal computers and the newest features of our telephones. We press an auto-dial button and get the local pizza joint. They know it's us from our Caller ID, and their PC knows our address and the directions to our house. They know our credit card number, and the fact that the driver needs to knock loudly because the doorbell doesn't always work. And they also know what we ordered last time around.
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I always find it a little unnerving to hear a total stranger's voice say, "Last time you had a large Pepperoni and six twists with ranch. Is that what you want tonight?" But I get over it because it's so darn convenient. If I only have the energy to grunt, I can hear those wonderful words, "That'll be $16.54. We'll be there in 30 minutes."
If you think this approach of "ordering in" can't get any easier, you're in for a surprise. You see the cable companies have been working on ways to raise this activity to a whole new level. For homes with two-way cable - and eventually that will be all of us - you'll be able to watch TV and cruise through the menus of any number of neighborhood restaurants, simply by using your TV's remote control. They've even named this activity. They call "t-commerce". You know, like e-commerce, only in t-commerce the "t" is for television.
And ordering food is just one small part of what is ultimately envisioned. The only thing between you and your first "t-shopping" spree is a little more technology. And they'll perfect it before you know it. After all, this isn't rocket science.
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Now, we've been able to place orders over the Internet for quite some time, but that takes a computer, a credit card and a sufficient level of energy to actively engage with the system. But think about t-commerce. Far more of us have television sets than will ever have PC's. And if you don't have a credit card, your pizza charge could show up on your cable bill. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
The real point is communications technology has permanently changed our options for dinner, and this in turn has created societal change. I grew up in a household where one of the main activities of the women was preparing food. And this was a constant and never-ending process. Those days appear to be gone forever.
So, let's return to my original scenario: The same two weary adults. The same exhausted silence. One of them breaks the reverie: "Pizza? Or Chinese?" And the other one says, "Honey, could you order it? I'm too tired to push the buttons on the remote control."
I'm Moira Gunn. This is Five Minutes.
