Builders for Baudrillard

In the construction industry, the Baudrillard theory is alive and well. In the spirit of keeping up with the Jones', you can get everything from artificial wood floors, to engineered stone countertops, and artificial brick, without "really" having to keep up with the Jones' at all. While the current trend is to have these expensive products in our homes, producers have graciously created these products for us, at a lower cost than their "real" counterparts, and then make it their goal to convince us that they are even better than the "real" thing. According to the producers of these products, not only do their products look "exactly" like the real thing, but they are less expensive and have lower maintenance than the real items, so no one has to know that we don't have the real thing, because the "new real" is even better than the "real" anyways.

Gas Station Attendants - A Thing of the Past

While there are still a few stations that will pump your gas, at an extra charge, probably very few of you even remember the day when gas stations were considered full service and not only pumped your gas but checked the air in your tires, the fluid levels in your car and washed your windows. Then they would take your money in and bring back your change, that was just part of the service. Today we have been overtaken by the computer age, which in many ways does make our life easier, but it has also reduced the one on one contact that we use to have, making it more difficult to create relationships with the people that we use to see every day. Today, we pull up to the pump, stick our debit or credit card into the pump, pump our gas, and never even see the person working there. I suppose in the busy world that we live in some would consider this new construction of a gas station attendant a positive change, because we don't have to take time to make small talk with the attendant while he pumps our gas and washes our windows. However, I for one, find it disturbing how little we now interact with those around us. I think that the one who really benefits here is the gas station owner, who helps us believe that this is better by making everything fast and efficient, while he or she no longer has to pay an extra employee or two to actually create a service for us, and yet we buy into this new culture industry and think that we are getting something great. The only time we even see a real person at a gas station is when the gas pump talks to us and convinces us that we need an eight-four ounce soft drink, and so far we must go into the station to make this purchase. I'm sure one day they will find a way to eliminate any human contact whatsoever.