I was in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan office building the other day and saw this sign. Multiple video cameras were visible and there was a large video monitor with an LED audio wave going up and down as I spoke w someone. I regret not having my flip video to record the waves on the screen. (Though, if they saw me filming them filming me, I probably would have been whisked away to a black site.)
The cameras and the frickin visual EQ undulating with my every breath were obviously creepy and forced an invasion of privacy that would make Bush proud, but strangely it was the “Have a nice day” at the bottom of the sign that really bothered me. Was it sarcastic? Or was it just another example of a thoughtless, obligatory pleasantry that corporate America has made endemic in our culture? — The robotic “my pleasure” or “thank you for your service” that phone operators and retail workers say at the end of every transaction. David Foster Wallace talked about the demoralizing and anesthetizing “arms race” effect pervasive artificial pleasantries have on us in his brilliant (and hilarious) A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. But the Corporate Artificial Pleasantry takes on an entirely different level of degradation dehumanization when it follows what was clearly an unpleasant statement or exchange. Seeing that “have a nice day” brought about the same feeling as when I’ve been arguing with the phone/cable/insurance company over some erroneous charge or misrepresentation of service and at the end of the call, after I hear “I’m sorry sir, we cannot delete the charge” the operator, after a pause then says, “I’d like to thank you for choosing Continental. We value your business.” Perhaps it’s better if the “have a nice day” was sarcastic. At least I know I’m dealing with another person who acknowledges the situation for what it is.
