Want to Improve Mental Health? Ban Mobile Ordering Apps
“Explore how convenience culture impacts mental health and social norms in this insightful article. Discover why seemingly small conveniences like mobile ordering can lead to frustration and stress, affecting both customers and staff in everyday settings.”
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I’m standing in line at my local coffee shop — a line that is nearly out the door — when someone comes in, jumps the line, goes right to the front, and grabs their order. Rude, right? Would make you madder than hell, correct?
Well, maybe yes, maybe, no? The person who danced all the way to the counter and whistled on their way out while you haven’t moved is doing exactly what the huge coffee conglomerate wants them to do: “Skip the line” by using our mobile order app.”
But what if I told you that this seemingly small “convenience” is horrible for people’s mental health? Not only for the customers but also for the staff. If you fail to see how, skip the app and try to bust your way to the front of the line. See what happens.
Another way to look at this is from your perspective. Would you want someone to intentionally hold you up because they thought getting their cup of java was more important than yours and the ten others waiting in line? I bet you’d be thinking, “Damn, that person is an asshole.”
Ok, so, you didn’t set up the app, and therefore you aren’t to blame. Nevertheless, the behavioral repercussions are the same. For those in line, they get frustrated and stressed because they also have things they need to do. They get annoyed because companies have found a way to systematically destroy social norms — norms that allow for mutual respect and order in society. Here’s the official definition for all those wondering.
Social norms refer to the unwritten rules and shared expectations within a society or group that guide and influence individual behavior. These norms encompass various aspects of social life, including how people should act, dress, communicate, and interact with others. Social norms can be explicit, such as laws and regulations, or implicit, such as cultural traditions and societal expectations.
Why Social Norms Are Important
The role of social norms cannot be understated. While they may be unwritten rules, they are, in some cases, like that of waiting your turn in line, essential to maintain order, community, and unity. These are very big deals. The following points give you a better understanding of why they are so important.
1. Promote Social Order: Social norms help establish expectations for behavior, which in turn promote stability and predictability in social interactions. This helps prevent chaos and ensures that society functions smoothly.
2. Facilitate Cooperation: Norms encourage cooperation among individuals by promoting behaviors that are beneficial to the group. This can lead to collective actions that are essential for achieving common goals.
3. Reduce Uncertainty: By providing guidelines for acceptable behavior, social norms reduce uncertainty in social interactions. People know what to expect from others and how to act in various situations, which can reduce anxiety and confusion.
4. Influence Behavior: Norms shape individual behavior by setting standards for what is considered acceptable or unacceptable. This can help discourage harmful behaviors and encourage positive actions that contribute to the well-being of the community.
5. Promote Social Cohesion: Shared norms and values foster a sense of belonging and identity among members of a group or society. This can enhance social bonds and create a sense of unity and solidarity.
6. Enable Socialization: Social norms are integral to the process of socialization, where individuals learn and internalize the values, behaviors, and practices of their culture. This helps individuals integrate into their society and function effectively within it.
7. Support Social Control: Norms provide a basis for social control by defining acceptable behavior and providing mechanisms for enforcing conformity. This can include formal mechanisms like laws and informal ones like peer pressure or social sanctions.
8. Adaptability and Change: While norms can provide stability, they are also adaptable. Societies can change their norms in response to new challenges, technologies, and cultural shifts, allowing them to remain resilient and dynamic.
As you can see, social norms are indeed big deals when you factor in what they promote: things like social cohesion and social control. It’s hard to argue against them. Yet, corporations allow for this all the time, putting themselves ahead of everyone else. Given what we now know about the importance of social norms, we need to understand that what we do for ourselves impacts others. When we impede or restrict people’s right to their freedom, i.e., forcing the many to wait longer, people who just as much of a right to get their coffee in a timely manner, we cause the national angst to rise. This mobile app business is happening all over the country — that’s a lot of pissed-off people.
Why We Need to Change the “Small Things”
One thing we can all agree on is that the world is in a bad place right now. The threat of world war, ongoing war, division, and much more — all of this adversity adds up to uncertainty. When people are uncertain in a societal context, they get anxious. An anxious nation is a signal that we are in trouble, and because of it, we feel like we have little control. You know what happens when people don’t feel like they have any control? You guessed it, they become more anxious.
For a variety of neurobiological reasons, our brains react to such scenarios mentioned here in the form of fear. A fearful response makes us think more on an emotional plane and less so from a logical one. In other words, we react to one another and are less solution-focused. A bad mix when you take into account the current state of global and national affairs.
So, the question becomes, “What can we do to lower the national angst?” Well, for one thing, we could do away with things like mobile ordering, upselling customers, and canceling reward cards. All of these things, especially when one has to endure the inconvenience of what they bring several times a day, produce frustration and angst — the aim here is to make things easier for everyone by being as efficient as possible.
Bottom Line
We can’t control everything we do; it seems. But if we eliminated these seemingly smaller, “no big deal” things, we could have a less angered and anxious society overall. And who doesn’t want a less stress-producing society? Let me know in the comments what you think would help lower the stress of society as a whole.
