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Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

reuters.com

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Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#91

Post by bigmealbigmeal »

darkwater wrote: post #83
isoprophlex wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, as is your parent comment, in saying that this isn't something only the young suffer from. In fact it's everywhere; the people with the worst smartphone addictions near me personally are an 11 year old and a 70 year old... That said the message, when taken as a general progression between how life was then and how it is now, stands.

The same thing happened with TV in the 80s/90s. It will eventually fix itself, Gen Alfa will grow tired of smartphones when they will be in their thirties, I'm pretty sure. (that doesn't mean that there should not be active campaigning to point out the risks of smartphone addiction)

I'm not so confident.

TV use was higher in the 2000s than it was in the 1980s/1990s. TV viewing hours steadily rose from 1949 until finally peaking in 2010.[1]

But when TV finally peaked in 2010, did overall screen time go down? No. It kept going up.[2] Obviously, this is when the masses went all-in on smartphones, social media, and the internet.

Screen usage basically never went down. It has only gone up.

So I only see anyone getting tired of smartphones and actually using them less if they've found something more addictive to replace them.

[1] https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/3FzEghXwS-KkIYu1KwG-YyHh... (from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/when-...) [2] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-free-time-became-scre...

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#92

Post by mytailorisrich »

isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

> now that we ourselves have become a resource to extract.

This has nothing to do with what you quoted.

Smartphones and their effects are orthogonal to your point. Before smartphones if you were at home you were alone, isolated, and bored, so you went out and met your friends. With smartphones you are always connected to your friends or others and it seems that it reduces the psychological need to meet in person (it's no longer the only option).

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#93

Post by AmbroseBierce »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #87
AmbroseBierce wrote: post #72

I talked with a barista that had worked 10 years at Starbucks and he still made minimum wage after all that time, it was specially worrying since minimum wage in this country it's equivalent to 420 usd a month.

If they worked for a decade and never got a pay rise (other than minimum wage increases), why are they still working there? In an ideal world, you get wage and career progression over time, or move on to a different career otherwise.

I know that he was learning programming on the side so his plan was to work on that, I don't know how that ended up.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#94

Post by somewhereoutth »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #87
AmbroseBierce wrote: post #72

I talked with a barista that had worked 10 years at Starbucks and he still made minimum wage after all that time, it was specially worrying since minimum wage in this country it's equivalent to 420 usd a month.

If they worked for a decade and never got a pay rise (other than minimum wage increases), why are they still working there? In an ideal world, you get wage and career progression over time, or move on to a different career otherwise.

However the world we live in is not ideal, and wages are being systematically crushed by capital.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#95

Post by forinti »

AmbroseBierce wrote: post #72

I talked with a barista that had worked 10 years at Starbucks and he still made minimum wage after all that time, it was specially worrying since minimum wage in this country it's equivalent to 420 usd a month.

I once decided to plot my salaries corrected for inflation and found out that they only really went up a couple of times in 30 years.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#96

Post by lm28469 »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #92
isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

> now that we ourselves have become a resource to extract. This has nothing to do with what you quoted. Smartphones and their effects are orthogonal to your point. Before smartphones if you were at home you were alone, isolated, and bored, so you went out and met your friends. With smartphones you are always connected to your friends or others and it seems that it reduces the psychological need to meet in person (it'…

That's overly simplistic, people don't go out because they slack 24/7 in front of a screen, not because they're connecting with their friends through their smartphones. From my limited experience 70+ years old spend the whole day in front of youtube/facebook/alternative tv channels mostly watching infotainment that's at best brainrot and very often full blown conspiracy theories / propaganda. Boomers are even worse than teenagers when it comes to that, they're the most gullible and easily screen addicted demographic out there

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#97

Post by darkwater »

bigmealbigmeal wrote: post #91
darkwater wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same thing happened with TV in the 80s/90s. It will eventually fix itself, Gen Alfa will grow tired of smartphones when they will be in their thirties, I'm pretty sure. (that doesn't mean that there should not be active campaigning to point out the risks of smartphone addiction)

I'm not so confident. TV use was higher in the 2000s than it was in the 1980s/1990s. TV viewing hours steadily rose from 1949 until finally peaking in 2010.[1] But when TV finally peaked in 2010, did overall screen time go down? No. It kept going up.[2] Obviously, this is when the masses went all-in on smartphones, social media, and the internet. Screen usage basically never went down. It has only gone up. So I only…

You have a good point I overlooked, thanks for the correction. I actually missed the "TV was just displaced" angle, which makes sense both statistically and anecdotally, if I think about family and friends.

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#98

Post by lm28469 »

trymas wrote: post #61
isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

Socrates would have drawn the line at writing and reading texts.

I always find this argument dubious at best. It's akin to saying "A dude was wrong once 2000 years ago, anything new is progress, and progress is desirable".

Re: Italy's longest-serving barista reflects on six decades behind the counter

#100

Post by lm28469 »

vasco wrote: post #63
isoprophlex wrote: post #50

> I’ve seen generations grow up. Some grandparents come in with their grandkids and say, “Anna, remember the jukebox?” > Today, however, young people no longer come to the bar. They came when we had the dance floor and the music. Today, they like to spend time with the smartphone; they even take it to bed when they go to sleep. What are we losing, what are we taking away from life, now that we ourselves have become a…

When ever in the history of the world were humans not exploited by other humans, in much worse ways than now? I'd rather be google's data source for ads than be someones actual slave for example. Also I don't really like these luddite sentiments, usually shared between the two extremes, old ladies that never used the internet so they don't understand what they are missing, and IT guys that are too jaded to see the be…

> than be someones actual slave for example.

Some argue you're still one, they give you just enough crumbs so that you shut your mouth and bow your head while you work from birth to death, being taxed every step of the way, with more and more limited privacy and liberties. Meanwhile the top 1% still live like kings, laws barely apply to them, they're in charge of everything even though most of them haven't been elected

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