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Sometimes, just hurry up and slow down
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Back when riding the bus was the only practical way to get around Hangzhou, I had an idea: What if, instead of a card that announced when someone had a senior discount, there was a card that could shout out compliments?
A guli (encouragement) card?
Rather than being reminded of your age, the card might shout out 鈥淵ou look great today!鈥 or 鈥淵ou have a great sense of humor鈥 or 鈥淣ah, you don鈥檛 need to lose weight!鈥
Every time you used the card, it would say something different about you, but always something nice. As I looked at my light-green Hangzhou transit card, I thought 鈥淣ow that鈥檚 a million dollar idea.鈥
But of course, as I now take out my very-battered Hangzhou transit card, I think pretty differently. Think about it: Were I to try and create something like this in today鈥檚 Hangzhou, that silly idea of mine wouldn鈥檛 even make sense.
Why? Because the transit card is going extinct.
That might sound like an exaggeration, but as of this year, Hangzhou鈥檚 Metro lines and buses have been equipped to accept Alipay or bank cards instead of transit cards. More and more Hangzhou locals leave the house with nothing more than their mobile phones and chargers, and with this mighty tool of technology, they can get all over Hangzhou, purchase whatever they need, book train tickets, order take-out, get movie tickets, or even make an appointment at the doctor鈥檚 office.
When I showed the Alipay app to a friend of mine while she was visiting China, she was amazed by the sheer amount of things Alipay contained and how easy it was to use. (And as someone living in Hangzhou for several years, I did love all of the face Alipay gives the city.)
All of these features would have been lost on me back when I first came to Hangzhou, because at the time I didn鈥檛 even know what 鈥淎lipay鈥 was, and Metro line 1 was still in the planning phase.
I had my battered transit card, I had a map. That was all I needed. But nowadays, I can hardly think about getting around without Alipay. It鈥檚 exciting, but also strange, too. And as we go even further than using Alipay as transit cards and centralize all of our information, it鈥檚 got me wondering: What do we gain, and what do we lose?
As Spiderman would say (and yes, he鈥檚 a trustworthy source, as far as I鈥檓 concerned) 鈥淲ith great power, comes great responsibility.鈥 While it鈥檚 truly amazing how much Hangzhou has gained by implementing so many cashless initiatives, we as a city also have to be aware of how to use this power responsibly.
This is especially true in terms of how much we rely on technology like this, and how much face-to-face time we lose in the process.
I often think back to my early days in Hangzhou, and more and more, I鈥檓 struck by one major difference with my life today: speed. Back then, things took longer, and I made time for them. This isn鈥檛 to say that there鈥檚 anything wrong with convenience, just that convenience can often breed impatience or worse, a sense of entitlement that everything in life ought to come quickly.
When everything we need is in our fingertips just a button-click away, what does this do to our expectations about our world?
According to 鈥淧sychology Today,鈥 a big reason for wanting things right away (instant gratification) is the fear of uncertainty that comes from having to wait for something.
The longer you have to wait, the less certain you are about the outcome, which is a scary thing. The problem with this mentality is that though we have the technology to get things right away, the world still moves at the same pace as before.
Life lessons still come slowly, and the Big Moments are still born from the same uncertainty we might try to avoid.
I鈥檒l admit that because Hangzhou has developed so rapidly, I already have a little nostalgia for those so-called 鈥渟impler鈥 times 鈥 even though they probably weren鈥檛 that simple, and involved a lot of cursing on my part as I tried to navigate the city. I didn鈥檛 have a smartphone when I first moved to Hangzhou, which meant that my mind could wander, and perhaps even trip over ideas as bizarre as the guli card. I asked pedestrians for directions, rather than checking Baidu maps.
I rattled on clanking buses, so that when I arrived, it really did feel like the end of an arduous journey. Most of all, I couldn鈥檛 distract myself from doubt and uncertainty by checking my phone whenever bored. I had to let it churn in my mind until it resolved itself.
Don鈥檛 get me wrong, I didn鈥檛 particularly enjoy those long, clanking bus rides back then. Nor am I suggesting that Hangzhou should reverse the amazing progress it鈥檚 made these years.
But while we gain cutting-edge technology like our beloved Alipay that takes care of everything, I think it鈥檚 important to recognize what goes extinct, too.
More than that, it鈥檚 important to recognize not only the changes around us, but how we choose to adapt to them and evolve alongside them.
We have to learn how to use Alipay responsibly, even if it means not using it as much as we might be tempted to do so.
Because life doesn鈥檛 come with convenient, quick answers (although perhaps Jack Ma will one day invent an app that can boil existential crises down to a sound byte).
It鈥檚 up to us to give ourselves the opportunity to find them ourselves, and we can only do this if we step back from instant gratification and face uncertainty as it comes.
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