"Doorway into Your Attention"

Ashlie D. Stevens: And increasingly, there is an app for almost every place we eat. The fast-food standards have them, of course, but so do regional chains and neighborhood coffee shops: download this, order ahead, skip the line, collect points, save your usual. The bargain is convenience, and often it genuinely is convenient. But increasingly, buying a sandwich or a cup of coffee also means initiating an ongoing relationship — one in which the restaurant gets a permanent little doorway into your attention long after the transaction is over. Once upon a time, "there's an app for that" was a great advertisement tagline. But sometimes, we may want to skip the app. ~ Link: I Don’t Want Another Restaurant App, by Ashlie D. Stevens, Salon