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By Maximilian Morici
Far from home, while sitting in a Chinese tea house in San Francisco, having lunch with a fellow writer, I watched an elderly server prepare and serve tea.
What seemed to be a simple act in the moment, would turn into many realizations about a sinking feeling I have had for several years now.
The hot water was brought out in a kettle with its own place mat. A metal tea tray with holes in the lid was placed on the table. It had four Ya Shou cups on top of it. Ya Shou, meaning “press the hand" in Chinese, is a popular style of tea cup with a flared rim and no handle. Two contained the fresh tea leaves, two were empty.
The steaming water was poured into the cup with the dry tea leaves, then the cup was mostly covered with a lid, leaving only a tiny slit exposed. The water was swished around to bring moisture back to the leaves -- then the water was promptly dumped out. The cup was refilled with hot water and the leaves were left to steep.
During this time I also noticed how other customers were being served.
A group of four businessmen were seated at the table diagonal to us. They paid no attention to the things that were being brought to them, nor how they were served. They made no comment about the food, or tea, and they barely acknowledged the other people they were sitting with, speaking only of business.
Diagonal from us in the other direction was a man who sat by himself. When his tea and food arrived he was thoughtful about his consumption. He ate slowly and with purpose. Taking his time to fully experience the meal. He rushed nothing, and thanked the staff often, acknowledging everything around him.
I thought about how our relationships had changed with simple tasks. The automation and convenience that had somehow superseded an experience. The loss of tradition and tangibility to the present.
As I sat and ate my lunch, slowly chewing each bite, I thought of how many meals I had consumed with a timeline attached to it. Not finishing my meal or rushing to cram bites in between tasks.
How many experiences had I rushed trying to hurry up and get to the next thing on my never ending to do list?
Rushing between classes, eating on the go, never being able to put the phone down even while driving to send that last text only for it to be replaced by another ding. Our over-connection to the tech realm has become a parasitic leech tethering our attention to a pantheon of gods on a screen that demands our attention as tribute.
It may be more inconvenient or time consuming to make a meal instead of buying one, or do an assignment ourselves instead of prompting AI to do it for us, or even to make art instead of generating or buying it. However, these experiences are cathartic and keep us grounded in reality.
Not long ago the luxuries we so often take for granted did not exist. The more that we integrate technology the less we do ourselves. That free time is only filled with more consumption, not creation. Inspiration comes from adversity, but integration leads to boredom.
Technology has improved the quality of life for many people in so many interesting ways. Things we did not believe possible 50 years ago are now household essentials. Hot showers on command, every possible piece of media and entertainment at our fingertips. No shortages of food, water or shelter.
Underneath it all core issues still remain. We have not been able to escape the charges of war. The sunken skin of famines. The plague of diseases. We have not cured the slow decay of death.
For all of our technologies and comforts the price we have paid is the loss of some of the moments that truly have an impact on how we live our lives.
Many today cannot cook for themselves. Competent literacy rates have dropped. Depression and anxiety are on the rise.
We have left technology to fill in the gaps of our lives that we find too inconvenient. We have food shipped right to our doors. Our groceries are grabbed and bagged for us without ever having to enter the store. Books and papers are combed through by AI, regurgitating summaries. Our every question is answered by AI’s large language models to bypass our own critical thinking.
Ask yourself, what do we as humans do now that technology is so encoded into our lives? What have we lost by letting so much be done for us?
Each and every one of us has an obligation to draw our own line in the sand. What hill will we make our final stand on as the endless march of innovation and technological advancement pushes onward?
I make my final stand in a Chinese tea shop where technology meets tradition at a level that does not take away from the experience. Where I feel human enough to sit for a moment and just be a person. Enjoying my company, enjoying my meal and most importantly, fully experiencing my life in the present moment.