We were waiting in a checkout line yesterday when I thought about how being a supermarket cashier had changed. The once-tough skill had been reduced to merely scanning barcodes. If paid with actual cash, a clerk no longer even needs to know how to make change as the display shows how much to return to a customer.
It's not just the supermarket, much of the everyday stuff of life has morphed since I was a teenager. For example, we went from relying on broadcasters to taped media, followed by digital discs. Now all the content we watch is streamed.
Of course, standard photography has seen an even more abrupt disruption. When I was working at BCIT at the beginning of this millennium, I can recall a heated, class discussion about whether all cameras would become digital anytime soon. Guess what? They were.
I not only carry a camera around in my pocket but the whole digital darkroom as well. This seems a fitting photo for today. I was able to doctor one of the Kuala Lumpur branches of the HSBC. Lastly, banking itself has wildly changed since I used one of those new-fangled ATMs in high school.
