Alex Cornell on how cellphones turned everyone flaky. People reconfirm plans last-minute, show up late, or ghost entirely. The rare person who arrives on time is basically a unicorn now.
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Something you might have noticed is that it's become increasingly difficult to make plans and actually keep them. Cell phones have made people flaky as fuck. Let's say you decide to make plans. The first thing you need to do is adjust your expectations. Cell phones have made plans susceptible to revision at any moment, thus making them in advance is essentially pointless. Futile, even. In case you do, here's what to expect. Once your plans have been made, a series of reconfirmations will follow. Confirmation is a neurotic reiteration of a plan that's already been confirmed. The purpose is to weed out the first few no-shows, people that would have canceled anyway, just later. Also, don't be alarmed if your original plan becomes an entirely fucking new one. Once it comes time for your plans, we can divide your invitees into 3 categories. First, we have the latecomers, those that despite the remedial time management skills it takes to actually show up somewhere on time, will find themselves still at work, stuck in traffic, or looking for parking. Second, we have the no-shows, Those that will bail at the last minute, but then seem unusually eager to reschedule in order to compensate. Third, we have the optimizers. These guys are reluctant to commit because they're still evaluating if your plan is the best plan. And last, there is the possibility of a fourth category, those that would show up on time. But as the expectation bar indicates, this is highly unlikely. Now, all of this might seem really rude, annoying, or just plain shitty. And that's because it is.
