Ode To The Water Cooler

Pay phones, carbon paper, type writers, slide rulers, ink wells and wall clocks have disappeared altogether or are in rapid decline. Clinging to a very uncertain future is the water cooler.

Otherwise we would not see delivery vans of all shapes and sizes, curb side, operated by what are most certainly body builders. They manipulate water containers of all dimensions with ease and confidence. Off the delivery person trundles with heavily laden carts, somehow navigates complicated doors, accesses elevators, replenishes supply and vanishes. The service is absent of rancor, under all sorts of situations including inclement weather. Supply and delivery are not the problems.

Water coolers use is encountering a significant decline. Water drinking habits have changed as consumers are responding to advice from unknown sources to drink a seemingly impossible amount of water. So demand is not the problem.

Supply is not the problem either. Water is universally available in small convenient bottles, in carry your own container, in restaurants and in meeting rooms.

Water cooler sourced water consumption is dwindling. COVID is a contributor because gatherings of this nature are limited as drinkers do not want to congregate. The water cooler is losing its way as water drinkers of yester year now “work from home” and naturally drink there.

Pity the poor water cooler…. a victim of the digital age. In earlier times the water cooler or an equivalent were gathering spots for the start of a new day. Somewhat ritualistic to be sure, but comforting.

Alongside the water cooler there were other venues that were home to meetings.   In a processing plant the technical staff gathered to review information about the previous night shift. Financial executives meet early in the day, to confirm that the markets, while in decline, will rebound and the increasing in value will be sustained.  Working on a common project individuals will gather for updates on the issues of the day. Historically coffee was the refreshment of choice. Today bottled water is available as well

Conversations would include issues pertinent to the issues at hand, frequently accompanied with agendas and minutes. In addition with the formalities were discussions about politics, sports, weather, families and heath. Sometimes the joke of the day would surface.

A scenario about the water cooler provides a good setting for contemplating some of the consequences of the digital age.

The digital age has introduced a lifestyle that allows us to be anywhere and everywhere across the globe without being there in person. The magic is the internet which transports information of every nature at the speed of light. One very popular outcome is the now ever present system called ZOOM. The word is now a verb as well as a noun as in “Can I ZOOM you?”

A debate is fermenting over the merits of digital based communications versus in person. The first is now popularly called “working from home” the latter is now “working in the office”. The reality is communicating originates from anywhere by voice and visually.

The communications journey is long. A common denominator is a force to improve the methods of communication both in quality, quantity and speed. Very early on gestures dominated, followed by voice accompanied by pictures. In the mix….writing in one form or another emerged. Text had its way with the printing press as a multiplier.

Visual via paintings, smoke signals and semi fore; Writing via tablet, script, and telegraph; Voice by telephone and radio; Code via wireless; Visual via television….all contributed to the communication revolution. Lest we forget recall the courier Phedipples, the pony express and dispatch riders during war times.

As if of these were not enough we now transmit information at the speed of light using cable, wireless and satellite. Soon everyone everywhere will be able to be constant communication.

Contrarians have interfered. For example the printing press was considered by religious groups as a method of enlightenment such that congregations had access to material that did not support their dogma. Mayan scripts were destroyed during the Spanish forced settlement in Latin America as they were considered to be heresy. Long distance telephone systems were unpopular because early users imagined that they only brought bad news. We now know the dark side of television.

Digital communication was imagined as the epitome of all methods. Alas we now realize how harmful it can be. IEEE  802 11b Direct Sequence, nicknamed wifi flourishes in spite of harmful applications. False information, information that engenders bad behavior and propaganda dedicated for political purposes are unintended consequences.

So what about the water cooler? The communicating system it represents is not going away. Neither is ZOOMING. Combined in one fashion or another is inevitable.

Keep in mind this is not the end of the communications journey.