Day 334: Minneapolis Airport All Wired Up

I had a layover in Minneapolis yesterday, and I was struck by several improvements to the terminal, at least in the G Gates area. The healthy grab-and-go food options (by Cibo) have expanded, as has the number of bars -- at least four drinking options within the span of about 12 gates.

The major upgrade, however, is the installation of iPads all over the place as a mechanism for ordering food, beverages, and snacks, all of which are delivered to your seat "within 15 minutes." It was actually a bit disconcerting to be greeted by the swarm of small screens perched atop the numerous tables distributed amongst the gate areas.

Maybe this is more cost-efficient than human service interaction? Human servers still deliver the ordered items, but the screen interface eliminates any need for attentiveness ahead of time and certainly decreases the opportunity for face-to-face communication.

I'm not sure I'm overly fond of this ubiquitous screenery that has descended into so many public places. The airport is definitely all wired up now, as passengers can also use the iPads for typical Internet uses for free as well, but I still feel as though there are times that being disconnected from machines and technology is actually a good thing. And traveling used to be one of those times, but not anymore, apparently.