Are Apps Making Us More Efficient - Or Just Lazy?

The new have or have-not fault line may well divide between those who can afford to use apps for out-sourcing unwanted tasks - and those to whom those tasks are outsourced.

And by further distancing oneself from the actual work of required to make an economy function, we may be assuring our own splendid but inevitable obsolescence. Contrary to the chest-thumping progenitors of this not-so-brave new world, the implications for the economy are not strictly productive. Be careful what you wish for.

As the mobile revolution continues to metastasize, apps for everything from ordering coffee to getting your car washed as you sip your grande half-caff soy macchiato. And it no doubt feels pretty special to employ such wizardry to summon latter-day sherpas to carry your burdens, however inconsequential, as you work to create yet more such technological marvels.

The problem is that all those people who get summoned are probably working for minimum wage or less, have no health care or other benefits, have to hold down more than one job to make ends meet even if they are single - and would get another, better gig if they could. Why should you care? Because the more of them there are, the fewer of people like you there may be to actually pay for the stuff you are creating.

Furthermore, assuming that 'the little people' doing these tasks are fulfilling some sort of divinely inspired macro-economic plan is a fever dream believed only by those willing to separate Ayn Rand's writings from her actual life choices.

The danger to this society and the economy that supports it is that the fabric will unravel unless a more equitable vision of the future re-emerges. And this is not just about wealth redistribution. Without broader skills and greater awareness of what it takes to actually make something - even a powerpoint presentation - we risk outsourcing our lifestyle. The means of production has already headed east and south. And if you think your brain power makes renders you unassailable, check out what's happening to intellectual property in China and India. Efficiency, indeed. JL

Jessica Vascellaro reports in the Wall Street Journal:

When Christopher Kennedy recently wanted his car washed, he parked his car near a San Francisco Starbucks, pulled out his phone and told an app called Cherry where the red Scion was located. About 20 minutes later, a professional car cleaner arrived at his unlocked car and cleaned it inside and out.
"It is incredibly easy," says the 32-year-old Web designer, who worked on his laptop and sipped a caramel macchiato inside the coffee shop while the $35 carwash took place around the corner.

It is getting simpler to be slothful in a world where there is now an app for everything, including tiresome chores. Don't want to wait in line at Chipotle? You can hire an assistant via Exec to place, pick up and deliver your order. Can't be bothered to do your laundry? TaskRabbit will find someone to do it for you. Too tired to pick up toilet paper? Postmates Inc.'s Get It Now app will have it to you within an hour.

The services have mainly been embraced by the young and the tech-savvy in major urban centers like San Francisco and New York, but interest is spreading. Developers say the apps help people save time and create new job opportunities for thousands of local workers who respond to the requests. But are these apps tempting us to unload tasks we would benefit from doing ourselves?

The apps "give us more reasons not to talk to the person standing next to us," says Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, who says the services are cementing our obsession with mobile devices, which can make us socially isolated. People might begin to outsource tasks they should do for good psychological health—ones that involve talking to other people face-to-face, such as wishing someone a happy birthday.

Bo Fishback, chief executive of local help-hunting service Zaarly, says he's mindful of the risks. Now that we can outsource virtually anything, "are we taking three giant steps down the path of creating the laziest society on earth?" he wonders. On the flip side, however, he says the services are fueling a boom in new businesses.

Mr. Fishback says Zaarly focuses on skilled services, like hiring a musician to play at a party, not those that "fuel sloth and laziness." He says the service has removed requests for students trying to outsource writing their term papers, for example.

The debate about the trade-offs of new technologies has raged for decades, stirred by innovations from cars to online shopping. Adults grapple with the guilt of unloading responsibilities onto a nanny or a housekeeper.

The new apps are so easy to use that they make picking up the phone look like hard work. Uber promises to fetch you a car ride within minutes in more than a dozen cities. Others apps, like Get It Now, will bring you a burrito in an hour. The apps will let you track the progress of your request in near real-time. And with users often able to set the price they are willing to pay for a service—plus free app downloads—they don't require much of a splurge.

History suggests these companies face tough odds. During the late 1990s, companies like Kozmo.com Inc. promised instant delivery of snacks, movies and household items within an hour in several cities. It didn't charge a delivery fee for awhile, failed to break even and shut down.

Today's developers of instant-gratification software say they are different, in part because the proliferation of smartphones allows them to manage their couriers and workers more efficiently. They say they learned their lesson and are charging service fees of as much as 20% and don't operate costly warehouses.

Adam Nadelson, a 29-year-old surgical chief resident in New York City, says he is eager to outsource as many tasks as he can. Most recently, he hired someone to bake cupcakes for his girlfriend for her birthday, after a photo of some cupcakes caught his eye on shopping site the Fancy. He clicked on a new "Make it for me" link next to a picture of the S'mores cupcakes, which connected him with a local baker via the Zaarly service. Three days later, the baker left a dozen treats with his doorman.

"It would have been wonderful if I had baked and cooked them myself, but I have no time," Mr. Nadelson says. He "came clean" the next day, when his girlfriend commented that the treats, which cost around $40, were particularly delicious and asked where they came from, he says, adding she said she was still impressed.

I use the personal taxi service Uber a few times a week to keep working while I wait for a cab, or when I just can't find one. I've hired help via TaskRabbit to move boxes, even deliver my favorite New York frozen dessert when I was in town for a few days and didn't have time to get it myself.

Around the time of the dessert splurge, I had a nagging sense I may have taken this too far.

My decisions to unload tasks had been based on whether the cost was worth it. But what about the other trade-offs? Shouldn't I learn to do some of these things, like cook, even if I find the task irritating?

Pediatrician Michael Rich, director of Boston Children's Hospital's Center on Media and Child Health, says the answer boils down to the deeper purpose of a task, which can be overlooked when everything is a click away.

"If you can't really be bothered to wash your car, outsourcing it really isn't that bad," he says. "If washing your car is something you do with your kids on the weekend, you are outsourcing part of the activities of daily living that make living fun and meaningful."

By that metric, I think I'm largely safe. Waiting for a cab doesn't help me get more out of life, although it could help me become more patient.

But what, for example, about the boxes I hired a TaskRabbit to move? I was eager to clear the clutter and, thanks to the app, storage was $26 and a few clicks away. But these boxes were filled with family belongings of sentimental value. A day later, I wondered whether I ought to have taken the time to go through them myself.