Comments on: Best Pizza Ordering Experience Ever http://kipthinks.com/2008/10/best-pizza-ordering-experience-ever/ a place of reflection and inquiry during my doctoral studies Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:25:43 -0400 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jeff http://kipthinks.com/2008/10/best-pizza-ordering-experience-ever/comment-page-1/#comment-26 Jeff Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:02:00 +0000 http://kipthinks.com/?p=108#comment-26 You were definitely having some kind of "conversation" between Domino's <em>the entity</em> acting as a <em>being</em>. In other words, this mess of a process of making and delivering your pizza gave you information along the way, gave you a kind of presence in the process, which also gives you some form of ownership in the process. (I realize there's a lot of modifiers in that statement.) I guess the question is: What is a conversation? On its most simple mundane level, it's closer to Goffman. On a richer, more emotional level, it's closer to Dewey. It's been awhile since I read Dewey, but when I think of "fulfillment", I think of something entirely different than "leave-taking". Leave-taking is a set of rote actions, more like signals to leave. One need not be emotionally engaged to "take leave". "Fulfillment", on the other hand, acknowledges the human, the emotion, in the process, that the environment indeed does push back and that being "done" and "taking leave" is not the same as feeling "fulfilled". Fulfillment connotes emotional expectation being met on some level. So, the Domino's site was a surrogate for a person, for presence, for the emotion and excitement and enjoyment you feel in ordering your food. It's a recognition of the humanity, the emotion, not just a rote set of exercises. It actually gives you something back, which is a conversation. Of sorts. (The previous has been pulled out of a hat and upon being asked to repeat the statement, I'm not sure I'd be able to. Replicability, I am not responsible for.) You were definitely having some kind of “conversation” between Domino’s the entity acting as a being. In other words, this mess of a process of making and delivering your pizza gave you information along the way, gave you a kind of presence in the process, which also gives you some form of ownership in the process. (I realize there’s a lot of modifiers in that statement.)

I guess the question is: What is a conversation? On its most simple mundane level, it’s closer to Goffman. On a richer, more emotional level, it’s closer to Dewey. It’s been awhile since I read Dewey, but when I think of “fulfillment”, I think of something entirely different than “leave-taking”. Leave-taking is a set of rote actions, more like signals to leave. One need not be emotionally engaged to “take leave”. “Fulfillment”, on the other hand, acknowledges the human, the emotion, in the process, that the environment indeed does push back and that being “done” and “taking leave” is not the same as feeling “fulfilled”. Fulfillment connotes emotional expectation being met on some level. So, the Domino’s site was a surrogate for a person, for presence, for the emotion and excitement and enjoyment you feel in ordering your food. It’s a recognition of the humanity, the emotion, not just a rote set of exercises. It actually gives you something back, which is a conversation. Of sorts.

(The previous has been pulled out of a hat and upon being asked to repeat the statement, I’m not sure I’d be able to. Replicability, I am not responsible for.)

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