Breaking Digital Gridlock, + Website

CHAPTER 12Culture and Technology

Awe

A Tale of Two Cultures

Many years ago, when I was growing up in Germany, my mom would take me to a McDonald's as a special treat. It was one of the few American franchises you could find in Germany at the time, and it felt like home when we would go. My loving mother would purchase a hamburger for me and we would sit down at the table. Then, she would unwrap the burger for me, take off the top of the bun, and proceed to scrape off the onions, then put the burger back together. As you know by now, I am a very lazy person, and I didn't think my mother should have to scrape off the onions, so I asked her, “Mom, couldn't we just say, ‘Keine Zwiebel, bitte’?” That roughly translates to “No onions, please,” in English. I had been learning German in the school I was attending and one of our first vocabulary lists contained all the vegetables. She replied, “I wish I could, but they won't do that.” In those days, McDonald's wouldn't take a special order. Today you could order a cheeseburger with a chicken patty on it with extra cheese, two pickles, and light onions, and the cashier or drive-through person wouldn't even bat an eye. It's likely that this order wouldn't even be the most difficult one they had to take that day. However, 30 or 40 years ago, you got what you got and you didn't complain. Things were about to change though: A royal competitor ...