I have a habit of asking Alexa what time it is, or what the weather is and responding, “Thanks, Alexa.”
A friend asks questions like, “you do know that’s a robot, right?”
He’s not wrong. Of course I do. But the behavior is ingrained. A voice provides an answer or a service and I say thank you. But here’s what I’ve figured out: it’s faster to be nice than to decide whether niceness is required.
That calculation turns out to be surprisingly freeing. I don’t have to assess the situation. I don’t have to remind myself what’s a tool and what’s a person. I just behave the same way I always do, because the habit costs me almost nothing — and abandoning it costs me something I can’t quite name.
Maybe basic courtesy is less about the recipient than I always assumed. Maybe it was always more about who I want to be in any given interaction.
So yes, I say thank you to a robot. I’m okay with that.
How about you — have you caught yourself being polite to a machine?
Best,
Julie
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