Sodexo’s Everyday app aims to create a smoother and smarter dining experience, according to their website. Users can order ahead, check daily menus of campus dining locations and use promotions. 

While yes, it is nice to check exactly how Grundle will make my stomach churn on a given night, or save time ordering before I even get out of class, the app has its faults. 

Besides the app only functioning about 60% of the time I try to use it, gone are the days of chatting up the friendly Picante employees after a long day of lectures. No more quick chats while grabbing lunch or a quick coffee mid-study session.  

I miss the small talk. 

Increased digitization on campus has led me to wonder how this will affect our increasing rates of isolation and loneliness.

Gen Z already spends less time face-to-face with other people, one reason why we report higher rates of depression and loneliness, according to an Aug. 3, 2022 Current Psychology article. 

Other studies also connect this to effects from COVID-19 era isolation during formative years for Gen Z. 

We’re already spending less time talking to people in person, and I see these changes exacerbating this. 

I know as a member of Gen Z, I should be in favor of this change and be more adaptable. And I can be: Of course I know how to use my phone to order through an app, but it doesn’t mean I should be required to. 

If you don’t want to use the app, there is sometimes a kiosk tablet where you can only use card or Apple pay, or better yet, scan a QR code to pay on the app. 

If the app is down or malfunctioning, a frequent occurrence, ordering ahead is virtually impossible. The app often malfunctions when trying to use a meal exchange, which is crucial to students with the base meal plan who have limited points. 

Campus Perk in Grossman and the Cyber Café at Howe Library have undergone the same changes. Everything is done on a phone or tablet, while the employees stand there and watch me order without speaking to them. 

Efforts to streamline and digitize UVM have made ordering even more chaotic: the constant stream of names being called out, eradication of the waiting line and customers arriving too early or too late to pick up their order.

I miss the little interactions I had throughout the day. 

UVM dining employees are essential to the campus community. Sometimes, only interacting with people my age is exhausting and feels like I am confined to a bubble. Talking to people outside of the college demographic was refreshing. 

I used to find something I liked about each person and compliment them on it, or genuinely ask how they are doing, hoping to brighten their day a little bit. 

I am a firm believer that small talk improves one’s social skills and confidence. Some may argue that small talk is unnecessary or something to avoid, but getting over the fear or anxiety is important character-building for the real world. 

Without small talk, I can’t compliment the woman making my taco bowl on her purple hair, and the guy at Campus Perk can’t get to know my regular order.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think you should be able to get in line and order at UVM dining locations in the same way you do at every other food or drink establishment in Burlington. 

There is plenty of time in the day to avoid talking to other people, put on some headphones at lunch or walk to class by yourself. We shouldn’t lessen the social interactions we get throughout the day in the name of efficiency.

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