Is today's term more evidence that we're increasingly "bowling alone"? That phrase was popularized by Robert Putnam in an essay called "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital," that appeared in the January 1995 issue of the Journal of Democracy. (An expanded version is available in book form.) Putnam argued that civil society was eroding because people were becoming increasingly disconnected from their neighbors and communities. His whimsical symbol for this was the fact that, at the time, more Americans than ever were bowling, but bowling league participation was down 40 percent since 1980.

Today's term is a symbol for a related cultural trend: the increasing lack of interaction between customers and retailers. Online shopping has a lot to do with this, of course, but even in the real world bank tellers, gas jockeys, and parking lot attendants are all endangered retail species. And will we soon be adding grocery store cashiers to that list? How grim must the shopping experience become?

The ironic angle on all this is that the more automated and "alone" the checkout process becomes, the more the customer's privacy is sacrificed. Most self-checkout systems accept cash, but how long before that becomes inconvenient for the retailer? Then there are the touch-and-pay (or pay-by-touch) systems where you pay for your purchase by touching a screen that scans your fingerprint. (Oops, sorry, I mean your finger image; apparently fingerprint has — gasp! — negative connotations.) This is matched to the credit card or bank account data you have on file, and your purchase is automatically charged. I get the willies just thinking about it.