I almost commented on this tweet from someone who shares my sentiments about AP headlines appearing on LinkNYC kiosks. I typed out a reply but didn’t hit send. I’ve given in to the fact that non-influencers don’t matter to the Smart City, and that I and others sometimes look like asses flailing in their winds. I find the AP headline format gratuitous and confusing. Sometimes old headlines from weeks earlier cycle through. That creates a too-real possibility of someone taking action after seeing “news” of something like a drastic stock market plunge that happened last year. I think of it as clickbait you can’t click on, and find it surprising that the AP itself does not object to this gratuitous presentation.
Without any context, this @ap headline on @LinkNYC does nothing to inform readers about what the news of the day actually is. It’s a headline meant to make us click and there’s nothing to click. pic.twitter.com/iNx2iaWp1f
— Tim Fitzsimons (@tfitzsimons) February 27, 2019
When the headlines first started appearing I lost count of how many times I saw one and asked “What the hell did that mean?” The headline shown on @tfitzsimons‘ Twitter page lures you in but gives you nothing. But beyond their meaninglessness the delivery of the headlines presents another problem. As per the Smart City way the content appears at random, fully automated, with no human intervention. This explains why one might see something like this disembodied correction notice I spotted last year:
It remains possible that someone might spot a headline on LinkNYC containing enough content to resonate with them. But that’s about as likely as connecting the content of the kiosks’ bus arrival time screens with anything actionable. The last bus arrival time screen I spotted was at 33rd Street and 37th Avenue in Astoria/Long Island City. Walking past the kiosk toward Northern Boulevard a screen appeared telling me that the Q66 was 1 stop away from 35th Avenue and 35th Street. That intersection is about a ½ mile from where I stood. I could imagine Olympic sprinters using this bit of information as inspiration to catch that bus (that sounds like a Nike commercial). But not many others among us would have any ability to catch that bus.
But it wasn’t just the stop being too far away for any normal person to possibly get there in time. The LinkNYC screen at 37th Avenue reporting on the 35th Avenue bus arrival faced the direction of people walking away from 35th Avenue. Wouldn’t you want this type of transit update targeted at people most likely to find it useful, i.e.people walking toward that stop?
Any value potentially gleaned from that bus arrival screen exists in a Zen realm. One might find it satisfying to know that the cogs and wheels of the City’s transit machine hum along around them. I just don’t understand how these products make it on to these screens or how anyone believes they provide value. Don’t even get me started on the never-ending barrage of platitudes and quotes about the intoxicating wonderland that is New York City. Some of that filler content is harmless and even digestible. But the sheer quantity of the stuff makes it seem insipid. The same could be said of the LinkNYC kiosks themselves.