Thanksgiving with Mom and Grandma?? Not anymore!

Article: http://brooklyn.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/the_app_wrap/129314/app-wrap--cooking--meal-planning-apps


The apps that I have seen lately have not affected the family aspect of society. That is, until now. This is the season of family. A time where families get together fellowship and usually make yummy food together. In my family this is a time for my mom to make her delicious ham and my dad to make his famous and should be award winning banana pudding. Even more important it is a time for us to hang out and for me to learn how to make a new dish. Many families also share these traditions.

A new app has been created to ease the stress of making Thanksgiving dinner and all other meals. This app tells the user how make all sorts of recipes. Within the app there is a timer, shopping list, step by step cookiing guide, and the app even includes a "use whats in your refrigerator" process. Any chef is available, Martha Stewart, Emerelle, Rachel Ray, or Gordon Ramsey to name a few. All of these wonderful recipes are at the palm of your hands.

Cultural perspective asks the question of how we use media and how does it change our community and relationships with one another. This application has the potential to change the way families interact over the holidays, which tend to be when most families all get together. It affects our community because the sense of a friendly neighbor can disappear. There will be no need to borrow salt or sugar from your neighbor if your handy application gives you a substitute. Here is an example of how it would affect me personally. Every year my father makes banana pudding and with each year I get closer and closer to knowing how to make it myself and we bond each year that I try to get more ingredients out of him. However, with the new app, I can simply get the ingredients from a famous cook, which chances are would not be close to what I have become accustom to. As a result the relationship with my father over the holidays will not be as enriched as they usually are. Although this app does enhance the cultural perspective because knowledge of cooking is being spread throughout the community but the community could also be negatively impacted.

The relationship that can be built with your neighbor over sharing recipes or exchanging eggs for butter will no longer exist, which would lead to each family/person living in solitude even more. Too many things are being made so that 1 person can do it all. The dynamic of working with someone is dying off, which also hurts the community relationship.

I am not saying that this app is the worst thing invented. I think that it is a great app for a newlywed couple or a college student in their first apartment, but even then the relationships that could have been built with a grandma, mother, or father will not be as strong because the app has taken their place.

If I had an iPhone, I would not use this app, simply because I like calling my grandma and mother and finding out how to make various things that I have grown up eating.