Ordering “America’s Favorite Pizza” Online
The idea of ordering pizza online may seem easy and efficient, but it can ultimately function as a communication barrier between you and the “nonvirtual” world.
Shopping has become ten times more easier thanks to the internet. From buying books off of amazon.com to clothes off of Nordstrom’s website, the simple click of the button “Buy!” will immediately ship your merchandise directly to your home. Ordering food online, in particular, has become very popular, especially as our daily lives are becoming much busier. Pizza Hut has recently expanded its retail to the internet, a source that will further expose the restaurant to thousands of customers. But is ordering pizza off of Pizza Hut’s website actually more efficient than simply calling the pizza guy? Are we relying on the internet too much, especially for simple desires like ordering food?
Let’s first explore the top reasons people order pizza. After asking about twenty people around my dorm, I found that there were three major reasons: 1. I don’t want to interact with others, 2. I’m way to lazy, ordering online is quick and easy and 3. It saves time and money. My floor mate Caitlin admitted that she is “afraid of talking to strangers on the phone. I don’t like calling people and talking to people that I don’t know. It’s just awkward. It’s almost like calling a wrong number.” Similarly, a friend named Andrew agreed that “people who don’t know how to talk to people just order off of the internet.” So what does this say about the use of internet? By ordering off of Pizza Hut’s website, some people (like Caitlin) deliberately take actions to avoid interacting with others. I think this ultimately hinders our communication skills by blocking ourselves from people we don’t know. Until this day, my mom always makes me call the pizza guy and order our dinner. She is afraid that her order will get messed up due to a miscommunication because of her heavy Indian accent. I continuously tell her that she is hampering the opportunity to gain social skills by talking to people who have different accents. However, accent or no accent, there is always the possibility of the pizza guy messing up your order. He might not be able to hear correctly or he could misinterpret your order.
How is ordering off of pizzahut.com quick and easy? I went onto the website and saw the words “MAKE DINNER IN A CLICK” on top of the page. After three simple steps, I created my first Pizza Hut account and in just two minutes, I was ready to order my pizza. I clicked on the “Build your own pizza” button and I clicked on the specific toppings I wanted. Well that was easy, I thought. I wasn’t put on hold and I didn’t have to repeat my order three times like I do every time I order off of the phone. “It’s not always that easy,” my roommate was telling me, “I ordered pizza online once, I waited an hour and a half, never got any pizza and called Pizza Hut. Turned out that they never got my order.” So does this make the internet reliable? I think it is ultimately up to us to decide whether to rely completely on the internet and take the chance of using it as a primary means of communication rather than direct communication.
A new game called Everquest II allows players to send in a command of “/pizza” and be directly sent to Pizza Hut’s website. It is still unsure what kind of effect this will have on Pizza Hut’s orders, but the simple idea of the internet game shows how multifunctional the internet is getting. By incorporating this game with buying pizza, Pizza Hut is taking a step to further expand its business. The internet being used as a means of advertising is perfectly okay, but the decision of whether ordering pizza online or directly calling Pizza Hut is ultimately up to the consumer to decide. However, we should make sure not to depend too heavily on the internet to the point where we don’t have to leave our house at all. The only way to acquire growth in communication skills is to go out there and really experience the “real” world as opposed to the virtual world only.
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