Opinion | Convenience Economy: The Hidden Labour Behind A Frictionless Life

The more accustomed we get to instantaneity, the lower our threshold for waiting becomes, eventually eroding the way in which we interpret efficiency

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Technology has progressively removed the minor inconveniences that once punctuated our lives; a few taps on a screen can get groceries delivered to our doorstep, have professionals come and clean our house, and so forth. In an increasingly busy world, having fewer mundane things to worry about gives us the luxury to choose how we spend our time. However, convenience has become more of a necessity rather than a luxury, and the question we tend to ignore is “easier for whom"?

The disappearance of inconvenience from one person’s life does not necessarily eliminate the inconvenience itself, but rather means that it has been discarded by the privileged and absorbed by those whose livelihoods depend on making others’ lives easier. 40 minutes of meal prep is absorbed by the Swiggy delivery agent who can deliver our dinner in 20 minutes, giving us the power to retain our own time and effort. This marks a quiet shift from “how much time am I saving?" to “Whose time and labour is being used to save mine?". This creates a layer of invisibility, where the people performing the labour are facelessly masked behind the screen of apps, and we fail to recognise the chain of labour distribution that has made our convenience possible. The agent’s name flashes on the app for merely a few seconds before being anonymised into a moving icon on the map, completely forgotten after the meal has been delivered.

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