Appreciation post: the bus tracker app I mocked for 6 weeks

I used to laugh at people staring at their phones waiting for the 42, figured it's a bus, it comes when it comes, right? Then last Tuesday in Portland I stood 25 minutes in the rain because the old schedule lied, and my coworker pulled up the app showing the real bus was 11 blocks away. Now I check it every morning, but I still wonder if relying on it makes us worse at dealing with delays, has anyone else switched sides on this or am I the last convert?

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craig.tessa2mo ago

Hold off on joining the cult. I deleted that app after two weeks because it made me more anxious, not less. Staring at a dot that moves one block every three minutes is way worse than just accepting the bus shows up when it shows up. Plus when the tracker glitches or lies, you're standing there pissed at a phone instead of just living your life. The old way taught you patience, this just teaches you to obsess over something you can't control anyway.

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