QRazy

I understand social media, to a lesser or greater degree, enjoying the expansion/development of the Internet into a jamboree of tagging, poking, checking in and checking out.

All the same, there's a block, a black mark across the mind, bubbled and scratched and defaced by white blobs, like a popcorn'd barcode. This is the QR Code, not "the humble" or "the dear old", just the straight down the line, aren't we all fans, let's celebrate our cleverness QR Code.  It cannot be my age or lack of a decent scanner, it has to be plain old common sense, because I just do not understand the appeal. It's the worst kind of technological clever-clever, not too dissimilar to using an in-joke at an interview, or eating English food with chopsticks.

The latest company to grind my particularly well oiled gears on this is Heineken. I don't drink Heineken, preferring beer/ale which tastes of something, rather than fizzy water with a hint of battery acid, so their "Concert goers are all QR crazy" shtick weakens my disposition.

The transformation of a humble logistic company's tracking device into a gig-goer's name badge should, by all records of such things, be exactly the kind of development I would welcome with giddy abandon. "It's the future!" as a wise man once said of garlic bread. But no, alas, I am not convinced. Not even curious - less so when faced with Heineken and their corporate video of doom. I've not been to any music festival, ever, so maybe I am wrong in cynically dismissing a QR Tent full of shoulder slapping, wide-grinned strangers as being contrived. Drugs can't have that much of an impact on people. ("Wow, this stuff is amazing, I'm totally baked and I've just unlocked the Munchie Badge on 4squre").

This is the future

QR codes on the sides of buses (no, really), shop windows, even pub menus (though to be honest, that was spotted whilst drinking a few doors down from Angel tube station so it's probably considered normal there) - all combine to form a language marginally less useful than Esparanto. Or Canadian French. There's an implied barrier of snobbery with companies who use them - more so when the box is not accompanied with any explanation to its meaning. Unfortunately I fear the ship has sailed around the world picking up passengers and hosting all day orgies because the dreaded box is not going away; film distributors offer extra long trailers for people who scan in the right code. It's worth remembering the rule about long trailers mean terrible films.

I want to like the QR code in its new guise as hip and happening password to the future, it's just impossible to do so. It's an impersonal and impractical image of style which abandons pretence of function. The "concert friend hook up" wheeze is a desperate act akin to putting casters on a dead horse and pushing it around Ascot.