I have been plagued by the thought of Mechanical Placebo’s lately; after reading this article where Michael Luo discovers that the majority of ‘Push Here for Walk Signal’ buttons in New York have been deactivated. You know I have always had the sneaking suspicion that these buttons didn’t do anything, but I still pushed them anyway, as Lou states, “out of habit, or in the off chance they might bring a walk sign more quickly.” But I must say I was a bit surprised to find out that they were deactivated. I fell like I have been lied to. All of those wasted movements; times I could have kept my hand in my pocket. Fuck.

This prank that cities around the country and maybe even the world are playing on us got me thinking. I have been obsessed with examining these mechanisms that don’t seem to have an affect, but yet I still continue to use them. So please, if you can think of anything else that you think falls into the category of ‘Mechanical Placebo’ please let us know.

Cheers.

This post is tagged