Once again I’ve seen a post doing the rounds among friends of my elderly parents on Facebook. There are loads of these posts, and they’re all the same – a white-haired person standing by an old telephone or parking meter, or holding a bill or £20 note, usually accompanied by a catchy slogan like “Not everyone has a smartphone … We’re abandoning our elderly … Why is cash not accepted anywhere anymore?”
It’ll have thousands of shares, too.
My issue is that contactless payments arrived in Britain in 2007 – 19 years ago. The first iPhone came out the same year.
This didn’t happen overnight!
If you’re 75 today, you were 56 when smartphones arrived – and they followed years of people getting used to mobile phones and texting. f you’re 80 now, you were in your early sixties – still working, paying bills and navigating life quite happily.
My point is that we’ve ALL had to learn. Obviously most of us still don’t know why the printer has suddenly decided not to speak to the computer, that’s universal. But no one knew how to use online banking 20 years ago. Or Zoom. Or QR codes. Or two-factor authentication. But we learned how, because the world changed. Just like it always has.
My grandparents learned how to use cash machines. My parents learned email and Facebook. I’ve had to learn apps for parking, NHS appointments, banking … and like all of us, I use one password. To hell with it. If the scammers want my Nectar points they can have them.
And of course there should always be alternatives for people who genuinely can’t use technology because of disability, illness or advanced age. That’s common sense. But that’s different from expecting the rest of society to stand still because you have decided not to engage with technology that’s been around for 20 years. While sharing your moan-posts on Facebook. Frequently on an iPad. Over Wi-Fi. After sending photos of the grandchildren to your friends on WhatsApp.
Technology isn’t the enemy. It’s just the latest thing we’ve all had to get used to. Every single generation has looked at the next one and muttered “it’s all changing too fast.”
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