Does it worry you....?

[Margaret Pilkington]

Change has to happen...of course it does, but the changes should incorporate all the needs of service users.
Change has happened at a meteoric pace during the last century....certainly the latter part of it.....with an increasing dependence on technology.
Heaven help us if technology fails....or if some foreign power hacks into our main utilities.....brings us to our knees.

This technology has been difficult for some members of society to deal with, mainly because they have not been included......it has dropped them like a whirlwind at the side of the super highway.

Now I know much of this has been down to the reluctance of these people(the old folk) to understand the technology, to fear it, to distrust it.
I know this because I am one of these.
I consider myself reasonably tech savvy, but am reluctant to use something that has few benefits for me(but many for the provider....like charging for the service, bombarding me with information that is of little value to me, the selling off of my data, the ability to track my movements, recognise my purchasing patterns)... so I can see both sides of the coin.

Many of the changes that have happened recently have disadvantaged the older people in society...made their lives more difficult and made them worry.


There will come a time when cash disappears, but I fervently hope that I have departed the planet by then

[dotti34]

About the prospect of a cashless society - there are definitely times when using cash is still a necessity. For example, although I use my card of course, there are times when I do have to have cash in the house otherwise how could I pay the man who mows my lawn to earn a bit extra to supplement his pension? How could I give my young grandchildren their holiday spending money to use as they see fit? How can I pay my neighbour for some shopping she has got for me? Okay, so these are trivial examples but are necessary for me. Plastic might be the way of the world now but there is still a place for cash.

Also, I can understand the reluctance that some people (maybe they ARE mainly of the older generation) have regarding the use of bankcards rather than cash. We probably all know someone, or of someone, who has had unauthorised transaction/s carried out on their card by some lowlife. So the security of these cards can be in question, and will be questioned by those who are already apprehensive about the use of them as against good old cash.

[dotti34]

On a slightly different note but still concerning modern technology, have you ever tried to argue with a computer that won’t let you ‘in’ even if you are computer savvy? Has your frustration reached boiling point when you’ve written a long ‘epistle’ and then lost the lot because you forgot to save it, hit the wrong key, and now it’s lost forever no matter however much you try to get it back?

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my computer and spend a lot of time on it, but sometimes…..

Following on - have you ever tried to get past the computerised robot that answers phone calls with ‘state in a few words what your query is about’. Is it just because of my Lancashire accent (yes, even after 63 years away) that ‘it’ doesn’t recognise what I am saying and after three frustrated attempts I give up trying to get an answer.

The personal touch has certainly left the stage, and more’s the pity. Such a relief if and when you actually get to speak to a real person, except when there is still a language/accent barrier (and not on my side this time). Oops! am I allowed to say that....

[Margaret Pilkington]

It seems that (here anyway) even young children have their own card....called Go Henry....this is to get them used to saving/spending/using a card.
Parents/grandparents/others can electronically transfer money to these accounts....thereby inculcating even young children into the 'normality' of cashless society.....but to keep track of the account,you need a smartphone.
So not just the money is tracked, the child is too.
And you might think that this is a good thing....and you could be right, but again it fosters a dependence on technology...technology that can be hacked or could fail, leaving these youngsters with little idea of how to cope without their electronic brain

That all sounds very negative and it shows some of my bias creeping in.
I cannot help my bias....I am a cynical old baggage and I can see the negatives and not much of the positives. It is hard to see positives for something that I have very little use for, and which destroys social interaction, the humanity of social contact without 'social media'....real face to face conversations using real language, not textspeak.

All that said, it is just a couple of weeks ago I was tempted for maybe a nanosecond into getting a smartphone.
It seems that any transaction carried out on the internet, now requires authorisation.
My bank will accept a land line number, PayPal will not.
I thought about the way round this, but right now am still wrestling with it.
It may mean that PayPal lose my account.....that would be sad as I use it a fair bit.....but maybe I could learn to live without it.

[monkey hanger]

[QUOTE=Less;1245379]I wonder, is this how it was way back in prehistory when the barter system was first replaced by money?

All the old folk full of distrust for this new fangled system and refusing to have anything to do with it.

actually a lot of the barter system still went on in some ways. it was called swapping. not just one item for another but swapping trades. my old man had no clue about painting and decorating but always found someone to do our house free. he just did various forms of metal work for the other person in return. as for old folk or should i say older folk who distrust plastic, they spent their whole lives paying by cash. saving up for something and distrusting the never never. most never got into the manure like the younger end do with their money, so why should they change. if youngsters followed their gran they may have a better life than constant worry about money for foreign holidays and christmas money they do not actually have.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I like it....give that man a coconut(he can barter it for a pork pie if he wants)
Spot on MH.
This obsession with getting rid of money is another way of getting you into hock because if you can't readily see what you have spent, or how much you have left then you are going to get into debt...debt means income for the banks...so they will be smiling all the way to the....bank...but wait there won't be any face to face branches left by then.

That is another worry.
No banks on the high street mean that many who would not use online banking services have had their hand forced...it is either bank online or find a new bank(with all the rigmarole of opening new accounts) each time your favoured bank picks up its skirts and heads for the Internet.

[Less]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

That is another worry.
No banks on the high street mean that many who would not use online banking services have had their hand forced...it is either bank online or find a new bank(with all the rigmarole of opening new accounts) each time your favoured bank picks up its skirts and heads for the Internet.

Where exactly do you go at the moment for a face to face about your Pay Pal account Margaret?
I don't know of any local branches around here?

[taddy]

[QUOTE=Less;1245379]I wonder, is this how it was way back in prehistory when the barter system was first replaced by money?

All the old folk full of distrust for this new fangled system and refusing to have anything to do with it.

Nancy (who has grown to the grand old age of 39 very old for those disease ridden days) starts the conversation,

'well I'm having nowt to do with it, these coin things introduced by them banker chappies I just can't trust a man what uses parchment instead of a traditional dock leaf to wipe his ring clean, t'ain't natural how can we smell them getting close? nope twill be the day hell freezes over before I use pounds shilling and pence'.

George pulls his ricket ravaged body of 43 to it's full height of four foot eleven (a giant of a man by any of the days standards), 'well o'course you all know me never too old to try something new but by lucifer I went into the coaching inn not more n' a year ago and that serving wench asked if i would be paying with cash?'.

'Cash? CASH? Says I, I turns to this handmaid and says Well lass if I can't buy my mead with a bushel o' corn and three eggs like my father afore me I'll start drinking from the village pond and catch the disease what killed the other thirteen members of this thriving City.

Oh what a cracker, you wouldn't be Less Dawson reincarnated would you.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by Less

Where exactly do you go at the moment for a face to face about your Pay Pal account Margaret?
I don't know of any local branches around here?

Well, you know as well as I do that there are no face to face Paypal branches...but then Paypal is not exactly a bank, but a financial services provider, so I think your question is a tad unfair...you are not comparing like for like.
It has grown up because of the internet market place....and it was recommended by my bank.

[Margaret Pilkington]

No Taddy, not Les Dawson reincarnated...Les Dawson was funny.
Sorry for that Less.....I think I might have mislaid my sense of humour somewhere.
Loss of sense of humour?
That is not a recognised symptom of Covid is it?
The cartoon was just a little bit funny.

[Less]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

No Taddy, not Les Dawson reincarnated...Les Dawson was funny.
Sorry for that Less.....I think I might have mislaid my sense of humour somewhere.
Loss of sense of humour?
That is not a recognised symptom of Covid is it?
The cartoon was just a little bit funny.

Obviously lost much more than your sense of humour, perhaps it's an age thing coming soon to all us pensioners.

Yet another thing to look forward to in my dotage.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes Less, getting old(or even older) is definitely not for sissies...nor is it much to look forward to...even if you are fit and well.

[monkey hanger]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

That is another worry.
No banks on the high street mean that many who would not use online banking services have had their hand forced...it is either bank online or find a new bank(with all the rigmarole of opening new accounts) each time your favoured bank picks up its skirts and heads for the Internet.

could actually see banks in large towns and cities opening up a branch in the back of primark or home bargains post office style. those of us in smaller towns will have to visit them.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Yes. I think I read an article about a number of banks sharing the same premises.
That would certainly be better than banks disappearing from the high street.
TSB are closing 164 branches between now and 2021....that is a loss of service to many customers.

[Hill Walker]

A few years ago there were some moves to introduce a National Identity Card. There were significant numbers of objections to this on the grounds of privacy, loss of civil liberty etc. Interestingly there have been no such howls of protest to the 'Smart Phone' gradually not only taking over this role but covering a much wider data set. For example the biometric data that was planned for the identity card never included such items as the size and colour of your underwear** or your shoe size or dietry preferences or locations regularly visited. Of course it does not officially perform this function - until you become 'a person of interest'. I wonder how long it will be before somebody suggests that it should officially take on this role?

** Significant errors are possible - you may have purchased items for your partner (or someone else!)