Swamped by Technology
Hello? Is anybody there? Hello?
Why can’t we make reservations or get directions over the phone anymore?
Companies say they don’t have enough workers and that young people prefer ordering online.
More likely: hotels, restaurants and tech companies don’t have to provide health insurance to algorithms.
Now, there are exceptions: Apple is very good at giving you advice about your iPhone, ipad or Mac. If you can find their phone number, that is.
But how many times have you ended up in password purgatory, just to get routine announcements. They want to pick your password for you? Forget that.
Area health providers make you log in to tell you that they are closed on Christmas Day or to pay a bill. When I couldn’t change my credit card with one local doctor’s office, a live person told me, “Oh, yes, it doesn’t work. We have put in a ticket for that.” Oh, I guess it’s OK then? Mail me a bill next time.
Recently we went to a Durham restaurant where you have to order your food on an app. After a long wait, we realized we had not pressed the “send” button and had to do it again.
Though I am of the older generation, I am not a technophobe. As a technology writer, I was an early adapter to desktop computers, the World Wide Web and Facebook. But I haven’t kept up and am being overtaken by change. Just what is Artificial Intelligence anyway?
I have lost money lately by booking the wrong hotel and paying for a sports ticket I never got. Somehow you reach the company and they say, “Oh, we don’t handle that. It was done by a third party. Can I give you a link for that?”
But last week I booked a hotel by calling the hotel itself and reaching somebody on the phone. It worked!
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