Пользователи критикуют замену живого общения на цифровые сервисы и сложные онлайн-процедуры

August is always a bittersweet month for me. It usually marks the beginning of the end of summer, and while that’s usually been a tad melancholy, this year I think the entire planet is begging for cooler days! These triple digits with our special brand of southern humidity have been brutal! As a kid, though, August was also the beginning of a new school year, and I loved that. I loved getting the new supplies…the backpacks, the crisp new notebooks, and pretty colored pens, along with new school clothes, was always an event at our house. I heard Al Roker on the “Today” show the other morning talking about how he’d make covers for his textbooks out of paper bags, and while the younger anchors laughed at him I was remembering doing the same thing. I’d draw flowers and such on the new covers and then proudly take out my book in class for all to see and admire my work. I’m not even sure they have books now. Everything today is “in the cloud” or “on an app” that must be downloaded or uploaded…and really what’s the difference? I tried to talk to someone at USC about going to a class, not for a credit but just to learn, and I couldn’t even understand what that person was saying. Apparently the students can work in the offices now, and trying to get information from a 19-year-old college kid who likely doesn’t even want the job but needs the money is an exercise in futility. It’s an entirely different language! I’m supposed to up or download some woman named Peg, but apparently that’s her last name because there’s a “J” in front of the “Peg,” and then I need to do things I don’t understand. For all I know I could be funding a terrorist cell run by Peg! Even the words around technology are foreign! A RAM used to be a sheep; a mouse was a tiny mammal; streaming used to be done in water; and motherboard would get your mouth washed out with soap! It’s all just beyond me! Which means I see and hear the term “PEBCAK” a lot. It means, I’ve come to learn, “Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard.” In other words…your computer is telling you you’re an idiot. And when it comes to me and technology…the computer might be right. I so miss the days of human contact. I will never understand why people think doing things “online” is quicker or safer or in any way better than simple HUMAN CONTACT! The other day I was trying to cancel an online subscription I never asked for in the first place. There was, as is the case with so many companies these days, no phone number to any kind of customer service. You had to talk to “Bob” (probably not his real name) through the computer. All I wanted to do was cancel some dog treats my dog, Charlie, didn’t like. It took an hour. Bob asked a gazillion questions, wanted me to do this and do that…what was my URL? (Did he want a urine sample?) What was my WAN or my LAN? (Tell me what the heck those are and I’ll tell you if I have one!) Finally a very exasperated Bob asked me for my IP address, so I guess we were back to the urine sample! At least I do know how to “download” THAT, but it turns out that wasn’t what Bob meant. After a very awkward pause in our communication, and likely out of desperation, Bob finally told me I wouldn’t be receiving anymore unwanted dog treats. Now if I had been able to actually TALK to Bob this would have taken all of five minutes. It’s the same with bill paying. Once you create an account and the company just takes the money out of your bank, that’s easy. But creating that account…to quote The Barb’s Hamlet, “therein lies the rub.” Once I’ve done it, I will NEVER leave the bank I have everything connected to because I NEVER want to have to do it again! I know change is inevitable and we all must bend a little with the winds of time and progress, but I cannot see how spending an hour on the phone with some robot spewing out acronyms as words instead of having a conversation with a human being is the least bit helpful to society. Maybe I’m a little bit crazy, but people really DO need people! And until the world starts letting humans answer phones and work in customer service again… call me PEBCAK! I’m Just Saying…