Back when I worked the reference desk at a public library, one of my duties was helping people print stuff. People print things for lots of reasons. Here are a few:
invitations for children’s birthday parties
clip art for art projects
brochures
letters they’re mailing to someone
Government documents that they then need help faxing
tax forms because they’ve been doing their taxes on paper for 50+ years and don’t want to learn how to do them online
passport applications
Of course, the library charged 20¢/page (black and white), which is much cheaper for the occasional user than owning their own printer. It also sidesteps the maintenance and ink drying issues the casual printer user would encounter. And it doesn’t escape my notice that a lot of the use cases I mention involve interacting with the government.
I can see why you would want to keep invitations paper. Gives you a little bit of distance from the other parents. My kid comes home with one and I get to decide if this is something we are going to do instead of someone I really don’t know just getting my contact information and sending me an unsolicited invitation.
Would you feel comfortable with people just handing out your email address or phone number with the intent to push you into some social obligation?
I think a big general reason that exists is that not everyone is comfortable with “newer” technology and not everyone has a computer or Internet access at home.
Working in a public library really opened my eyes to that. I was everyone’s honorary millennial kid whose job it was to help them print, sign up for unemployment, meet certification requirements, take online classes, copy/paste, register for an appointment with the department of motor vehicles (no, the DMV didn’t take walk ups or help them, yes, the DMV sent them to us to fill out an online form), check their email, book flights, delete their Facebook account because someone else on the Internet was wrong.
It’s amazing the different capabilities and levels of access there are out there, and it’s naive to assume that since one person can do something everyone can.
So, I would not advocate for removing non-digital ways of doing things without also providing supports for people that need help with the new ways. And don’t assume everyone has someone to help them.
I second that, my grandparents have been struggling so much, the bank and the health insurance both went full digital. And I’ve had to help them every week since, it’s been a few years by now… I’m tired man, also my granddad is losing his memory, he can’t even remember how to use the remote. Give people paper and envelopes and helpdesk Clercq, they are what’s keeping this world running, not Chatbots that never have the answer.
No worries about ranting. I’m still upset that the DMV turned library staff into their helpdesk without consulting us. There’s no good reason to send people to the library to make DMV appointments instead of allowing folks schedule over the phone.
My favorite was when Sir “Writes editorials about how libraries are pointless and expensive, let’s defund them” came in needing help with a DMV appointment. He was so mad. We didn’t let him know we knew who he was, but we did talk about him after he left.
In #Belgium there is an organization called “Actifs du Gang des Vieux en Colère” (the angry elders), who are rightly outraged that the government is imposing technology on them. I love that that org exists & I’m 100% behind them. These elders have become needlessly dependant on others to do basic tasks for them.
I’m outraged as well that the government is taking away offline options. But in my case, as a s/w engineer, it’s not because I have a competency problem. It’s because the government does. The gov imposes tech in a clumbsy manner, forcing citizens to share info with Microsoft & solve CAPTCHAs that help Google profit.
My concern of course is that the future elderly will be tech literate & thus diminish a movement that needs traction: the right to be offline. We need offline options for situations where the gov implements a foolish or incompetent design.
An eye opener for me was when I was updating a type of ID card I have as an expat Brit in France. I knew I could do it very simply online, but could not remember the name of the platform I needed to look for. I phoned my local government office to ask, which should have taken 5 minutes.
An hour later the guy on the helpdesk was still trying to explain to me (and my wife who had joined in because she could not believe how long it was taking) how to open a web browser. I was lying on the floor crying with frustration while my wife desperately tried to get the nice man to just give us the URL we needed.
The guy was so used to people being so incredibly tech illiterate, he could not get his around someone who could actually use a computer.
Actually there are lots of reasons because all of those applications mentioned involve both a sender and a recipient who are not both in the same organization. It’s always easy to get one person or entity to be technologically competent enough to handle data transmission using open standards in a secure & reliable way that minimizes access to those who should not see the message or metadata (such as surveillance advertisers). The problem is the other side. One of many reasons not to be digital is the other party is incompetent & says something like “don’t you have Facebook/whatsapp/gmail?” To which the response is “don’t you have XMPP with omemo, or a PGP key and an email address not hosted by a surveillance capitalist?”
Back when I worked the reference desk at a public library, one of my duties was helping people print stuff. People print things for lots of reasons. Here are a few:
Of course, the library charged 20¢/page (black and white), which is much cheaper for the occasional user than owning their own printer. It also sidesteps the maintenance and ink drying issues the casual printer user would encounter. And it doesn’t escape my notice that a lot of the use cases I mention involve interacting with the government.
All but one of those applications has no reason to not be digital.
I can see why you would want to keep invitations paper. Gives you a little bit of distance from the other parents. My kid comes home with one and I get to decide if this is something we are going to do instead of someone I really don’t know just getting my contact information and sending me an unsolicited invitation.
Would you feel comfortable with people just handing out your email address or phone number with the intent to push you into some social obligation?
I think a big general reason that exists is that not everyone is comfortable with “newer” technology and not everyone has a computer or Internet access at home.
Working in a public library really opened my eyes to that. I was everyone’s honorary millennial kid whose job it was to help them print, sign up for unemployment, meet certification requirements, take online classes, copy/paste, register for an appointment with the department of motor vehicles (no, the DMV didn’t take walk ups or help them, yes, the DMV sent them to us to fill out an online form), check their email, book flights, delete their Facebook account because someone else on the Internet was wrong.
It’s amazing the different capabilities and levels of access there are out there, and it’s naive to assume that since one person can do something everyone can.
So, I would not advocate for removing non-digital ways of doing things without also providing supports for people that need help with the new ways. And don’t assume everyone has someone to help them.
I second that, my grandparents have been struggling so much, the bank and the health insurance both went full digital. And I’ve had to help them every week since, it’s been a few years by now… I’m tired man, also my granddad is losing his memory, he can’t even remember how to use the remote. Give people paper and envelopes and helpdesk Clercq, they are what’s keeping this world running, not Chatbots that never have the answer.
Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant
No worries about ranting. I’m still upset that the DMV turned library staff into their helpdesk without consulting us. There’s no good reason to send people to the library to make DMV appointments instead of allowing folks schedule over the phone.
My favorite was when Sir “Writes editorials about how libraries are pointless and expensive, let’s defund them” came in needing help with a DMV appointment. He was so mad. We didn’t let him know we knew who he was, but we did talk about him after he left.
In #Belgium there is an organization called “Actifs du Gang des Vieux en Colère” (the angry elders), who are rightly outraged that the government is imposing technology on them. I love that that org exists & I’m 100% behind them. These elders have become needlessly dependant on others to do basic tasks for them.
I’m outraged as well that the government is taking away offline options. But in my case, as a s/w engineer, it’s not because I have a competency problem. It’s because the government does. The gov imposes tech in a clumbsy manner, forcing citizens to share info with Microsoft & solve CAPTCHAs that help Google profit.
My concern of course is that the future elderly will be tech literate & thus diminish a movement that needs traction: the right to be offline. We need offline options for situations where the gov implements a foolish or incompetent design.
An eye opener for me was when I was updating a type of ID card I have as an expat Brit in France. I knew I could do it very simply online, but could not remember the name of the platform I needed to look for. I phoned my local government office to ask, which should have taken 5 minutes.
An hour later the guy on the helpdesk was still trying to explain to me (and my wife who had joined in because she could not believe how long it was taking) how to open a web browser. I was lying on the floor crying with frustration while my wife desperately tried to get the nice man to just give us the URL we needed.
The guy was so used to people being so incredibly tech illiterate, he could not get his around someone who could actually use a computer.
Actually there are lots of reasons because all of those applications mentioned involve both a sender and a recipient who are not both in the same organization. It’s always easy to get one person or entity to be technologically competent enough to handle data transmission using open standards in a secure & reliable way that minimizes access to those who should not see the message or metadata (such as surveillance advertisers). The problem is the other side. One of many reasons not to be digital is the other party is incompetent & says something like “don’t you have Facebook/whatsapp/gmail?” To which the response is “don’t you have XMPP with omemo, or a PGP key and an email address not hosted by a surveillance capitalist?”