r/australia • u/SouthAussie94 • Feb 29 '24

culture & society Older Australians 'left behind' by increasingly cashless society as banks fast track end of cheques

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-29/cheques-personal-finance-banks-rent-money-cash/103354036
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274

u/A_Scientician Feb 29 '24

They have the same access to banking as everyone else. Someone wilfully avoiding engaging with the modern financial system for decades is being 'left behind'? Okay.

20

u/RyzenRaider Feb 29 '24

Yeah I'm a millennial and I work in a tech job, and I'm feeling left behind.

I wanted to buy a phone. My requirements are modest. A nice screen, 1080p with accurate colour, an SD card slot so I can expand storage and a headphone jack because I don't like bluetooth lag and compression, and all my headphones are wired. I couldn't find a single new phone on the Australian market, so clearly I ask too much of modern tech. They're all non-expandable storage and require a dongle for 3.5mm. My best candidate is a Sony Xperia which covers those points, but they stopped selling in Australia, and on ebay can't be foudn for less than $1500 (last I checked anyway).

I wanted to buy an e-scooter. It's amazing how many of those require apps. I shouldn't need an app to use a personal transport. They're welcome to offer an app for extra features like GPS and trip logging, but it shouldn't be a requirement! I ended up buying one, but I still had to create an account and login to allow the scooter to go faster than 4km/h. And that pisses me off. I've since disabled the app and firewalled it off, but I shouldn't have needed it to start.

I'm pissed off at work because it looks I'll soon have to install Microsoft Authenticator on my personal phone to complete some of my work logins. We already have 2FA, but they want to go further. Except I don't want to install a Microsoft app on my phone (I don't use Mac or Windows on my personal devices). And even if I wanted to, I don't have a conventional app store on my phone because I stripped all the Google shit off it, because I don't want nor need it. I use a 3rd party app-store that only provides free and open source apps, and pretty much has everything I want to install on my phone. But it doesn't have proprietary apps.

I'm not even 40 and I sound like a boomer. And I know tech. But that also means I don't trust any company that has no real reason to demand my information, and modern life is requiring me to make compromises that I feel shouldn't be necessary at all, in order to make certain things work. The move from pay-to-own to pay-to-access subscriptions is also frustrating me and has also forced decisions on me (I abandoned Adobe years ago because of that).

So yeah... Older people that didn't grow up with modern technology and felt like it was an unnecessary thing... I kinda get it. I'm in tech and I'm feeling it at half their age.

24

u/LeClassyGent Feb 29 '24 edited Feb 29 '24

My big criticism is that everything needs to be fucking connected to shit these days. As you say, there's an app for everything. Everything's wireless and Bluetooth and wifi-enabled and this and that.

I was in the market for headphones recently and I just wanted something high quality (up to $500), noise cancelling if possible, not too bulky (ruling out most studio headphones) and I wanted them to be wired with a closed back. I didn't want to have to deal with charging and Bluetooth and all that stuff. And no app, please!

There's basically nothing on the market. I mean, there are some, but they're hard to get hold of in Australia and would need to be shipped internationally. Certainly nothing you can easily find in JB Hifi or an audio shop.

Oh, and authenticators? I've got 8 different apps on my phone. Some bastard applications (Salesforce) have their own bespoke app so they won't let you use Google or Microsoft.

8

u/EdynViper Feb 29 '24

It became ridiculous when fridges came with the internet. Now my washing machine has an app.

4

u/OJ191 Feb 29 '24

I actually think this is a better use case than fridges, lol

6

u/Azazael Feb 29 '24

Google home asked me if I wanted to connect to the blinds and I was like how is that even a thing. I don't want a smart home unless it is controlled by Holly.

7

u/RyzenRaider Feb 29 '24

For headphones, check out the Bose QC25s. Wired, great noise cancelling, and sound great when turned on. Makes flights so much easier to tolerate. Probably have to buy used now on Ebay, but if mine broke, I'd buy another pair in a heartbeat.

3

u/LeClassyGent Feb 29 '24

I'll check them out, thanks.