Now here's an interesting article:
I'm setting up my son's email account, for my son's phone, as he looks to head off to Intermediate School next year. I had forgotten what a convoluted, unnecessarily complicated bollocks it was. I had almost forgotten . . . [flashback, shimmering scene change, Twilight Zone music . . .]
A couple of years ago, my wife and I were going to buy our wee girl (then almost 11) a mobile
phone for Christmas. She was going to have a 30
minute bus ride to/from her intermediate school, so we agreed that a mobile phone with some games
would be an entertainment tool as well as an emergency contact device for our
daughter - especially in light of the Christchurch quakes. We thought it might be complicated,
but we had absolutely no idea ….
2-Degrees is the newbie mobile provider, here in New
Zealand. We were very clear to the
2-Degrees shop in Christchurch The Palms; we were buying this for our 10 year
old daughter, going to intermediate next year.
We knew she wanted games, but there was no way we were giving her
unfettered access to the internet!
Sadly, it seems, the basic mobile phones have games no longer! Gone are the days when the Nokia brick had
some fun, clever, basic, and PLAYABLE games.
The solution seemed to pull us – inexorably and
reluctantly – down the “smartphone” route.
Oh but wait. The
Samsung Smartphone we looked at needed an email address. The Android operating system by Google (the mobile’s version of Windows) needs an email address, you see. And not just any email address – it has to be
a Gmail account from Google. However, we
were told, as long as we didn’t link our VISA card to that email address, our
daughter could download free games. But
she needed that email address . . .
There we were at Boxing Day, like many of you will be in 6 weeks time. We had the phone charged,
and we now set up a Gmail address. I
typed in our daughter’s name, password and phone number …. And we’re told she is too young to have a Google Account.
Now that I had linked my daughter’s format to her phone number, Google
will always tell me that she is too young for the account. Because I have been honest and entered her
details correctly, I have lost that email address for her for the next three years
– and possibly forever. Had I been
dishonest and entered false details, I wouldn’t need to be moaning about it to
you now. A sad indictment on our lives
today, don’t you think?
Is there a “Contact Us” feature in Google to seek advice? Couldn’t see it. Is there a Google phone number to phone for
help? Not on your life. The media seem to be able to contact Google
at the drop of a hat for comment, but when users of Google – the very people
who keep Google alive – want help – well, we can whistle Dixie.
I guess what was frustrating and disappointing about our
experience – even before we tried to set up the phone – is how these things are
sold to us. When we explained to the
2-Degrees shop in the Palms, that we wanted a smartphone but no internet, we
were actually laughed at (albeit with a degree of restraint). We explained we wanted an Android phone, but
we wanted to restrict our daughter’s internet access. Again this was greeted
with denigrating mirth:
Salesman: “Why would you have a smartphone and not use the
internet? [snigger]”
Me: “Oh, I don’t know – perhaps because we want the games, but don’t want her
delving into the darker depths of the worldwide web, chatrooms, Facebook or
worse - as she’s only frakking 10!!”
Were we being so unreasonable as to want a phone for our
daughter, with games, but with limited internet access? It would appear so. The conversation continued:
Me: “I am NOT letting my daughter – or the potential ratbag that
might steal her phone – have access to my email. And what was the point, anyway? Because, if I download games for her, and she
changes accounts when she comes of Google age, the games disappear with her
account change.”
Salesman: “So, what about using your account to download
games then log out rather than delete the account?”
Me: [Heavy sigh, knowing the answer to my next question] “OK. Can you show me that you can log out of your
Android phone?”
Not one salesperson could show us how to log out from a Google
account on an Android phone. Can’t be
done. You can only DELETE your Google account.
You do that, and you lose all those games you have downloaded and may
have paid for. It’s really quite
insidious, isn’t it?
As mother-in-law watched our Boxing Day frustration, she made an
interesting comment: “Why don’t you get a simple phone - how long do phones
last, after all?” The throwaway phone: well, we were absolutely not
going down that path! That’s exactly
what we are programmed to think by the marketing hype. Capitalism DEPENDS on that mind set: that we
will throw out the phone next year. It’s
typical of today’s disposable retail culture.
Gone are the days when toasters and other appliances lasted 10 years.
The marketeers of the corporations have won. They have seduced you.
In conclusion, our experience with smartphones has highlighted a number of
wrongs on so many levels, as we try to carve out "normal" lives for our children:
- Life is too complicated – made overly complicated by unnecessary technology shoved down our throats. I think this complicated technology is getting out of control.
- Capitalism doesn’t want to hear about any problems – it just wants our money.
- The people who support this society (and that’s
the idiots we vote for) don’t have the will or the way to change this for our
betterment. They are happy to tax,
repress, silence and monitor us, but don’t want to give us a real voice for
change when nonsense like this arises.
It’s simply too hard for them.
- The idiots we vote for aren’t interested in hearing about this out-of-control technology – they just want our taxes and for us to spend our way out of recession on such technology, regardless of any personal credit issues.
- Our government is happy for capitalism to bombard us with marketing messages pressuring us to buy the latest and greatest technology.
- Why does a child want an (overpriced) iPhone? Not because the child has any idea of why, but because the child has been bombarded (directly or indirectly) by sustained corporate marketing; so now all her friends have smart phones.
- Retail fast-moving technology – like the smartphone - is a very clever way to bring our children earlier, into this shallow, consumerist, disposable society.
- Fast moving technology has been the death of customer service. When we are confused or can not use this complicated device, we have to pay someone for the privilege of the solution.
- Despite the mass advertising of hi-tech devices, despite being marketed that these are absolutely essential technology, we are subsequently told, “If you can’t use it, you shouldn’t have bought it.”
