I'm not going to leave this in the tags cause I would like to expand on this with a situation I ran into a few months ago:
I took a Greyhound in November to my current state. I had a homeless man approach me and ask if I knew where the next bus was headed. He needed to buy a bus ticket, and was completely stranded in that city because the bus stop itself did not sell physical tickets. It required purchasing them online, and he didn't have a phone. He had cash with him to afford it, but literally could not buy a ticket because he didn't have a phone or debit card of any kind.
The bus driver allowed him to just ride for free that day so he could get to his destination (3~ hours from there), which was incredibly kind of them.
More recently, I had to download an app for my friend to use a parking meter because they got rid of letting them take change and debit cards. An app for a parking meter.
I'm currently dealing with homelessness and do you have any idea how lucky I am to have a phone that's paid for? Half the resources I go to require a phone number or email to sign up for assistance (or more ironically an address but that's besides the point).
It's shit like that, that makes me HATE how everything requires a phone, an app, an email ect to use basic shit, especially when it's not needed. It's inaccessible to so many people, and not just those going through homelessness.
Phone broke? That sucks. Is your phone dead? Too bad. Missed payment on your phone plan? Fuck you, better suck it up. Don't have data or signal? Uh oh better find somewhere with it.
It's a disadvantage at BEST to the average day to day citizen and it's absolutely exhausting. At worst I honestly think it's a symptom of fascism.
prguitarman
theartofmadeline
kaledo-art
turnnoffyourmind
