Progress: A Vent by Request

My Mum requested this. And who I am to deny a mother’s wish?

Mum likes to say, “In the good old days”.

OK, let’s see what that might mean in relation to Progress by looking at this specific example.

Updating Health Insurance Paperwork. “In the good old days” my Mum went down to a local Australian Unity Health Insurance branch. It was a shop-front store located only 10 minutes walk (3 minutes by car). There were counters with staff behind them, and if it was busy, you might have to wait in line.

When you were served, you laid your paperwork on the counter and completed the business at hand. The person behind the counter maybe offered some advice and perhaps helped fill in the correct form (or not… depending on the number of customers waiting in the queue). At best, a simple bill payment took a few minutes of your time. Or, if there was a complicated and difficult decision to be made between multiple alternatives, it took a little longer. Maybe 30 minutes, tops! Mum says that “in the good old days” she could complete all of this and walk away with a piece of paper in her hand to file away in the Health Insurance folder. It had certainly been done.

In “the good old days” Mum had a signed & stamped document. She could wave that in court if she had needed to.

Now, if we progress not a lot of years to the present time, the process of doing the same business is quite different. It has all pretty much become automated, with on-line forms to fill in, logins & passwords to keep secret, help-desk telephone numbers to call when it doesn’t work as planned. You then need to listen to the options… carefully… pressing buttons 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5. Not forgetting the hash-key to activate your particular option. That places you in the queue. If you are anything like me, you begin to worry about how much battery you have left on your phone.

But why am I explaining all this? We all know about it. We have all experienced (or to use a much better word ‘endured’) waiting on-hold. We have all experienced the hours and days needed to work-through an error in the automated world.

Because, even if it all the technology works, there is one vital difference between “the good old days” and our present time. It is the uncertainty of the result. There will always remain an element of doubt that everything has in fact functioned correctly. Yes, it’s always a good idea to keep in mind that you have just returned from a journey into the virtual reality of cyber-space.

I don’t think anyone would consider me anti-internet or anti-online. And I am certainly no Luddite. I not only embrace new technologies, I have been involved in some of them.

Nevertheless, my Mum has a particularly valid point when she sighs and compares “the good old days” with this uncertain journey we call Progress.