Istahire wrote:Let's see...
- I recently sent an application for a new job over the internet. They did not want it any other way.
True. Many businesses are using software to filter through applications and resume's. This, however, does not count as municipal.
- Banks still let you pay bills over the counter, but charges huge sums for the service (as I have an account, they only charge me NOK 38,- (ca. $6-7) per bill. Else the price would have ben higher)! Paying over the net costs me nil.
All businesses are required by law to accept payment via cash, or mailed in check and credit card. For the price of a stamp. Next.
- Many stores exist only as internet businesses. There are alternatives, but you have no way of comparing prices, and the "service" of a physical store usually carries a premium (mostly for electronics businesses).
Being one of the initial Amazon.com Employees, I can tell you; I know the 'brick and mortar vs. e-commerce' philosophy very well.
- You will never walk out of a brick and mortar store with someone else's purchase (unless you wanted to).
- You can not compare prices, but you also can not inspect product quality and performance except by anonymously submitted reviews. Truth: Most people who purchase a product and are satisfied with it, never follow up and bother to post a review. Only those unsatisfied. Sad, sin't it?
- For many municipal services, you can either log in to "MyPage" and fill out your forms, or you can stand in line for long times and meet a clerk who looks scornfully on you and asks why you didn't do it over the internet instead.
Or post them a check, phone in your credit card (and often check) information, etc.
So, almost all things can still be done without internet, but it has in many cases become extremely impractical and/or expensive to do so. The impracticabilities and expenses of not having an internet-connection makes it a necessity of having such, in order to perticipate fully in the society.
Sorry, but that is a matter of opinion. I never bank online, I never pay my municipalities online, and I certainly never shop for clothing, food or other absolute necessities online.
I should also point out that in my line of work and schedule, this is highly impractical! I work during the night, when all businesses are closed, pretty much. I get off work before they open, and sleep through most business hours, arising only with about 4 hours (Between 4pm and 8pm) to get anything done. If I have to talk to someone at my bank, it's usually with a good deal of grogginess and sleep still in my eyes!
And yet still. when it comes to my money? I want to see the guys eyes when he tells me where the hell that charge came from, or that deposit got routed. I won't accept even phone service in cases like this.
Just the fact that the state pays for unemployed people to take PC-courses ought to tell something about the significance of having a computer nowadays. This country is becoming an extreme-case, of course, but one must expect most developed countries to follow suit sooner or later. The biggest impact, however, will be in the least developed countries, where internet-connections can become the only way of getting education and efficient medical care (as in rural India).
And the primary focus of said courses? Data Entry and 10-key, which is primarily used for databases, not internet services. The computer and, more often than not, the calculator are far older than interconnectiviy, but only in the last 40 years have they become
almost synonymous.
The non-impossibility of getting essential services offline keeps your hat alive, but I find it hard to see such options as acceptable
My hat thanks you.
Just enough to be a semi-functional office monkey, and they cut the apron strings. They may go so far as to explain how e-mail works, and how to properly fill out all the fields to get it where you need it to go.
