I’m not too old for online – but I’m old enough to know better

MICHAEL

Wolsey

THE GAA has scored owngoals with its forays into the world of online technology. It has been berated for refusing to accept cash at the turnstiles, forcing fans to book match tickets online and store them on a phone. But the row about this so-called Digital Lockout was nothing compared to the storm over restricting TV coverage of some games to the GAA’s own subscription channel.

In both cases the association has been accused, among many transgressions, of discriminating against the elderly. Tánaiste Micheál Martin specifically referred to “senior citizens” when he spoke against streaming important games on the GAAGo service. Dragons’ Den judge, Gavin Duffy, suggested the GAA might organise classes to give “people of a certain age” the skills needed to locate a viewing app or make an online booking.

I’m not certain when “a certain age” begins but Mr Duffy is 63 so he can’t be too far off it. I’m twelve years older, so I certainly qualify.

I don’t think Mr Duffy needs the sort of help he is proposing and neither do I. I am perfectly capable of finding an app, making an online payment, or reserving a ticket via my phone or laptop.

Some people have difficulty with these things just as I have extreme difficulty with putting up a shelf or mending a broken pipe. Lack of skill or lack of practice may be the problembut it’s not age.

I am younger than Michael D Higgins who is coping perfectly well with the problems of the Presidency. I am younger than Joe Biden, who sometimes looks a bit shaky on his feet but has the mental capacity required for the world’s most taxing job. I am younger than Donald Trump who hopes to re-take that job.

I have doubts about his mental capacity but they are the same doubts I would have had when he was in his sixties, fifties or forties.

You don’t become an eejit at “a certain age” nor lose the ability to grapple with the everyday tasks of a digital era. I’m sure the Tánaiste and all the concerned commentators are well meaning, but I find their view of “senior citizens” more condescending than considerate.

As it happens, I do object to the Digital Lockout, but not because of some insurmountable difficulty in making an online booking for match tickets, which in any case, can still be bought from shops and GAA outlets. My issue is with the push towards a cashless society in which people are increasingly reliant on their phones.

Being cashless leaves us dependent for everyday transactions on banks which have not shown themselves at all responsive to the wishes of customers: closing branches, removing ATMs, imposing charges for the use of debit cards. They do what suits them and I don’t want to hand them control over every little purchase I make.

I don’t want to completely rely on a phone either, because we forget to charge phones, they sometimes break down and they don’t work in areas with poor broadband.

Ticketmaster has taken to issuing some tickets which they send to your phone and which have to stay there because they cannot be printed at home. Your phone is your ticket, they say.

Even if the phone is fully charged and reception is perfect, I cannot see how this is an improvement on printing the ticket on a single sheet of paper that can be checked at the point of entry.

That is simpler than searching for your phone, then searching on the phone for the appropriate email or app. It may be less trouble for Ticketmaster and it allows them to collect more data. But it is more trouble for me.

It’s not that I can’t do these things, just that I don’t want to.

I’m not too old to find an app or make an online booking. But I’m old enough to remember when service providers said the customer was always right. Old enough to remember when he who paid the piper