On the Usefulness of the Internet

A few random but connected notes:

1. A few days ago I saw what I see every autumn, usually in October: several skeins of geese flying north. (I find their honking highly evocative because it’s the sound of summer’s end.) This always struck me as odd because migratory birds generally fly south for the winter to take advantage of a milder climate, and so I Googled ‘Why do geese fly north from the UK in the autumn?’ The results I got all told me that geese fly south to the UK for the winter from on or near the Arctic Circle to take advantage of the milder climate. So was this information useful? No.

2. I was curious to know more about Lady Jane Grey (the famous Nine Days Queen) once, and so I Googled her name and read the first history site which came up. It began ‘Lady Jane Grey was the third daughter of Henry VIII.’ No, she wasn’t. Henry VIII had two daughters; Jane Grey was the daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and was distantly related to Henry (grand niece, I think) through one of Henry’s sisters. I already knew that, so was this information useful? Hardly.

3. At one time, conducting our banking affairs was a simple matter of using a local branch, but the banks that operate in the UK have now closed the great majority of their branches. They tell us to use online banking instead (because it means they make a lot more profit that way, but they don’t care to mention that bit.) And so, because my bank has no branch in either of my local towns, I’ve been forced to use this method.

I have two numbers to access my account; one is stored permanently on my home computer, but for security reasons the second has to be entered manually every time. That makes sense, but now they’ve added a third level of security: they insist on sending an OTP to my mobile phone and won’t allow access until I’ve entered it. But suppose I don’t have a mobile. Some people still don’t. Or – as is more often the case with me – suppose the signal is weak and I don’t get the text. It happens, and it means I can’t get into my bank account. I’ve thought of calling my bank to discuss this problem, but I’m sure their reply would distil to ‘resistance is useless’ and nothing would be achieved. (And have you ever tried to call a bank these days? It’s usually the very definition of a Stressful Experience.)

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So where is this taking our culture? Is the internet really greatly improving our lives as the techie wizards and those with big profits to make claim? Is it a good thing that we should have to deal with the stresses thus engendered, and how much can we rely on the information being peddled? And I could take this much further and complain about the speed of changes which force us to be forever jumping through hoops at the behest of those who increasingly rule our lives.

But I won’t because this post is worse than tedious already. I’ll just ask myself – as I frequently do – whether I’m being a sad old reactionary, and then admit that I have no idea. (But I think I have a valid point, even though I know that resistance really is useless.)