I totally agree with the sentiment and am fully aware of how paralysing it can be nowadays if you don't have your mobile phone with you, but I also believe we could start substituting the word "enshittification" for a lot of these things. "Modernisation" is an arse-word...
I went to park my car yesterday and the sign said "Download the app to pay." No coin slot. No pay station. No option to just hand someone some money like a normal human being. Just "download the app."
Well what if I don't WANT an app? What if I don't HAVE a smartphone? What if I just want to pay with cash like we've been doing for the last hundred years? Apparently that's too much to ask. Everything's an app now. Parking. Ordering food. Paying bills. Checking into a doctor's appointment.
They're making it impossible to function without a smartphone. And if you don't have one? Too bad. You're out of luck. Cash doesn't need Wi-Fi. Cash doesn't need a software update. Cash doesn't stop working when your phone dies.
Cash just... works. But apparently that's not good enough anymore. We have to "modernize." We have to "go digital." Well I'll tell you what. If my cash isn't good enough for you, I'll take my business somewhere else.
Because I'm not downloading an app just to pay for a parking spot. And I'm not going to be forced out of society just because I don't want to carry a computer in my pocket everywhere I go.