For some time I have been able to rub along in a state of mild dissatisfaction and irritation with the changes taking place in contemporary communication. I have taken the view that there is a kind of parallel world in which the electronic media dominate, but that it is possible for me to continue to run along well-known tracks in that other world with which I am familiar. Today, however, that illusion was shattered.
We have decided to go to the theatre in London over the coming week-end, and today the tickets arrived by email. So far, so good. The only snag was that it was necessary to download the tickets onto a mobile ‘phone as the theatre no longer accepts paper tickets. I am pretty sure that my mobile ‘phone is too antiquated to enable me to do this. Fortunately I was able to forward the mail to my wife, who works with a rather more recent model, and was able to “capture” the tickets.
This apparently trivial experience has shocked me on two levels. Off course I am irritated by the fact that I have to get a grip and learn how to operate in this new environment, starting, of course, with the purchase of a new ‘phone which is compatible with this kind of demand. The situation is reminiscent of the situation many years ago when I had been learning to play the guitar. I reached the point at which I realised that unless I put in at least two hours a day and learned to read music properly, than I was going to get absolutely nowhere. Not having that amount of time, or degree of commitment, I hung the instrument on the wall and never played it again. The difference between that situation and my current problem is that I don’t really have a choice.
There is a more serious level to this problem, however, and that is the fact that people who are not able to make the kind of commitment I am contemplating (probably because of their poverty) are going to be effectively disenfranchised in contemporary society. They will be excluded from all kinds of activities and situations to which the only possible access is via a communication device which is up-to-date. It will not be a luxury, but a necessity. At the moment there is an intense discussion going on in politics and the media about poverty in Britain, and the fact that some families have reached the point at which they have to decide between “heating and eating” during the coming winter. How much further up the “decision tree” is the choice between communication and exclusion from citizenship?