We are quietly isolating an entire generation of older people from society, and nobody seems to give a damn.
I took my 84-year-old grandfather to his local bank branch on Friday.
The exact same brick-and-mortar branch where he opened his first account in 1978.
We pull up to the front doors. They’re locked.
Inside is an empty lobby with a small sign: “Cashless Service Hub.”
A young guy in a polo shirt opens the door and tells us:
“We don't handle teller deposits or paper checks here anymore. You just need to download the mobile portal and scan your routing number.”
My grandfather pulls out an old flip phone with a cracked screen and a paper pension check from his coat pocket.
His hands were visibly shaking.
The employee just shrugs.
“You can do it on an iPad, or have a family member manage the app for you.”
This man worked forty-two years in a manufacturing plant. Paid his taxes. Fought for this country.
And now he is made to feel completely useless and stripped of his dignity because he doesn't own an iOS device.
Tech isn't making life easier if it completely locks out the people who built the world we’re living in.
Are your elderly parents or grandparents running into this wall too?
@ysuckgirl The captain wakes up and when she tells him what Jim did, the captain says something along the line of “a drowning man will drag someone else down with him” so… it’s not like he didn’t spend months or years trying to talk himself out of waking her