This is the script of my national radio report yesterday discussing
how firms and other organizations are leaving many persons without
ways to get help, by reducing or eliminating phone support and leaving
persons without computer skills or Internet capabilities at risk, with
recent moves by DOGE regarding Social Security as a prime example. As
always, there may have been minor wording variations from this script
as I presented this report live on air.
- - -
Yeah, so this is an issue that has bothered me for many years and
seems to be getting drastically worse lately. And indeed it's how so
many businesses and other organizations are limiting or even ending
support for people who aren't able to use computers or smartphones or
aren't comfortable or skilled with them, or who simply don't have good
or even any Internet connections. And this can include persons of any
age but it's especially acute with older individuals, many of whom
have health and mobility problems and can't travel, and many don't
have anybody locally to help them.
For many people telephone support is absolutely essential, but more
and more we're seeing that kind of support being decimated as it's
replaced with Internet-only type systems often with user interfaces
that are designed in ways that are basically unusable by many persons
with vision or other health problems.
And you might ask, well, why is this happening? And I think there are
a number of reasons. One is that in many cases the people I'm talking
about are considered relatively unimportant by these firms and
organizations, not worth the bother to support. Another reason is cost
cutting. Fire the phone support agents, replace them with crummy
websites and misinformation-laden AI chatbots.
I've been working in tech my entire career, and over that time one
thing I've definitely noticed is that many very skilled tech
workers -- sometimes brilliant ones -- seem to have little understanding of
the real lives and limitations of nontechnical, especially older
individuals.
And I think this plays a role in some decisions that are otherwise
very difficult to understand. And perhaps we have an example of this
just over the last week or so.
Pretty much everyone wants to save money in government operations when
it's practical to do so. But as you may have heard, there was a great
deal of upset when it was reported that DOGE was planning to
essentially end all phone support for Social Security, saying that
everyone would have to use the Internet or go in person to Social
Security offices. And at the same time it was reported that many
thousands of Social Security workers would be fired and something like
50 Social Security offices closed.
Now we know that a tremendous number of people in this country depend
on regular Social Security payments for retirement and disability, and
for many even missing one payment could be catastrophic -- no payment
means no food for many. And obviously people dependent on social
security tend to be older and more frequently falling into those
categories I mentioned earlier where using the Internet or traveling
to a Social Security office -- even before the newly announced office
closures -- could be difficult or just plain impossible. For so many
of these people Social Security phone support is absolutely essential.
So apparently after the reported plans to end Social Security phone
support were publicized, DOGE reportedly backed off on that specific
part of their plans and the last I heard most Social Security phone
support will continue, except for making important payment information
changes, which would still need to be done by Internet or in person.
And of course there's a lot of concern that this alone will be a very
big problem for many, many persons dependent on receiving those
payments to survive.
Rather than ending this aspect of Social Security phone support, an
effort could be made to improve its security in various ways, instead
of leaving so many people without viable options for help when
something goes wrong with their Social Security payments.
But again, this kind of problem isn't just about Social Security, it's
about many firms and organizations of many types, and the attitude
that if you can't use the Internet effectively you just don't matter
and whatever harm comes to you as a result isn't an issue of concern.
And I think that kind of attitude is wrong, shameful, and
intolerable -- and we should demand that our government do whatever is
necessary to prevent this kind of harm to so many people, and to stop such
harm from being business as usual. We can do far better.
- - -
L
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
[email protected] (https://www.vortex.com/lauren)
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.laurenweinstein.org/@lauren
Signal: By request on need to know basis
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility
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