Why does everything have to revolve around mobile devices?

StuBeeDoo · 27th-Nov-23, 06:19 PM

I've been trying to avoid this section of the forum, because I wasted far too much of my life on a certain thread on SFI.

However, I'm absolutely fuming this evening. Back in July, I bought a pair of tickets to see Jules Holland at Newcastle City Hall this coming Thursday. Just this afternoon, I received an e-mail reminding me to download my tickets to the O2 Academy app on my 'phone as it is the only acceptable form of entry. Producing a paper copy of the e-mail is not allowed.

So now I'm up S*** Creek, because I don't possess a smart 'phone.

If I had seen anything relating to this when I bought the tickets I wouldn't have bothered. It's probably buried in the small print. I wish I'd saved the £100+ the tickets cost, it's not like I've never seen JH and his merry band before.

JasonB · 27th-Nov-23, 07:00 PM

Ironically from the venue's website....

"We strive to make all our shows at O2 City Hall Newcastle accessible to everyone to make sure things keep improving. "

I take it you'll be asking for your money back?

StuBeeDoo · 27th-Nov-23, 07:07 PM

I'm in the process of drafting an e-mail to the City Hall, quoting that very phrase. Mrs.Stu is trying to access the tickets on her device, as I'm typing this.

JasonB · 27th-Nov-23, 07:20 PM

Hope you manage to get it sorted, it obviously shouldn't be this difficult though.

KensRedZed · 28th-Nov-23, 08:07 PM

My sister-in-law just got her first cell/smart phone because the new apartment she's moving into is keyless entry and has no physical phone lines. She has fought tooth and nail to avoid cell phones. She has yet to lose or missplace it. Just wait until the first time she can't access her front door.

When my wife or I missplace our phones. We get one to call the other. Handy those ladies are, eh. Thumbup

I hope things work out for you, Stu.

JasonB · 28th-Nov-23, 08:57 PM

I got my first mobile a year or so ago.

I'd avoided them for many years, mostly because I was spending most of my day working on a computer, and once I'd finished for the day I wanted to be free from calls and messages. But also, I was a little wary of the fact that I'd seen how my friends and family were almost addicted to them. At family meals there was always someone checking their phone, going out with friends it was much the same.

But I eventually had to get one because our local bank branch closed, and telephone banking involved a minimum of a half an hour wait. We had to go to online banking, and they insisted on a mobile to send the verification codes to.

But that's all it gets used for. I barely know how to use it. I've got a landline, and I've got a computer, so if I'm not contactable through either of those methods, then I'm probably out and about, possibly even enjoying myself, so I don't want to be interrupted.

CMOTD · 28th-Nov-23, 09:13 PM

Smart phones in general and social media in particular are the spawn of the devil and largely responsible for the mess that society is in. A pity because they could be a force for good but are anything but and are almost solely responsible for the vast increase in scams and fraud of recent years. I will have nothing to do with either.

I have a landline with answer phone, can get emails anywhere in the world on my tablet and I have a dumb mobile phone which is never switched on unless I need to make a call or receive a passcode. That is all the communication methods I need.

munter · 29th-Nov-23, 02:00 AM

The (dumb=calls and txts) phone is OK and I had a laptop so I was all modern until my son told me off and said I was using a drug dealers phone.
He gave me an older iphone and told me I now had my laptop in my pocket. He was right. The smart phone is a boon for being part of the modern age...just remember that it is the operator that is in control of the phone and you should be OK.

mickey thumbs · 29th-Nov-23, 03:58 AM

I do the same as Brian. I think the move to mobile e-tickets may be an attempt to curtail the use of counterfeit paper tickets. But the scammers will soon catch up like they always do.

CMOTD · 29th-Nov-23, 01:36 PM

(29th-Nov-23, 02:00 AM)munter Wrote: The (dumb=calls and txts) phone is OK and I had a laptop so I was all modern until my son told me off and said I was using a drug dealers phone.
He gave me an older iphone and told me I now had my laptop in my pocket. He was right. The smart phone is a boon for being part of the modern age...just remember that it is the operator that is in control of the phone and you should be OK.

Correct up to a point John. I have to ask though - why do you actually need a laptop in your pocket? Unfortunately large swathes of the population are not in control of the phone, it controls them with their addiction to looking at it every few minutes to the exclusion of everything around them.

What you also have in your pocket is a machine which tracks your every movement. People are sleepwalking into the world of Big Brother with their reliance on smartphones whose apps track them 24/7. Mass surveillance is exactly what Google, Facebook etc are engaged in.

At present, in Western democratic societies at least, the information is mainly being used for commercial purposes but this may not always be the case and is already being used by less benign governments to spy on their populations.

Still, if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear!