You Can’t Enjoy Discounts Without Electronic Payment, A

You can’t enjoy discounts without electronic payment, you can’t order food if you don’t know how to operate the app, you can’t get a taxi just by waving your hands…

While the Internet has brought convenience to people's lives, some people have become farther and farther away from society. The rapidly developing technology is creating a digital divide. The other side is full of marginalized and ignored elderly people.

For them, "technology changes life" is not necessarily a good thing, but may also be a frustration with no end in sight.

Mobile payment: Stumping supermarket "old fried dough sticks"

Just after ten o'clock in the morning, inside a Hema store located outside the South Third Ring Road, the chain conveying goods made creaking sounds from time to time, reminding customers that this place was different.

At the entrance of the supermarket, there is a row of self-service checkout machines. Three or five young people are pushing shopping carts and skillfully swiping the barcodes on the products. On the contrary, the staff on the side looked a little bored.

On the other side of the self-service checkout machine, the silver-haired Ms. Xu was consulting in a low voice. Facing the young staff, she seemed a little too reserved and even used very polite words: "Sir, let me ask, I don't have a mobile phone." Can I buy something here?”

Ms. Xu's cautiousness made the staff a little embarrassed, and she hurriedly introduced the supermarket policy: "You can buy it whether you have a mobile phone, but if you don't have a mobile phone, you can only ask the staff at our service desk."

Hema Fresh staff further explained that if Ms. Xu has the Hema Fresh App but does not know how to make mobile payments, she can pay with cash and ask an employee to pay for it; however, membership is bound to the mobile App because Ms. Xu does not have a mobile phone or is not a registered member. , all discounts in the supermarket cannot be enjoyed: "How about you bring a mobile phone next time, and I will operate it for you."

"Thank you. I can't install the software on my mobile phone…" Ms. Xu seemed a little embarrassed and thanked the staff several times before turning and leaving.

This is not the first time Ms. Xu has come to Hema Xiansheng, but it is the first time she has made up her mind to "ask about the situation." The 72-year-old woman lives in a community near a supermarket. Three months ago, she heard from her neighbors that a good supermarket opened nearby. She came to see it once: "The things are good, but after shopping around, even the cashier was there." Not found anywhere.”

"You can't get discounts without a mobile phone, which hurts us old people a lot. Can't we apply for a card?" Ms. Xu said that she is a supermarket "expert" and knows which store has the best meat and which store has the cheapest. Unexpectedly, now she is stumped by the new technology. There are many old neighbors like her: "When I came here to visit, I thought it was very good and very advanced. But I just can't do this mobile payment. Bring cash, you have to do it every time." I'm sorry to bother you with the operation."

More and more supermarkets are implementing cashless payment and self-service checkout, which leaves Ms. Xu at a loss: “I tried self-checkout at Yonghui Supermarket once before, and my child was teaching me, which made me very nervous and my blood pressure was high. ”

"Nowadays, when you go to the vegetable market to buy food, you have to swipe a QR code. It's really uncomfortable." Just a few days ago, Ms. Xu went to the vegetable market near her community to buy vegetables. The vegetable vendor said that because everyone paid with credit cards, she couldn't get change. Ms. Xu felt particularly frustrated. “I even argued with them a few times and told them that I couldn’t refuse banknotes. But they were helpless because they couldn’t collect so much cash now.”

Afraid of being abandoned and unable to learn, this feeling makes Ms. Xu uncomfortable. Experts have long given the definition of the digital divide: the gap (or gap, gap) between the information-rich and the information-poor. —Ms. Xu did not expect that she would now be on the other side of the ditch: "In another two years, I might not even be able to buy vegetables. What should I do?"

Ordering food online: Elderly people face embarrassment when they are cut off

If Ms. Xu's inability to buy food is an indication of anxiety about the future, then 80-year-old Chen Juan encountered the embarrassment of not having lunch at the beginning of 2019.

Although she is now an octogenarian, Chen Juan, who lives near You'anmen, still lives independently with her wife. She is in good health and can still take on all the housework at home, but cooking every day is her biggest worry. We have to do the grocery shopping and cooking every day. “Even though we are just an old couple, the workload is quite heavy.”

In the past year or so, Chen Juan was introduced to senior care meals by her neighbors. Not far from her home, there is a store in Guoan Community, where she can handle daily shopping, laundry and even ordering meals.

Logically speaking, Guoan Community also needs a mobile app to place orders, but with the store staff, Chen Juan asks for help with top up nimo every time she tops up money and places an order. The meals she orders will be ordered every day. Delivered to your home: "You can go there every few days. The people are very welcoming. You can sit there and rest for a while after ordering."

Ordering pension meals for nearly a year saved Chen Juan a lot of effort. However, the good times did not last long. At the end of 2018, news came out of the store that due to business adjustments, nearby stores were closed and relocated, and all business was transferred to Tiantan. Nearby storefronts. The journey that originally took less than five minutes on foot now takes thirty or forty minutes by car.

"They explained to me that my mobile phone can still be recharged as usual, but I can't." Like Chen Juan, there are several other elderly people in the community who are also stumped, and some neighbors who can operate smartphones can still continue to charge money. Operational ordering: "I ordered it for me several times downstairs. Some people learned it, but I still can't do it."

According to Guoan Community staff, after the business adjustment is completed, the recharge of senior care meals can still be operated through the mobile app, and the elderly can also call the store to select specific meals. However, if the elderly do not know the steps to recharge their mobile phones, they will not be able to operate it by phone alone. Regarding the inconvenience caused by the reduced number of stores after the business adjustment, the staff also acquiesced: "The elderly can ask their children to help recharge, and then just call to order food."

Seeing that the convenience she had obtained became a burden, Chen Juan felt quite disappointed, "Who told us not to do it?"

"Whether you know how to use a mobile phone or not, the difference is really big now." Chen Juan said frankly that because she doesn't know new applications of the Internet, her quality of life has gradually widened the gap with others. While online services are dazzling and increasingly rich, many former offline stores have transformed into online stores. In addition to uplive recharge for ordering food, the same is true for some services such as housekeeping and shopping. This makes the elderly face the embarrassment of not being able to order, or even knowing where to order: "There used to be several housekeepers in the alley, but now there is only one left. I often see neighbors hiring part-time workers to clean up the house. I asked young people where they started. Where did you order it? I couldn’t understand what they said about ‘help’.”

"I hope that everything will not be moved online all at once, and that the old methods will be left behind." Chen Juan suggested that services that are in greater demand among the elderly, such as senior meals and housekeeping services, should be added to the "Internet +" army at the same time. Some traditional channels are also retained, such as phone ordering and physical housekeeping services. At least there are interfaces in surrounding neighborhood committees and other institutions. "It is not realistic to point out that the elderly can learn to use the Internet, even if the physical ones are more expensive."

Internet Finance: Counter withdrawals are looked down upon

Not being able to enjoy discounts and not being able to order food online, in addition to these material differences, the elderly will also be hit by "spiritual aspects" from time to time under the digital divide.

"Every time I go to the bank to withdraw money, I will get a few looks." Mr. Wu will go to the bank at the end of every month without hesitation. While withdrawing his pension, he will also inquire about the recently launched bank financial products. The 73-year-old man doesn’t know how to use a smartphone. He usually chats smoothly on WeChat, but he has never been able to get around mobile banking.

"It's not that I can't learn, it's because I think it's troublesome to make mistakes about money, or it's more practical to do it at the counter." Because he also has to ask about financial management, Mr. Wu spends a long time at the counter each time, which often arouses dissatisfaction among those waiting: "Especially He was a young man, and when he saw me withdrawing a thousand yuan after asking for a long time, he rolled his eyes."

Every time he walked into the bank, seeing more and more self-service machines and fewer and fewer windows, he became a little more resistant: "As soon as I asked what I was talking about, they said you can operate it with your mobile phone. I feel like we elderly people shouldn't buy it. It’s like managing money.”

However, financial products are becoming more and more abundant, especially financial products and fund products. It is also a reality that counter introductions cannot compare with online browsing. In the eyes of the elderly people interviewed, the way traditional business is handled is more of a psychological "reliability". This is also the conceptual gap between the old and new generations.

In fact, Mr. Wu himself could not tell whether the eye-rolling was a mockery of reality or "self-motivated", but he still insisted that he had personally heard a latecomer say, "You still get such a small amount of money at the counter."

Mr. Wu's mentality is not uncommon among the elderly – on the one hand, hesitation between modern technology and traditional concepts, on the other hand, anxiety and inferiority complex in the face of new things – behind the inability to learn, there are often Don't dare to learn, don't want to ask. Among the elderly people interviewed, "embarrassment" and "fear of bothering others" have become the mainstream mentality: "Forget about mobile banking, I don't even want to participate in owner group chats. Repost a few articles and young people will ridicule you. , what a rumor, you don’t understand, it makes you feel upset."