It could be my age but I don’t subscribe to the belief that the Internet is the answer to everything. It can be convenient, that’s for sure. It would have been a great blessing when I was at school. Filling out a “Search” box is a lot easier than rummaging through stacks of library books.
And emails are definitely a big improvement over pen-and-paper communication.
But sometimes the old ways are best.
Today’s technology can be awe inspiring but it can also be exasperating.
Have you tried conversing with those machines at Direct TV, Verizon, the bank – or wherever? They drive me up the wall.
Facebook remains a mystery to me. I am overwhelmed when I try to cope with the avalanche of posts, and nothing I do on it comes out the way I thought it would.
And I still haven’t figured out how to use Twitter.
Naturally, I’m all thumbs when it comes to texting. I got so frustrated I had the phone company block texts on our cell phone.
So I am not surprised that the Obamacare web site is giving people fits.
When I reached 65, I drove down to the Social Security office and talked to a nice lady who signed me up without a hitch. Thanks to her, I was able to join Medicare, too. It’s been nearly 15 years, and the system has worked flawlessly.
Believe me, I would never have managed to sign up through some web site. I would still be battling those error messages.
Now that the internet has taken over our lives, it seems everything must be done through a web site. And that’s what sabotaged Obamacare. In my experience, web sites are all “counter-intuitive.” They were designed by techies for techies. And I am no techie.
The new health care law is complex enough without adding an internet component. Surely, potential subscribers would’ve found it simpler to sit down with a helpful civil servant – as I did?
Of course, with the number of applicants involved, the government would’ve had to hire a lot of agents, but if they can manage to get the Census taken every 10 years, I’m sure they could have handled that challenge.
It could not have cost anything like the web site is costing. The most recent estimate puts that figure at around a billion dollars.
You can hire a lot of clerks for that kind of dough.
