[blah_humbug]

I've found that true of other everyday things (eg, booking a session my local gym), and find it incredibly depressing. Not only have we devised a world where impersonal, digital communication is the way things get done, but we must also buy a smartphone to even start accessing it.

[brianwawok]

I find it a great step forward in society, for every Gym in the world to not need to staff someone to sit there and answer phone call questions around (what are your hours? can I book X for Y?). Those are done much faster with robots and lower our costs.

[ciphol]

Those are done much better with a web site (for many purposes, a static website with no Javascript is sufficient!) than by downloading a gigantic possibly-insecure app.

[blah_humbug]

You don't need someone sitting next to the phone the entire time to perform that service. Besides, you've swapped that perceived unpleasantness for another - some poor soul in a 3rd-world coding sweatshop has to scrape together some bloated mess of an app so we can enjoy our "hassle-free" gym sessions, etc.