[tgsovlerkhgsel]

> Second, if you had actually suffered such a loss, your digital life would hopefully be the last thing on your mind

It isn't though. Access to your digital resources is vital to recover from the loss. You need an e-mail address to arrange contractors, you need your contact list to reach out to friends for help, you need access to your bank accounts, your cloud-stored scans of your ID cards, ...

[reaperducer]

You need an e-mail address to arrange contractors

No. People have been trained to think they need an e-mail address for real-life things, but they don't.

I had a roof replaced in my last place, which involved multiple contractors and insurance companies. No e-mail. No text messaging involved.

I recently moved to a new city, and setting up utilities, dry cleaning service, parking garage, etc... probably involved a dozen new accounts. I gave my e-mail address to none of them. Depending on the disposition of the provider, I either told them I hadn't set up e-mail yet since I moved, or just a flat "no."

you need your contact list to reach out to friends for help

If you're over 40, you can remember the days when it was perfectly ordinary to remember the phone numbers for dozens and dozens of people and businesses. These days, we've allowed computers to think and remember for us (hello, Stackoverflow!) so we don't have to. Memory is a normal skill that many people have lost or neglected.

you need access to your bank accounts

That's why it's important to have your bank accounts with an actual bank, with actual branches, and actual human beings to help you when human being things go wrong in the real world.

your cloud-stored scans of your ID cards

I can't even wrap my brain around why you'd trust information this important to a rental computer a thousand miles away.

"Everything digital" is a marketing tool. In reality, it only works when it works. When things go wrong, digital shows its fragility.

[basisword]

>> If you're over 40, you can remember the days when it was perfectly ordinary to remember the phone numbers for dozens and dozens of people and businesses. These days, we've allowed computers to think and remember for us (hello, Stackoverflow!) so we don't have to. Memory is a normal skill that many people have lost or neglected.

Heck, if you're over 30 you remember this. The problem though is that you remembered those numbers because you dialled them frequently from memory (and, at least in my location, landline numbers were much shorter than cell phone numbers). If you're not doing this on your smartphone you're never going to be able to remember the numbers. e.g. I can remember all of my childhood friends home phone numbers. I can't remember my partners cell phone number.

I recently considered getting an analogue phone book and noting down all the numbers in my smartphone contacts book just in case I ever lost access to the digital version.

[grogenaut]

You likely still have a printer. Print out your contacts and toss them in a safe

[basisword]

Yep good call. I just realised the Mac contacts app lets you export it to a nice PDF I can print.

[brnt]

> People have been trained to think they need an e-mail address for real-life things, but they don't.

The Dutch government not only defacto requires it, soon an Android or iOS phone with their app will be required too. Only very determined, very patient people with lots or spare time will be able to do without.

[reaperducer]

The Dutch government not only defacto requires it, soon an Android or iOS phone with their app will be required too

What do poor people do? Or the very elderly? Or those with diminished mental abilities? Or people whose culture eschews technology?

[vkou]

I assume they do the same thing as anyone else in any other country does. They go through the fall-back bureaucratic channel of 'haul your ass over to a physical, brick-and-mortar agency office'.

[brnt]

They get screwed, in most cases.

[paganel]

The Dutch people should probably protest against measures like those.

[brnt]

They don't, because they are largely anti-luddites.

[jay_kyburz]

I was thinking about this on the way home the other day. I'm the most tech savvy of all my family and friends. I live and breath tech. Code all day, game all night.

But I'm the one who hates all smart home devices. I'm the one who wants a dumb TV. I would be perfectly happy with my dumb phone if it didn't keep pocket dialing emergency services.

I want less tech in my life not more.

[10u152]

I'm in a similar spot and have an ancient, dumb plasma TV on its last legs. I've poured HOURS into researching a replacement dumb TV that is reasonably cost effective and available. It's way too hard. I can get commercial displays from Samsung that are about 50% more expensive than consumer grade and about 4 years behind in picture/quality but that's about it.

[foobarbecue]

Pretend he said "phone unlock code" instead of email password. It's 2022. Everything is digital. Auth is essential.

[ghaff]

Phones break and get lost/stolen.

All of us--and I include myself although I try to have some backup information on paper--have probably become too dependent on a single physical device which sucks in more and more information every year. See ongoing digitization of driver's licenses.

Especially for international travel, but really generally, I try to make it so I'm not completely screwed if something were to happen to my phone.

[avh02]

I try to still print out boarding passes when I can cos I don't want to deal with delays or missing a flight if my phone runs out of battery, especially if it's a flight out after a full day out and about. It's also less annoying at the airport fiddling with my phone to get the right barcode up each time it's needed (and no, I won't put it in to Google wallet)

[ghaff]

I don't go out of way to print boarding passes when I'm on the road. But certainly at home, it takes maybe a minute so why not?

[ska]

I stopped doing this when I realized I hadn't used a single paper one in about 50 flights.

[reaperducer]

You'll start doing it again after someone swipes your phone at the airport (yes, this still happens) and you miss your plane waiting in line to deal with the customer service agents.

[ddingus]

Same. Paper has no downtime.

[foobarbecue]

Yes, the "one device per phone number" restriction is quite annoying. I'd like to have multiple, functional copies of my phone. Instead I settle for a phone and a 4G watch, paying for one phone number for each. Since eSIM providers allow cloning but I haven't tried that yet.