apps – Observations and Misunderstandings

Well I’m supposed to be writing this but I’ve gone and got myself distracted by a game on an app. I try to resist playing games on the phone or computer because I know how addictive they can be when I enjoy them. I assume they’re designed in that way to do exactly that and that just makes me even more wary. I’m a little bit of a traditionalist when it comes to these things too. I like my board games to be a physical things you can play with you hands and I’ve never really got into the computer game versions of them that much. It’s a little like a physical book and a Kindle. I appreciate the practicalities but give me the pleasure of an actual book any day. These games then are the same. Today though in response to the offer of a game I downloaded the Scrabble app.

I’ve not played the actual game that often in my life; a few unsuccessful and self-conscious times as a kid was about it before I played a few games with a housemate of mine in Athens. He was a passionate fan and we would smoke and drink through these epic battles. Scrabble as it should be played. I’ve probably played only a couple of times since then but it would always be a game that I would suggest if there was the option. I was a little bit cautious then on playing it like this, and like a Kindle, it’ll never compare to an actual book but unlike a Kindle I might actually give it a shot. So I’ve been enjoying it is the point.

Computers have managed to replace and recreate so many things. Smart phones are simply incredible; phone, camera, music, internet, an app for anything and so on. Technology though hasn’t been able to replace everything yet, not the board game, nor the book and I’m sure there are countless more. Perhaps it’s just my age though. Mobile phones started to become a thing when I was about sixteen years old, like an old man I can still remember a time before. Maybe this lack of appreciation for something technology has managed to ‘upgrade’ could be this emotional attachment. Maybe it’s just that there’s something much more to physically experiencing something than technology can ever create. Let’s hope something manages to survive with the evolution of this new normal and this old man can rest easy.

How exciting. We have a contact trac(k)ing app. Do you see what I did there? As if this whole pandemic wasn’t contentious enough they’ve only gone actually released the app that tracks everything you do. Well not quite but it’ll know where you’ve been, who you’ve met and what consistency your last poo was. Trust in government has been eroded to such an extent that there is justifiable fear of something which has the potential to save lives. If everyone downloaded this app and used it as recommended, it would most likely stem the infection rate. But then so would testing everyone and providing nurses with PPE, and despite their attempt at creating an imaginary world in which that has been happening, they have instead not fulfilled their end of the social contract. It’s down to us yet again because our leaders are an unfortunate mix of incompetent and corrupt. Incompetent at doing the job we request of them but highly competent at their actual one of being corrupt.

“Downloading the app will save peoples lives” says a Health Secretary who routinely shows he doesn’t give a shit about peoples lives but tries to guilt the populace because he knows generally we do. Fuck him, but it’s not about him. Am I selfish for not downloading this app. I don’t know. I have no answer for that because I guess it depends upon how much of a real danger you believe people are in. Does that trump the very real danger of corrupt authority? Probably not and that’s the overriding argument for me.

And I’ve still not heard talk of what I believe to be the elephant in the room. Hypothetically, what would happen if you downloaded the app, discovered you had crossed paths with someone who has the virus, were instructed by the app to quarantine for seven days but didn’t and someone you then crossed paths with in the supermarket potentially caught it off you and died. Surely that’s manslaughter, or at the very least some kind of negligence. Someone died because of you actions. What is the legal liability? It’s not enough to say people should know better, or right from wrong. Are there legal protections? Are people blindly entering a situation in which they’re risking committing a crime and having it recorded. It would be a criminal offence and at the very least the family of the deceased could take you through the civil courts. This seems like something people should be discussing. This could become a very real issue.

Let’s be honest though, governments and bored teenagers in their bedrooms have been able to follow your movements for years through your phone. The idea that we’re not being tracked is naive. Most people have their location services on and those who don’t can still be followed if people want it enough. That’s nothing new, though risks like this are and maybe I’m being selfish but fuck that, I am not entrapping myself because I was desperate for toilet roll. It’s not what being a responsible member of a grown up and mature society would do though, but that’s not realistic as I’m neither responsible nor is society grown up and mature. At least we’re all going down together.

Tag: apps

The Traditional New Scrabbler

We Have A Trac(k)ing App