Are APPs a PAIN in the BUTT?

I swear, flipping APPs will soon rule our lives, and we won’t even be able to do our daily ablutions without consulting and plugging our butt into an APP. Are we sleepwalking into a new era where if you don’t have a smartphone, you are screwed? Yes, screwed. Consider the elderly or the technically challenged like me… how will we cope?

Last week I had a scan at Lusiades Hospital in Albufiera. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek blog post:

Too Hot for Comfort – DON’T Invade My Personal Space

After my scan, I paid at reception and asked if the results could be emailed to me rather than returning to the hospital to collect them (as we used to).

“No, we don’t email results. “

I blinked. Surely I had misheard. “What? Why?”

“You access them through the Lusiades APP.”

I thought of my phone, which already hosted more icons and gizmos on its homescreen than I could comfortably swipe through.

“But I don’t want to install an APP. Please email.” (I knew from a previous experience after an open MRI scan) that trying to extract any information from an APP required for someone like me, the bandwidth of a brain surgeon so I was not going to embrace that stress again. On that occasion, after several failed attempts, the clinic did download the results onto a disk and sent them to me in the post. (I paid the postage)

“We no longer email results.”

“Why? What about the older people …” –thought– “like me” Added, “or those who are technically challenged?”

The young woman who looked barely out of college sighed, shrugged, and wore that. ‘THAT’S YOUR PROBLEM, NOT MINE’ expression. (If you were not barely out of college, lady, then take my age observation as a compliment. And I will take your look as ‘attitude’, poor customer service and lack of empathy. from someone who should know better.

Nope. She would not budge an inch and pointed to a poster advertising the QR code for the APP.

**

Move on 24 hours, I received an email from the hospital with a link to access my results online.

**

O resultado do seu exame já está disponível online. Pode ter acesso ao documento na sua área pessoal da App e Portal +Lusíadas ou seguindo estes passos:

Entre em: LINK

Confirme a sua identidade através do NIF (ou outro dado identificativo solicitado). Lembramos que deverá sempre introduzir os dados da pessoa que realizou o exame.

etc etc ….

**

I had a moment (as you do). All the receptionist had to say was: ‘Don’t worry, you will receive an email which includes a link where you can download your results.” DOH!!! ‘There is no need to download an APP on your mobile phone.”

I do try to embrace technology as you can see by me experimenting with chatGPT to create my own graphics, but at times, technology leaves me lost for words and patience and is way beyond my bandwidth.

Are you feeling frustrated and overwhelmed by technology?