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China's Cashless Economy Threatens To Leave Its Elderly -- and Their Money -- Behind (qz.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: With his cellphone in one hand, and two wooden meditation balls in the other, Zhang Siqi queued up alongside throngs of fellow retirees that make up the morning rush at a small Beijing grocery store. Zhang, a Beijing native, then opened the WeChat mobile pay tab on his phone and scanned it at the automatic register to pay for some fruit and a pack of cigarettes with a savviness that belied his age.
That cutting-edge payment method is rapidly becoming so common in Beijing and other large cities that experts have begun referring to the Chinese capital as a prototype of the futuristic cashless society. In 2017, the country saw $15 trillion in mobile payments, the Wall Street Journal reported, far outstripping the US. While Zhang has been using WeChat social media and mobile pay functions for a few years now, the 63-year-old knows not every Chinese senior citizen is equally adept.
"Some old people find it difficult to keep up with technology. Many retirees have poor eyesight, and struggle to see the screen, or have a poor memory and keep forgetting how to use the apps," he said, pocketing his phone with his right hand, and rolling the wooden meditation balls with his left. Those issues were brought into sharp focus recently by a viral video of an older Chinese patron in northern China arguing with the staff at the checkout of a supermarket in northern China over how to pay for a bag of grapes -- the staff told him he needed to pay by app, but eventually relented and allowed him to pay by cash. A slew of viewers expressed sympathy for the demoralized customer, including consultant Matthew Brennan, who writes about China's ever-evolving tech scene.
That cutting-edge payment method is rapidly becoming so common in Beijing and other large cities that experts have begun referring to the Chinese capital as a prototype of the futuristic cashless society. In 2017, the country saw $15 trillion in mobile payments, the Wall Street Journal reported, far outstripping the US. While Zhang has been using WeChat social media and mobile pay functions for a few years now, the 63-year-old knows not every Chinese senior citizen is equally adept.
"Some old people find it difficult to keep up with technology. Many retirees have poor eyesight, and struggle to see the screen, or have a poor memory and keep forgetting how to use the apps," he said, pocketing his phone with his right hand, and rolling the wooden meditation balls with his left. Those issues were brought into sharp focus recently by a viral video of an older Chinese patron in northern China arguing with the staff at the checkout of a supermarket in northern China over how to pay for a bag of grapes -- the staff told him he needed to pay by app, but eventually relented and allowed him to pay by cash. A slew of viewers expressed sympathy for the demoralized customer, including consultant Matthew Brennan, who writes about China's ever-evolving tech scene.
Some old people find it difficult to keep up with technology. Many retirees have poor eyesight, and struggle to see the screen, or have a poor memory and keep forgetting how to use the apps
Most of them don't have a poor memory and are perfectly capable of learning new technology. Most of them just don't want to learn something new and are comfortable with old ways of doing things. As such I tend to react skeptically when older folks claim they can't handle the technology. Sometimes it's true but more often it's just laziness or disinterest.
My father is old enough to collect social security. He's a smart man and worked as an engineer and machinist for 30 years. But he's intimidated by computers and in many cases isn't willing to put in the work necessary to learn about how to do something on his laptop or smartphone. I've explained simple tasks to him repeatedly that he is more than smart enough and capable enough to learn and retain. The only explanation for why is that he isn't really interested in learning and it's easier to just ask me.
Around 2008, one of my cousins who is roughly my age was whining that she couldn't keep up with all this social networking technology because "we didn't grow up with this". I pointed out that A) she has multiple degrees and is more than capable enough of figuring it out, B) Facebook had only been around a short time so nobody had grown up with it and yet millions had figured it out and C) one does not need to grow up with a technology to understand and master it - to claim otherwise is the most pathetic of excuses.
instead of the implications of government access to the data of trillions of dollars of transactions Chinese "citizens" make.
From the package of grapes, to the pregnancy tests, foreign purchases... everything purchased will be categorized, and probably calculated into your social media scores.
Not a bit terrifying?
Using cash for transactions will soon become illegal.