Is technology killing Britain?

5:28am Sunday 22nd June 2008

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By Jon Reeve »

IT WAS an England where we could happily chat with our neighbours in the post office queue as communities came together while waiting to pick up a form, collect pension money or pay a bill. A country where you could receive friendly advice from a knowledgeable porter on the station platform as you waited for the train to arrive.

A greener and more pleasant England, where every village had a bright red phone box to keep in touch with the outside world.

This may be a rose-tinted view of life in the mid-20th century, but fast forward just a few decades and many of those traditional features of our society have been swept away by the swift tide of technology.

Increasing competition from the Internet, mobile phones and other automated facilities are squeezing out services we once viewed as an integral part of life.

Despite howls of protest, already this year we have seen a fifth of all post offices vanish from the high streets of our cities, towns and villages.

Earlier this month, BT announced plans to scrap more than 150 public phone boxes from central and southern Hampshire.More than half of those to disappear will be traditional iconic red ones.

And this week came plans from rail chiefs to slash ticket office opening hours at 14 train stations across the same region, leaving many unmanned for most of the working day and completely unstaffed at weekends.

In each case, bosses point to less demand for those services we once considered essential.

Technology has in many cases made aspects of our hectic modern lives easier, but does that necessarily make them better? Being able to renew your car tax, apply for a passport or even picking up a pension online no longer means a trip to the post office.Why queue alongside strangers when you can order online from the comfort of your own home, often in a fraction of the time?

Rail passengers increasingly shun the ticket office, preferring to book on the Internet, over the phone, or at an impersonal automated vending machine.

Even when we have no choice but to queue,many keep their heads down and avoid human contact at all costs.

Meanwhile, mobiles have gone from being the playthings of aspirational yuppies to essentials for the vast majority who want to be able to make their calls whenever they want, wherever they are.

BT has been heavily criticised for wanting to remove landmark kiosks from towns and villages, but the company insists they are simply too expensive to keep because they are so rarely used. The company now has just 61,700 phone boxes in the UK, down from 150,000 in the 1990s.

"Payphone usage has halved in the last two years and calls are still declining at 20 per cent year on year,"

explains a BT spokesman. "Almost 60 per cent of our payphones are unprofitable, with almost 6,000 phones making less than one call a month."

Similar sentiments are expressed by SouthWest Trains, which has also provoked anger with its plans to slash ticket office opening times.

The firm argues most people no longer look to buy tickets from a human vendor on the platform.

"In some cases these offices may be selling less than ten tickets an hour," said a spokesman.

But what about the traveller visiting a strange place for the first time who just wants to ask for advice?

Surely those endless queues show post offices are still in demand, and many people value the interaction of being able to talk to a human being about their queries?

How do the thousands of people - especially the elderly - who still don't have or want a mobile,make a call when they're out and about?

Increasingly, those people are going to be left disappointed.

More worryingly, Bob Keats, senior lecturer in housing policy at Southampton Solent University believes those more vulnerable members of society will inevitably be left even more cut off.

"Those people who are able to deal with their dayto- day activities will be able to maintain them," he said.

"But clearly there are people who don't have online bank accounts or mobile phones who are struggling tomaintain their current lifestyle and social contacts and are being given addition hurdles to overcome.

"It reflects the wider direction we're going in with our dependence on electronic communication, but the rate of change is probably faster than the adaptability of some individuals."

So technology may have made things easier, but it has also arguably facilitated the dehumanisation of our societies.

Do we really want to stop talking to each other face to face?With 40 per cent of passengers now choosing to buy tickets from a machine rather than a person - double the figure of just two years ago - it seems we might.

● Go to dailyecho.co.uk for full lists of post offices, phone boxes and ticket offices that have shut or are earmarked for closure or reduced opening hours.