Smartphones Have Dumbed Us Down

There is a computer work station in our store for customers to use. We put it in because our store policy does not allow us to access things like a customer’s email from our department computer, for security reasons. This happens roughly once a week.

Customer: “How do I get to my email from this computer?”

Me: “Well, you just go to your email provider’s site and log in, like on a normal computer.”

The customer begins to type in the “search” bar, which is on the store homepage and will just search the store inventory.

Me: “No, no, in the URL bar, here.”

Customer: “Oh!”

The customer begins to type [email]@[website] into the URL bar.

Me: “No, you have to go to the site.”

Customer: “What?”

Me: “Here… Type in [website] right there.”

Customer: “Okay… What now?”

Me: “Now you log in.”

Customer: “How?”

Me: “With your username and password.”

Customer: “I don’t know those!”

And this is what happens when people only ever access their email through their phones.