Quite an amusing piece:
First, I have developed website-phobia (perhaps “retophobia” will become a recognised psycho-malady of our times, like post-traumatic stress disorder and Gulf War syndrome). Gremlins have devoured some of my students’ grades and a letter of recommendation for a job applicant. I have suffered financial hardship because of the security system my bank uses to protect my account from me. The risibly named “Executive Club” website of British Airways has condemned me to even worse afflictions than those the airport-bound usually suffer. On other sites I have wasted hours – in total, it seems more like months – trying to elude error messages that tell me my log-in details are unrecognisable or that my application has timed out owing to the site’s intractability. I have stuffed my head with pointless passwords for unnavigable sites. Why should one need a password to book a seat at the ballet or a table at a cafe? The multiplication of footling security imperils its own purpose by forcing one to write down all the supposedly secret glyphs that might guide intruders into the deepest recesses of one’s life. I have no more time for time-saving technology. I have refilled my inkwell.
Read full story.