(no subject)

[sigmaleph]

I already feel uncomfortable at the idea of just handing off my phone to anyone, for any reason, even if they are people I know and trust, so I am even more shocked when people I have never met who I just happen to be waiting in line with take a look at me, decide I look technologically competent enough, and ask me to install an app on their phone.

Like. I would never do anything nefarious with it but you don't know that! Nefarious people absolutely do exist and also sometimes wait in line next to you at the pharmacy!

(from what I gathered, this was yet another victim of the "I outsource knowing about technology to my children and it's hard to interact with them during lockdown" situation)

Comments

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

My first thought was that I would feel uncomfortable both taking and offering a phone for hygiene reasons pre-pandemic, let alone now. There's a general pattern here: extremely weak defense protocols in the public sphere. Is societal trust a factor?

[sigmaleph]

I used hand sanitiser afterwards and I believe, though I didn't check, they wiped down their phone after I was done with it. But yes, that was also a relevant consideration.

I do not exactly expect my society in general to be high trust but the interaction took place in a wealthy neighbourhood and I am not (visibly) in a demographic people get wary around, I'm sure that contributed. Certainly in a different part of town I would have expected them to be less willing to hand over their phone, if only out of worry I'd run off with it.

[nathanielbuildsatesseract]

The same basic dynamic would probably apply around here. I could see someone asking me something similar in the grocery stores nearest to me, but not some of the other ones.

I've certainly had people ask me to reach things on high/deep shelves in the grocery store before, but that's not exactly the same.