Remember a trip to the bank 10 years ago? A time-sucking black hole constrained by inconvenient opening hours, queues and the almost impossible task of finding somewhere to park the car. Today, almost all of our financial interactions are handled online, often with a fingertip and a smartphone. Technology has transferred how we use services in the past decade. In the world of 2009, the Blackberry was king, at least for those who could afford one. Now the smartphone is ubiquitous. Combined with almost universal WiFi access and an app for pretty much everything, we complete even the most complex tasks with ease. Moving your utility services to a new property was once to be dreaded even more than visiting the bank. Now the service can be completed in a few minutes online. We summon taxis on our phones, and watch the progress of the driver on a little animated map. For anyone who remembers standing by the roadside in the heat of summer 10 years ago hoping to find a ride, this is not just a relief but a revelation. The changes have been so rapid and so fundamental, it is easy to forget how things once were. When <em>The National</em> was established, in 2008, a key piece of office equipment was the fax machine, a vital source for sending and receiving information. If <em>The National</em> still has a fax, it's doubtful anyone now knows where it lives. Soon the desk landline telephone seems likely to follow it to extinction. WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat, and the new kid on the block, TikTok, have all transformed the way we interact with each other. The reduction in price of smartphones has also put them in reach of even the lowest wage earners, helping change lives. An Indian labourer can now now see and hear his family in real time, share their achievements or help solve their problems as they occur. This change is a far more powerful representation of progress than the selfie at a hotel pool bar. The connectivity of 2019 has also not just changed the way we interact with the government and it services, but the way they interact with us. When there is universal access, there is little excuse not to have universal compliance. Allowing us to pay for parking on our phones, for example, made it easier to introduce what is now almost universal paid parking in the first place. So there’s no excuse not to tax or insure your car, or pay the mobile phone bill when the relevant authority sends you a timely reminder by text and there’s an easy link to the payment portal. In 2019, no one can ever say they weren’t warned.
