For some time now my antiquated mobile phone has been in it’s death throes, wailing some horrific sound at me that used to be deemed a ring tone, although I question the use of the word tone in there – a tone deaf singer would sound better. I had been brushing off replacing the phone as I was feeling almost liberated in not having a functional phone – when I’m out, I’m out, unavailable, busy with something else.
That is until one of your children gets sick and you don’t find out till much later. That kind of did it for me so off ‘a phone hunting I went. It was immediately apparent that I could not afford to buy one of these new handsets whose prices now reach in excess of a few hundred pounds so my only option was a contract that would bundle the phone in – and good news for me was nearly every contract comes with a phone – bigger the contract better the phone – fair enough.
Then it becomes apparent that without either a driving license or a passport I do not “exist” enough to be sufficiently verified and eligible for a contract. After attempting applications at a few companies I was beginning to bang my head against a wall but one company accepted my application on the basis that I deposited a refundable bond.
What gets me is this sense of verification. I have a bank account, I have a home, I have an income, I have a family, I have a variety of insurances and yet seemingly unable to prove who I am. Who governs what level of identification is deemed as adequate? How was it determined? It just makes you wonder. Who decides if we exist within our society?
Tags: identification, mobile phones, society
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