Date: July 1
Time: 11am-4pm
Hours: 5
Total Hours: 94
Today, I staffed the reference desk. One particular question today reminded me of the digital divide and the assumptions made by tech companies. A young girl, who is a regular at Perry, was struggling to reset her Instagram password. The resetting process was easy enough, but Instagram required her to verify her account with a phone number that is able to receive texts (i.e. a cellphone). The girl, like many people, does not have a cellphone. We tried a number of workarounds, including an online texting service that Instagram apparently blocks. Eventually, she was able to use a friend’s phone number to get back into her account, but the experience left both of us frustrated and annoyed.
Tech companies, like Instagram and Google, assume that everyone has a cellphone and a texting plan. This might be true in Silicon Valley, but it is certainly not true in Perry, Ohio. We want technology to make our lives easier and to simply “work”. Complications, like being unable to reset a password without a cellphone, frustrate and alienate users. Libraries can help to close the digital divide by providing access to technology, but we cannot provide cellphone numbers for those who get locked out of their accounts. In my opinion, developers and engineers should spend time in public libraries to see (and hopefully address) the difficulties and frustrations everyday users face.