Pretty much every "service provider" I deal with — from my bank, to the phone company, to our insurance company — has made it so that I can only have the "electronic version" of my current status or statement.

I understand the whole notion of "saving paper" and how mailing monthly bills and statements to customers consumes both time and resources.

Thistle in bloom... a bit thorny

Fine.

The thing that troubles me, though, is our decreasing ability to document what anybody does, and has done.

Electronic records are a nice idea... BUT...

This morning I paid my phone bill. We still have a "land line" because we live in an area with piss-poor cell service... we generally get between zero and two bars around here, and 90% of the time the signal is only strong enough to send text messages, not make voice calls.

I'm told it has something to do with being "too close to Canada" (Read: ATT doesn't want to miss out on charging for international calls that COULD be billed as "local"), but I don't know.

But I digress.

Point is, I pay this bill online, and the sum-total documentation of my actually having done that is an entry somewhere in the billing system.

What keeps some nefarious individual from altering that record so I have to pay the bill twice, because I can't prove otherwise?

The delicate folds of a California poppy at sunset

Call me old fashioned, but I still print a physical copy of my payment confirmation every time I pay... because it includes a confirmation number and a time stamp.

Now, you might think I'm being paranoid here, but I nonetheless find it at least curious that in the course of the past three years, when I choose the "Print Receipt?" option when paying a bill... the printed output no longer includes the service provider's logo and name, OR my account number.

Doesn't that seem a bit sketchy to you? Or at least "avoidant," somehow?

Upon Deeper Reflection

On deeper reflection, I suppose the thing I find bothersome about it all — and, again, I'm open to the possibility that I'm being excessively paranoid here — is the subtle subtext that so often it no longer feels like we are all trying to "do BUSINESS with each other," but instead we are moving towards a philosophical space centered more on "STICKING IT to each other."

*Am delicate White Nigella, getting ready to bloom...

I won't expound too much on what that might imply, but I can't help but think it's a side effect of a world in which "simply getting BY" becomes ever more challenging, every year.

Not to say — as many would argue — that we aren't "better off" as a whole, but that "better off" seems to be coming with an increasingly high moral and philosophical price tag.

Thanks for reading!

What do YOU think? Is "electronic record keeping" safe and reliable? Do you ever wonder whether the information we entrust to others gets tampered with? Do you still keep paper copies of receipts for bills paid? Am I being overly paranoid here? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!

(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for Steemit)
Created at 190208 12:08 PST
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