{"id":111242,"date":"2024-07-12T17:53:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T17:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/apple-pay-is-convenient-and-brings-out-the-worst-in-me\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T17:53:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T17:53:23","slug":"apple-pay-is-convenient-and-brings-out-the-worst-in-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/12\/apple-pay-is-convenient-and-brings-out-the-worst-in-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple Pay is convenient and brings out the worst in me"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A few days ago, I misplaced my wallet. I remember having it on Sunday, the night of my friend\u2019s birthday dinner, because I was the one to put my card down. Maybe I had it on Monday. I didn\u2019t spend any money then aside from a Lyft ride home, which famously doesn\u2019t require you to swipe a card, so there\u2019s no way to know for sure. And even when I did spend money \u2014 a case of La Croix at the bodega, an iced latte as a reward for going to the laundromat \u2014 my wallet never factored into the equation. I use Apple Pay for almost every purchase, both because it\u2019s easy and convenient and because, unlike my wallet, my phone is something I actually can\u2019t live without.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It wasn\u2019t until Wednesday that my lack of a wallet became an issue. I didn\u2019t need it to take the subway to a meeting, nor did I need it to get a coffee at said meeting. I didn\u2019t need it to take the train downtown to The Verge<\/em>\u2019s office \u2014 it turns out I needed my ID to get into the building, but we found a way around that. (I showed the receptionist a photo of my driver\u2019s license on my phone.) My wallet-free existence could have been a problem again that night: as I biked to the bar to meet my friends, I wondered if I\u2019d be turned away at the door or when ordering a drink. I was not. The next day, at a wine bar, I used my phone to pay for my share of the bottle I split with a friend.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Wallet or no wallet, I can still get around. Crucially, I can still spend money. It\u2019s a completely seamless process \u2014 one that has enabled me to be more forgetful and more careless about my spending. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Apple rolled out its contactless payment system<\/a> in 2014, promising to disrupt the \u201cfairly antiquated payment process\u201d of swiping a card. \u201cThe whole process is based on this little piece of plastic, whether it\u2019s a credit or debit card,\u201d CEO Tim Cook said at the time. \u201cWe\u2019re totally reliant on the exposed numbers, and the outdated and vulnerable magnetic interface \u2014 which by the way is five decades old \u2014 and the security codes which all of us know aren\u2019t so secure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I kept relying on the exposed numbers and outdated interface for years, mostly out of stubbornness. I was 20 years old and terrible with <\/strong>the little money I had when Apple Pay first launched. If anything, I needed my purchases to have more<\/em> friction, not less. Every penny I spent was precious. I\u2019d write down all my expenses in a little notebook, color-coding them for good measure. By forcing myself to think about where my money was going, I shamed myself into spending less of it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Even then, I was losing my wallet all the time. There was a two-month stretch the following summer where I left it on the subway, had it returned to me by a kind stranger who tracked me down on Facebook, and then left it at Yankee Stadium, where I never saw it again. But losing my wallet used to have consequences, and the threat of those consequences \u2014 losing my MetroCard, not being able to buy myself lunch, not being able to go out with my friends \u2014 made me somewhat more careful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I finally caved in April 2020, though not entirely by choice. You know what was happening then \u2014 I don\u2019t need to remind you. But let me set the scene: I had walked 20 minutes to the good grocery store, waited another 30 minutes in line to be let in (it was a different time!), grabbed a week\u2019s worth of food, and got to the front of the checkout line, where I realized\u2026 I didn\u2019t have my wallet. I called my roommate, who dutifully read my credit card number to me while I typed it into Apple Pay. Unfortunately, I never looked back.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s not Apple\u2019s fault that I lose my wallet all the time, but Apple does bear some responsibility for ushering in this new world where all you need is your phone. In some ways, I\u2019m the kind of model Apple consumer: no wallet, no ID, just Apple Pay and vibes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And now here I am, more forgetful than ever, aided and abetted by a world where contactless payments have become the norm. I ended up finding my wallet this morning at the bottom of a tote bag. My credit card, however, is still missing, but it doesn\u2019t really even matter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, I misplaced my wallet. I remember having it on Sunday, the night of my friend\u2019s birthday dinner, because I was the one to put my card down. Maybe I had it on Monday. I didn\u2019t spend any money then aside from a Lyft ride home, which famously doesn\u2019t require you to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-111242","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}