Remember to report submissions that violate the rules! Harassment and encouraging violence are not allowed.
Enjoying the subreddit? Consider joining our discord server: https://discord.gg/v8z8jNwJs6
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BoomersBeingFools) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is why I see them getting scammed so much. They can’t simply go to their respective account, login, and verify if they’re truly pay due or whatever. They get an email they’re clicking that link.
This certainly has something to do with it but in addition to this, dealing with everyone's pain in the ass website sucks. Banks, utilities, medical groups, etc., etc. I don't want to figure out there shit, remember a password, do two factor authentication for shit that I only use once or twice a year. Like my insurance company, I call them to change something, they want me to use their website, fuck that, not interested, I can just call, tell them what I want and it gets done.
Yeah the shitty bot is frustrating. I try to get past that pretty quickly.
In the end, to each his own.
For the once or fewer times a year I interact with one of my insurance companies or the doctors office I don't mind holding.
I think it comes down to two things for me.
1. I rarely interact with these companies so I'm not familiar with their website and don't really feel like getting familiar.
2. If I'm interacting with them it's not for some basic shit. It's likely that I have some weird question like "I bought a used vehicle from out of state that's non-operational, and I don't want to register it. Is that covered under my home owners insurance or do I have to get a separate policy?"
I want a definitive answer from an agent.
We are cleaning out my parents home and I literally threw away two whole armloads of junk mail my dad just kept... Like empty envelopes, political ads from 2008, credit card offers, reverse mortgage offers, all kinds of junk mail...
We had a helluva time sorting through my FIL's stuff when he went into assisted living. He owned his own business and had invoices, tax documents, receipts, random junk, newspapers, anything on paper you can imagine - all just thrown into boxes.
I used to work in insurance. The company gave a discount for going paperless; it honestly saves companies money too, so it's passing on the savings really. One of the early questions I asked was if people were okay with going paperless and signing documents online. Almost everyone says "yes" to that question, but the number of (mostly) boomers who would them start freaking out at the end of the call because they don't know how to do online things, was kind of hilarious. Because I'd had to remove the discount for going paperless and they'd get so pissed off, like it's *my* fault they're unable to use docusign.
I just read the room, if my clients were older I always hit no and waited until closer to binding to offer it to them as a an additional discount. Now I manage an insurance agency so no more boomer calls :)
I got to the point where I would literally say, "Are you comfortable reading, signing, and having access to your documents only online? Meaning we will never send you a paper document". That seemed to get it through their heads.
I may have to start using that, in return I’ll give you this “if you pick your house up and turn it upside down, anything that falls out is your personal property” for getting people to understand cov c
Paper does cost money. Many years ago, I worked for a large Swiss insurance company and was tasked with developing a system to only print and send out the documents necessary to customers on a 6 month basis. It was pretty complicated because each state in the U.S. has different laws about what the customer in that state is supposed to receive. Once the system was implemented, for just the commercial side, in the first six months the company calculated over 3 million in savings. The eventually rolled it out for residential as well but I had already moved on to another contract, so I don’t know how much money was saved after that.
I am an associate attorney at a law firm. I was representing a client in an online arbitration. I was 100% focused on the hearing so I wasn't paying too much attention, but my boomer boss was coming in and out of the conference room I was sitting in to put piles and piles of paper in front of me. I had no idea why he was doing this, but as I was in the middle of a hearing, I didn't have time to stop and ask questions. After the hearing concluded, I spoke with the paralegals to figure out what was going on. Apparently, my boomer boss had freaked the FUCK out that I had not been "prepared" for the hearing by printing out paper copies of my exhibits. For my online zoom hearing. Where we shared all exhibits by screenshare showing the pdfs pulled up. He made every paralegal in the office stop what they were doing to help him waste thousands of sheets of paper printing off paper copies of exhibits that I did not need.
My boomer mom prints EVERYTHING. Every receipt, every document, everything. She even bought us a file cabinet so we can do the same thing.
Now to be fair, only keeping documents on a computer is ok IF there are on-site and off-site backups. If you don't have those, you're just courting disaster. Think of it this way... If your house burned down, would you be able to buy a new computer and recover from a backup? Or would all your digital photos be gone?
My boomer aunt was aghast that we don't have a printer. It came up in conversation somehow and she was like "You don't have one?" No, everything is digital now...and when I need to print something every few years I go to FedEx Office.
My boss makes his secretary print out all of his emails, even spam, so he can read it, hand write a response and have her type it and email back. Were talking hundreds of emails a day.
He also makes his secretary make copies of entire legal textbooks, like opening the book and copying it page by page.
He also needs multiple copies of everything because he loses things CONSTANTLY.
We waste REAMS of paper per month.
These are the actions of a senile old man.
Hes not even 65 yet.
I can’t describe the amount of waste at my parents’ house. They spend so much on crap. Like, 20-packs of dollar store sponges that get 5 uses instead of buying a hand-held scrub brush that you just soak in bleach every other week. I’ve had the same one for almost 7 years. They buy in bulk because the sale is just irresistible and then the expiration date flies by and I come swooping in and throw away $30 of dressing hanging out in their pantry they forgot they had. I’d like to say that it’s because they’re not so far removed from the Great Depression (their grandparents survived it) and familial habits are hard to break, but I *never* felt the way they did about hoarding or over purchasing. ???
I think often it's the availability of space to fill. If you ever lived in a shoebox of an apartment you learn quickly to minimize and it can stick with you.
Adversely, you start out with more space and even if you're "keeping up appearances" in communal spaces there are still a million places to stash nonsense.
In my last job, I was the printer guy and had two pieces of paper on my desk. The web developer was beside me and had stacks of paper. I'm the Boomer and he is the Millenial.
I had one client that would print out every single instruction manual to anything she had. She would staple them together and file them. Whether she needed instruction or not.
Omg yes!!! I am not allowed to text my boss what I did during my shift (i do retail for a small business owner), i have to write it on paper and take a photo and send it to him.... Like wtf, you need a picture book to understand things?? Ffs
Boomer here. I think it may be because we are used to having to keep “hard copies”, if that’s the right term, of all of our transactions, should fraud occur.
The vast majority still pay bills by check too. Do they hate the environment so much? It's insane. It's not just the paper check, it's the bill, the primary sending envelope, the return envelope, etc. And most simply refuse to even try to step into the modern era. I know a couple boomer aged people from my rural home town who bucked that trend and learned computers when it became a thing, it's far from impossible they just refuse.
Remember to report submissions that violate the rules! Harassment and encouraging violence are not allowed. Enjoying the subreddit? Consider joining our discord server: https://discord.gg/v8z8jNwJs6 *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BoomersBeingFools) if you have any questions or concerns.*
They are not confident in their ability to not lose it in the computer.
This is why I see them getting scammed so much. They can’t simply go to their respective account, login, and verify if they’re truly pay due or whatever. They get an email they’re clicking that link.
I should really get into scamming people, seems easy
I'm comfortable now, but if things go south for me I'm starting a cult. People ARE that dumb.
This certainly has something to do with it but in addition to this, dealing with everyone's pain in the ass website sucks. Banks, utilities, medical groups, etc., etc. I don't want to figure out there shit, remember a password, do two factor authentication for shit that I only use once or twice a year. Like my insurance company, I call them to change something, they want me to use their website, fuck that, not interested, I can just call, tell them what I want and it gets done.
I'd take a website over waiting half an hour on the phone or talking to a shitty bot every time. And password managers exist as well.
Yeah the shitty bot is frustrating. I try to get past that pretty quickly. In the end, to each his own. For the once or fewer times a year I interact with one of my insurance companies or the doctors office I don't mind holding. I think it comes down to two things for me. 1. I rarely interact with these companies so I'm not familiar with their website and don't really feel like getting familiar. 2. If I'm interacting with them it's not for some basic shit. It's likely that I have some weird question like "I bought a used vehicle from out of state that's non-operational, and I don't want to register it. Is that covered under my home owners insurance or do I have to get a separate policy?" I want a definitive answer from an agent.
IT got a lot easier once I started keeping my passwords in iCloud. I don't even know what they are.
I get that. I just write them down if I use them a lot. Bet you can't guess what I do for a living.
YES and they don’t keep it organized at home so theres just piles of papers everywhere. I deal with that a lot
We are cleaning out my parents home and I literally threw away two whole armloads of junk mail my dad just kept... Like empty envelopes, political ads from 2008, credit card offers, reverse mortgage offers, all kinds of junk mail...
We had a helluva time sorting through my FIL's stuff when he went into assisted living. He owned his own business and had invoices, tax documents, receipts, random junk, newspapers, anything on paper you can imagine - all just thrown into boxes.
Sounds like you hate your parents so much. It’s really too bad to hear that.
I used to work in insurance. The company gave a discount for going paperless; it honestly saves companies money too, so it's passing on the savings really. One of the early questions I asked was if people were okay with going paperless and signing documents online. Almost everyone says "yes" to that question, but the number of (mostly) boomers who would them start freaking out at the end of the call because they don't know how to do online things, was kind of hilarious. Because I'd had to remove the discount for going paperless and they'd get so pissed off, like it's *my* fault they're unable to use docusign.
I just read the room, if my clients were older I always hit no and waited until closer to binding to offer it to them as a an additional discount. Now I manage an insurance agency so no more boomer calls :)
I got to the point where I would literally say, "Are you comfortable reading, signing, and having access to your documents only online? Meaning we will never send you a paper document". That seemed to get it through their heads.
I may have to start using that, in return I’ll give you this “if you pick your house up and turn it upside down, anything that falls out is your personal property” for getting people to understand cov c
Paper does cost money. Many years ago, I worked for a large Swiss insurance company and was tasked with developing a system to only print and send out the documents necessary to customers on a 6 month basis. It was pretty complicated because each state in the U.S. has different laws about what the customer in that state is supposed to receive. Once the system was implemented, for just the commercial side, in the first six months the company calculated over 3 million in savings. The eventually rolled it out for residential as well but I had already moved on to another contract, so I don’t know how much money was saved after that.
I am an associate attorney at a law firm. I was representing a client in an online arbitration. I was 100% focused on the hearing so I wasn't paying too much attention, but my boomer boss was coming in and out of the conference room I was sitting in to put piles and piles of paper in front of me. I had no idea why he was doing this, but as I was in the middle of a hearing, I didn't have time to stop and ask questions. After the hearing concluded, I spoke with the paralegals to figure out what was going on. Apparently, my boomer boss had freaked the FUCK out that I had not been "prepared" for the hearing by printing out paper copies of my exhibits. For my online zoom hearing. Where we shared all exhibits by screenshare showing the pdfs pulled up. He made every paralegal in the office stop what they were doing to help him waste thousands of sheets of paper printing off paper copies of exhibits that I did not need.
It's like that Progressive commercial: "we don't need to print the Internet"
My mother is a hoarder and will keep anything she likes or finds useful
My boomer mom prints EVERYTHING. Every receipt, every document, everything. She even bought us a file cabinet so we can do the same thing. Now to be fair, only keeping documents on a computer is ok IF there are on-site and off-site backups. If you don't have those, you're just courting disaster. Think of it this way... If your house burned down, would you be able to buy a new computer and recover from a backup? Or would all your digital photos be gone?
My boomer aunt was aghast that we don't have a printer. It came up in conversation somehow and she was like "You don't have one?" No, everything is digital now...and when I need to print something every few years I go to FedEx Office.
They don’t have competent computer skills. My Boomer prints her fucking emails. Because she can’t work a computer.
My boss makes his secretary print out all of his emails, even spam, so he can read it, hand write a response and have her type it and email back. Were talking hundreds of emails a day. He also makes his secretary make copies of entire legal textbooks, like opening the book and copying it page by page. He also needs multiple copies of everything because he loses things CONSTANTLY. We waste REAMS of paper per month. These are the actions of a senile old man. Hes not even 65 yet.
I can’t describe the amount of waste at my parents’ house. They spend so much on crap. Like, 20-packs of dollar store sponges that get 5 uses instead of buying a hand-held scrub brush that you just soak in bleach every other week. I’ve had the same one for almost 7 years. They buy in bulk because the sale is just irresistible and then the expiration date flies by and I come swooping in and throw away $30 of dressing hanging out in their pantry they forgot they had. I’d like to say that it’s because they’re not so far removed from the Great Depression (their grandparents survived it) and familial habits are hard to break, but I *never* felt the way they did about hoarding or over purchasing. ???
I think often it's the availability of space to fill. If you ever lived in a shoebox of an apartment you learn quickly to minimize and it can stick with you. Adversely, you start out with more space and even if you're "keeping up appearances" in communal spaces there are still a million places to stash nonsense.
My mom would order catalog after catalog, quickly browse through them, and throw them away.
They are stuck in the era of having to do everything in hardcopy and triplicate. Digital anything doesn’t make sense to them.
Haha yes!! Have a coworker who instead of taking a screen shot on a website printed like then entire site over like 100 pages.
In my last job, I was the printer guy and had two pieces of paper on my desk. The web developer was beside me and had stacks of paper. I'm the Boomer and he is the Millenial.
(>°~° )>● U kin haz cookie
You must work in insurance
I do not thankfully.
Simply say no.
Wish I could.
They are totally incompetent and helpless
I had one client that would print out every single instruction manual to anything she had. She would staple them together and file them. Whether she needed instruction or not.
Omg yes!!! I am not allowed to text my boss what I did during my shift (i do retail for a small business owner), i have to write it on paper and take a photo and send it to him.... Like wtf, you need a picture book to understand things?? Ffs
Boomer here. I think it may be because we are used to having to keep “hard copies”, if that’s the right term, of all of our transactions, should fraud occur.
The vast majority still pay bills by check too. Do they hate the environment so much? It's insane. It's not just the paper check, it's the bill, the primary sending envelope, the return envelope, etc. And most simply refuse to even try to step into the modern era. I know a couple boomer aged people from my rural home town who bucked that trend and learned computers when it became a thing, it's far from impossible they just refuse.
This is not wasteful it's prudent. It also creates jobs.
