The End of Forgetting

I haven’t read the book by this title. If you Google the title, you’ll find the book listed close to the beginning. This is followed by many other references to the issue that the internet is preventing us from forgetting.

Recently, well this past year, I have tried to sort out issues with my subscription to the Edmonton Journal and the Edmonton Sun. Even my own patience surprised me. I think I was curious how my problem was ever going to get solved.

Here is my tale of aggravation and laughter.

I had subscribed to the home delivery of both papers along with free access to the digital version. My wife likes to feel the newsprint, and I like to read the digital version with the associated benefits. The main one being I could go back weeks of back issues and not rummage through the recycling and garbage bin or give up, as it was past garbage day.

I didn’t realize the importance of the date that these two newspapers merged under one company name, Post Media.

Unbeknownst to me, Post Media combined my two newspaper accounts and my separate Post Media account. All had the same username, but all had, unfortunately, different passwords. I didn’t realize this, so when I logged in, it was like a lottery. If I logged into my last accessed account, I was successful. Otherwise, it told me either my name or password was incorrect. I’d tell them I forgot my password and get it changed. Unknowingly I changed all my other access passwords to this new one.

Before I figured out what was happening, I had a nice person on their support line to whom I told that I wanted to cancel all my subscriptions. He convinced me we’d get it sorted. He tried everything but was not successful. He promised – promised me, he’d have somebody from tech call me. How could I refuse? I said I’d wait for a tech to call.

Never happened.

My next call was to really, really cancel, but they said they’d send me a $25 cash gift card if I’d just give them time to sort it out. How could I refuse?

Several calls later, it still wasn’t working. I was promised a gift card. I told them I wanted the news, not a gift card. I actually did receive the gift card.

I called again and insisted on cancelling my subscription. After almost 45 minutes, the lady very reluctantly agreed to cancel both subscriptions. Freedom at last.

I waited for several months to ensure my subscriptions had stopped and their computers had no record of me. (Naïve, I know.)

I logged onto one of my accounts to delete it. Instead, I thought I’d give it one last try. I changed all the passwords of each app to the same one since I was always ended up on the same page every time. Everything worked – home delivery and digital available as expected.

The one thing it wouldn’t forget is my wife’s name displayed as the ‘original owner’. She was the first person to create the account. Divorce, death, incapacity to think, etc., all would have no impact. (Fortunately, my wife had none of these conditions.) The system will never forget!

Please give this a bit of a think. Do your social media memories pop up? Do you sometimes wish the picture of the fitting for the wedding dress for the marriage that never happened could just be deleted? Are there benefits to you to having a mixed bag of reminders? Some social media companies won’t select pictures of hospital rooms, ambulances, etc.

I’m curious about your thoughts. Please share your bit of a think below.

Photo by Sander Sammy on Unsplash

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