Cashless societies are deeply impersonal

The exchange of physical cash involves physical interactions with fellow people. But with cashless, those interactions reduced dramatically. Let me explain why this is a bad outcome.

Topics:

- I missed last week as I was on vacation, but it is that vacation that has inspired the topic for this episode.
- Last week, I spend a week driving around Iceland, which was amazing!
- Iceland is a beautiful country, with spectacular landscapes and friendly people.
- This was my third time visiting Iceland, with the previous visit being back in 2007.
- A lot has changed in the subsequent 18 years, including a shift to a largely cashless society in Iceland.
- Back in 2007, most transactions involved the Icelandic Krona, therefore my wallet was full of cash when travelling to the island.
- In 2025 however, my family and I were able to travel to Iceland with no Krona whatsoever, as credit cards and mobile payments were accepted everywhere.
- After a few days in Iceland, one thing that became clear to us was the shift to cashless also came with a shift to self-service.
- Gas pumps, supermarket checkouts, parking fees, and even hotel checkout and room access were all handled via electronic rather than human interactions.
- The net result was that as visitors to Iceland, we spent far less time actually interacting with Icelandic people, which was a shame as they are some of the nicest people around.
- In a previous episode, I spoke about my concerns with our mobile phones becoming a "master key for life" (ref: https://techleader.pro/a/594-Tech-Leader-Pro-podcast-2023-week-23,-when-did-the-smart-phone-become-our-master-key?), now I am beginning to see other consequences: a dramatic reduction in human interactions with strangers.
- In many ways, technology is becoming the trap that binds us to a colder, more impersonal future.
- For people who dislike human contact this may be welcomed, but personally it saddens me deeply and it took an 18 year gap between visiting the same country for me to see the impacts in real terms.
- A few years back in my home country of Ireland, there was a billboard campaign that our pubs were "the original social networks", and I truly believe that.
- Do me a favour in the next country you visit: bring cash, physically hand it to the bar staff, tell them to keep the change as a tip, then use this as an opportunity to strike up a conversation. You never know what you might learn!
- Via technology, our social skills are regressing.
- Some of us would rather talk to an AI assistant than another human being.
- I still love technology as it is an obvious net benefit to mankind, but I am not blind to harmful implementations with unintended consequences, and neither should you be.
- In a somewhat symbolic moment, my youngest son found a 5 Krona coin under a rock at the bottom of a volcanic crater, that is dated from 1946!
- Given that Iceland gained its independence in 1944, I would suspect that was one of the first batch of coins minted by Iceland?
- It made us wonder about how that coin ended up there, who dropped it, and for how long it set at the bottom of that crater.
- I will include a photo of the coin in the video of this episode, it’s weather condition really adds to its beauty.
- Let’s not lose the human touch.

Episode notes: https://techleader.pro/a/699-Cashless-societies-are-deeply-impersonal-(TLP-2025w27)

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