Lee Elliott: So much technology brings that many headaches
Time is very important to me, so I don’t like to waste it. First of all, at my age, you don’t have that much left, and secondly, there is much to be accomplished that can’t be when stuck in a time-wasting situation.
Last week, I spent every single day trying to solve problems the digital demons rained down on me, beginning with an internet disruption. I suppose I should be embarrassed to admit how many digital pieces I own. I’ve been collecting them since my first little Mac in the early 1980s. When I was ready to buy my first computer, my brother, who was a programmer for IBM, told me to get a Mac. He said it was so simple, even I could learn to use it.
Almost everything since then has been an Apple product − desktop, iPad, iPod, laptop, cell phone and watch. I also own a Kindle and an HP printer. Unfortunately, many customer support people have not been trained to work with anything other than PCs. Thus, my weeklong saga.
This particular internet outage not only took all of the above, but also deadened my land line and three TVs. All of this, of course, is because I, trying to keep up with the times and do away with a tangle of cords large enough to keep my feet out from under my desk, have gone completely wireless. (For those of you who don’t know, this involves a modem and a router, and you guessed it, passwords.)
At first I was told that I probably needed a new modem, but that proved false when the first of the problems, the land line, was solved. Next I was told that it was my router “They wear out really quickly, you know.” So, I bought a new router … with a new password. On the landline phone, I contacted many customer service representatives and sat on hold for hours. During one call I loaded the dishwasher, cleaned the cat box and folded a load of laundry.
Together, we tried to bring it all back to life. We would get to the point where the service representative would say, “I just have one more thing to check. Hold on, I’ll be back in a minute.” Fifteen minutes later, the phone would click and hang up. This happened time after time. After exhausting my blue vocabulary, bursting into tears and yelling as loudly as I am able, I always called back. I told myself to start at the very beginning, so on one of those days, I tore everything apart, cleaning while I was at it, and put it all back together, piece by piece. The system still would not accept my new password.
Finally, by the end of the week, I had the desktop, printer, phones, laptop and main TV under control. Still to go, my watch, two TVs, the iPad and Kindle. These modern conveniences are supposed to make life easier, respond faster and fix themselves, not bring you to the brink of insanity through frustration.
Still, I guess it is better than the standard typewriter I learned on in high school, and writing for a paper is certainly easier. Instead of linotype machines, hot lead and several editings, I can write the story, press send and get it there in an instant. That is great when the digital system is working. I just wish I had an 8-year-old or young teen in the neighborhood to help me out.
This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: Lee Elliott: So much technology brings that many headaches
