Does anyone else get beyond frustrated with technology? Does anyone else think that it is completely ironic that a basic user of tech tools should be able to do something basic, like posting a comment to a forum or uploading something. And yet, how many times has something that should take "just 5 minutes" turned into an hour's project, riddled with profanities, foot-stomping, and key-pounding? Isn't this basic functionality that you are trying to complete part of the program's CORE competency?
Well, look. I remember working way back when in the day withOUT the computer - ha! Can you imagine. Then, one day our department of 25 people received 2 computers. Yay! We were ecstatic because they also came hooked in with 2 dot-matrix printers. Talk about s - l - o - o - o - o - w! Then, came the fax machine, with rolly fax paper, then came email, then came cell phones (the big clunkers), then came an AT&T calling card to use overseas. Then came a computer on every desk, the internet, dot.coms, real paper for the fax machine. Log-on time went from 5 minutes down to 1 minute. Where did I go? I grew impatient. The faster things worked, the more I increased my demands on them. It's not fair, but that's life, isn't it? The better you work at something, the more you are tapped for other similar situations. So, we place greater and greater demands on our technology to work faster, easier, problem-free, glitch-free, hassle-free. But that just isn't practical...
Lower our expectations? Not necessarily. With consumer expectations comes the innovation. But, we should strengthen our resolve. Andrea Lee in the ezine article, "Overcoming Frustration with Technology" counsels us to take a step back from time to time. Next time, the universal remote is not clicking through the search functionality quick enough, remember the days when a television set came with 3 channels, a dial and rabbit ears that needed to point in different directions for each channel.
Well, look. I remember working way back when in the day withOUT the computer - ha! Can you imagine. Then, one day our department of 25 people received 2 computers. Yay! We were ecstatic because they also came hooked in with 2 dot-matrix printers. Talk about s - l - o - o - o - o - w! Then, came the fax machine, with rolly fax paper, then came email, then came cell phones (the big clunkers), then came an AT&T calling card to use overseas. Then came a computer on every desk, the internet, dot.coms, real paper for the fax machine. Log-on time went from 5 minutes down to 1 minute. Where did I go? I grew impatient. The faster things worked, the more I increased my demands on them. It's not fair, but that's life, isn't it? The better you work at something, the more you are tapped for other similar situations. So, we place greater and greater demands on our technology to work faster, easier, problem-free, glitch-free, hassle-free. But that just isn't practical...
Lower our expectations? Not necessarily. With consumer expectations comes the innovation. But, we should strengthen our resolve. Andrea Lee in the ezine article, "Overcoming Frustration with Technology" counsels us to take a step back from time to time. Next time, the universal remote is not clicking through the search functionality quick enough, remember the days when a television set came with 3 channels, a dial and rabbit ears that needed to point in different directions for each channel.
PS. On further reflection, I realize that the 40-somethings probably get frustrated with technology (and are ready to throw it out the window at its glitch peak) more so than our younger set. Having not grown up with cellphones, answering machines, DVD players, computers, laptops, blackberries, iphones, etc... it comes as a surprise to us that they aren't designed to perfection. The younger set tend to accept its imperfections as part and parcel of living a technologically full life.
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