Why Does Technology Hate Me?

I’m sure most of you have asked that same question at some point or other. You know how it feels, those periods when it seems like every piece of technology you own has decided to turn against you. This has been one of those weeks for me.

Well, it’s actually going into two weeks now. It’s been everything I own: my WiFi at home, my old laptop, my new laptop, my home phone, my cell phone, my work computer… Seriously, all these things decided to torture me the past couple of weeks.

But unless you want to go live on Bora Bora and sell seashells on the beach and do pretty much nothing else, you have to be connected to the rest of the world. And it is in this way that we have all become slaves to our devices.

Of course, I love my devices. I enjoy them, I make use of them. They’ve made my life as a writer infinitely easier. But sometimes, when they decide to misbehave, they make life so miserable and so complicated that you wonder why you bother with them. Because, while technology makes our lives and jobs easier in all the ways they’re supposed to, the knowledge you have to have in your head in order to maintain/repair them is crazy.

If you had told me 20 years ago that I would know how to run diagnostics, defrag disks, reset defaults, add/change optional settings, scan for malware, refresh settings…

Shit, I wouldn’t even have known what you were talking about. Yet here I am, doing all those things and more because I have no choice. I am unable (and I don’t know anyone who IS able) to take my machines to a repair shop every time something goes wrong. It’s an impossibility. So we are forced to learn how to repair our own devices, or at least call someone who will walk us through repairing our devices.

I know that repairing things yourself can be a great feeling: fixing a pipe without the aid of a plumber; fixing your car without having to bring it to a mechanic; fixing a piece of furniture without having to get a carpenter. Apart from saving you money, there’s a sense of satisfaction that comes with being to do these things. Somehow, though, fixing tech problems leaves me tired rather than satisfied.

But how I feel about it is irrelevant. Tech is a part of our lives and repair we must. This is just part of modern life. But, damn, does it have to happen so often? And does it all have to happen all at once? Then again, I don’t know if it would really be better if it happened a little at a time. Because, you know, if my desktop wigs out this week, and my laptop next week, and my phone the week after that, and my tablet after that, etc., I think I would probably end up piling everything up in the backyard and having a big old bonfire.

Ah, well. What can I do. This too shall pass.