© 2017 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
Graduation from high school was May 1968.
In technological terms that was at a time when everyone put hay in one end of
their personal transportation. Then had just as many frustrations every day
despite the notion of a kinder and gentler time in America.
Speaking of personal frustration: I
didn’t have a car so I could go anywhere if I had enough time to walk. In the verbiage
of the day, “What a drag.” But I survived that frustration.
Back then I had three technological
wonders: a ball-point ink pen, a Timex wrist-watch that “takes a licking and
keeps on ticking.” And, I had use of my grandmother’s 1930 Underwood manual
typewriter.
My first newspaper column was
written in 1969 on that manual typewriter with carbon paper for a copy. It was
nothing like the ease of writing this column using a computer. But I am
frustrated today, almost to the level of using a manual typewriter.
Going to college in the 1960s meant
that if you had communication technology it was a phone tied to the wall with a
three-foot cord. And a clock radio with only the AM band. I lived a mile off
campus with a relative so spent lots of time walking back and forth through
mostly sunshine. But there was dust, rain, gloom of night and blisters.
My expectation those years was that
I would survive and get a college degree followed by a good paying job to
replace the small paying jobs that kept me going in college. That did happen.
So why am I so frustrated?
Over the last twenty years of having
a cellphone, I have enjoyed them except when having to get getting a new one. And,
the technological frustration making the new one work. That why I am frustrated.
I’d rather have a beating than change cellphones.
But the new ads for the Samsung
Galaxy S8 seemed wonderful though my S5 still worked. In a moment of weakness
instead of taking a nap I called my Cell Company. In a long conversation, I was
persuaded that the S7 was better than the new S8. I know: buyer beware.
The short of it is that the unit
would not activate but the Cell Company was able to deactivate my phone as I
was talking to Tech Support. I have dubbed them: Tech Non-Support. In nine
hours of calls and calls the new unit could not be activated which is the
uncertainty I was trying to avoid in the new Samsung but got in an older model.
Yes, I spoke to them nine hours over
two days trying to make this technological wonder work. As of now it has little
chance to come to life. It is a good thing that I experienced all that
frustration earlier in my life so I take this setback well. Other than sarcasm
which has flourished.
I’m frustrated because somehow I was
expecting it to work.
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