Why I've Had It With Technology

I loved sci-fi as a kid.  I read everything connected to the future, a place we were assured would be better and safer. I read Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein, Dick, Clark (I've watched 2001: A Space Odyssey over 25 times ... Clark wrote the film with Stanley Kubrick), LeGuin, Orwell and later to more recent writers like Gibson, Weir,  Crichton, Vonnegut, Liu and many, many more. As a kid and younger adult I hoped for a better future.

What we got instead is a civilization cut off personally from each other instead fixated on a tiny screen or listening to mindless telephone robots telling you "You are very important and we will be with you in a moment," NOT! I guess we have different definitions of "a moment!" I don't consider waiting 45 minutes a moment. 

And you can't help but realize this is by conscious design. Maybe you'll give up.

Two cases in point today, no, three. I just opened my mail and found a bill I paid July 12, 2024. I went on Eisenhower Hospital's My Chart site and it shows the bill was paid. So time will be wasted, telephoning through multiple menu options to get them off my back. I give it an hour, right?

Because I use an oxygen concentrator for long periods each day I applied and receive slightly better electric rates. It's not much but every little bit helps. SCE sent me a letter asking for an update. Not finding what I needed on their web site I tried calling for three days using a variety of their numbers. I never spoke to anyone. I once lived a few miles from their headquarters in Rosemead, CA and know 100's if not 1,000's of people work there every day and no one can answer a phone in under 35 minutes to one hour? I gave up. I truly don't know what to do.  Write a letter I guess and hope for the best.

Then after that experience I tried calling MetLife. The letter wanted me to confirm a contact person if I was unable to. I called the number on the letter and was greeted by, "Since you have called today you will receive a FREE life lock dongle to wear around your neck, kinda like a dog tag. I didn't want one. I have an Apple Watch that calls 911 if you fall and don't respond. In fact two dear friends died from deadly falls that my watch could have saved. No matter how I tried, every option seemed to have to give me that damned dongle.

Finally I went to the MetLife web site and called the number there. After a few options I got a human but he had to send me somewhere else. We waited another 10 minutes or so while being told it was faster on the web. Maybe if you're 15.

Finally a live person came on the line and said, "Well, you really didn't need to do anything if there are no changes."  I told her that's not what the letter said. LOOOONG pause. She recovered and said thank you and we hung up. That was another 30 minutes gone, maybe more as I really hard to get past the robotic chatty Kathy on the first call.

What have we done with our lives? Fifty years ago when I was say 28 most of the time an operator transferred your call to someone and they actually answered. I have seen first hand many offices where the phone rings and there is a person there.They ignore the ring. I don't even bother to leave a number for a call back. They NEVER call back.  I tried that until after the third callback number mailbox was so full you couldn't even leave a number  Shows you how much they care.

Rather than the future giving us more time to be together it's spread us further apart. It's also been the greatest cause of stress in our society. Remember Southwest Airlines tech meltdown last Christmas? Can you imagine the stress that caused? Or, data breaches that release all your personal data? Everyone felt the meltdown when computers around the word crashed because of a faulty update. Maybe, just maybe we have become TOO reliant on technology. You wonder if its reach is really understood.

I remember NASA spending thousands of dollars to create a pen that would write in space. The Russians, we discovered, found the solution. They used pencils. And truth be told you still need a pencil and paper to write things down while using a computer. The older you get the more you use them too!

I wear a T-shirt that says, "Just once, I want a username and password to say, CLOSE ENOUGH!" I think we all could agree with that!

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!

Be sure to check my ETSY store ... KrugsStudio.etsy.com. I am adding many new and exciting, collectible birdhouses and craft items. Many of the items talked about here will be for sale there!

Thank you for reading my blog. I invite you to take the time to read earlier blogs where my emphasis is to explore the ways art and design affects our daily lives ... and always has. I share with you what inspires me with the hope that it will inspire you as well. Comments are always welcomed!