So recently one of my worst fears finally happened an early morning business meeting I was hosting totally flopped. I mean I was ready and able to host the meeting except there was a combination of technical and human brain failure. Everyone was there but I was no where to be found.
In modern corporate life meetings are often done over the phone, by way of a teleconference service. Come to think of it even spiritual schools such as the Barbara Brennan School of Healing have hosted meditations over teleconference services. So I guess I shouldn’t even single out the modern corporate life. Teleconferences may very well be mainstream normal middle America.
But I wanted to take a moment to pause and express my feelings that something has gotten too advanced and complicated for this once “on top of the world” techno geek. Hmm. I hear a song in head playing to a familiar Beatles song:
” … Yesterday, technology was such an easy game to play
… Now I need a place to hide away ..
Oh I believe in Yesterday”
So recently I was taking advantage of the fact that thru the wonderful power of my teleconferencing services on my laptop I could host a really early morning meeting from my home allowing me more time to rest up after a really late night meeting at work. And 10 minutes prior to my meeting, the unthinkable happened my laptop computer was missing! I was so tired the prior day at work I totally forgot to bring my computer home.
Fortunately thru the miracles of modern technology I have an iPhone that can also host my teleconferences. Saved by technology … At least I thought. The AT&T iPhone App I was using complained that since I hadn’t used in recently it was going to require me to login again. Hugh?!? Login? I’ve never had to login?! I remember some months ago preparing this App with the proper password so it wouldn’t require me to login, just like it works on my laptop.
So now I then I went to my password wallet App which has listing of the passwords of all the different accounts I have. Fortunately, I still remember the password to the password wallet App. I find the proper password in my password wallet, but the passwords don’t work! In fact it seems like the teleconference app itself has change and been updated that it looks and works so different … so nothing works and I’m lost. I get so flustered and now I’m feeling so embarrassed that I invited people to a meeting held over the phone early in the morning some of whom might have gotten out of bed early just because of my meeting!!
So I finally give up and manage to start sending emails out from my iPhone. Normally the email on my iPhone will automatically start remember email addresses if I type the first few letters, but not this time. So I have to search for old emails that I received from each person I invited and start replying back to them with apologies. I think they all reply it’s OK, but part of me feels really bad.
I mean if I could prepare more I guess I should have had a special card in my wallet with the special phone numbers, and host password that I could have manually dialed my teleconference number and password. But of course I remember times that even when I had everything I might still have to contact technical support to do things like fix a technical snafu on their end that even gave them a challenge to correct. I’m just saying no matter how much I try to get my technical things all squared away and set so that it is easy for me to use, inevitably the software, the service is going to be upgraded and updated and unless I constantly use the stuff and keep my brain trained and updated on the newer way of using the software or remembering my usernames or passwords the technology is eventually going to fail on me.
And I as I return to the present I even think about this blog entry I’m writing. And you know I’m starting to feel like this technologically is hard stuff. I mean it’s cool that with “advanced” technology I can more easily share my thoughts with multiple people and I can do so from any computer that has an internet connection. … As long as my brain can remember my password though. But then I have to prepare myself to update the blog software so that it can still work with services such as Facebook, and each time I do an update something could go wrong and then I have to take time to debug, which inevitably involves me being able to remember another password .. Ahh.
So yes this stuff is sort of complicated, but at the same time I sort of believe that if I was back to being a teenager or even early twenties I’d be a techno geek on top of all this stuff. So I think part of this sensation that technology is getting too sophisticated is maybe I’m getting old and my brain cells are dying. I’m taking my part to enter the ranks of old senile geezer … Fortunately I’m not talking your ear off with “You know when I was a kid I used to …” Or maybe the fact I’m writing a lot in this blog is actually me talking your ear off with useless rants.
A long time ago I thought I thought I was pretty techno smart stuff because I could program and hook up any ones’s VCR (Video Tape Recorder ) and I could figure out how to work any digital watch. Now I’m a bit frustrated with figuring out how to enjoy TV with hundreds of channels and internet features and multiple remotes for my HDTV flat screen TV. It’s kind of neat I’ve been able to get my iPhone hooked up so that I can see TV listings, touch something and my TV goes straight to that listing, but sometimes it doesn’t quite work, sometimes because I need to remember a username and password that I don’t remember having to use. And sometimes it’s hard to see the tiny print on my iPhone screen — I think I need reading glasses.
Now a days when I go to a meeting at my work place I leave my computer behind and just bring a paper notebook and pen. My notebook doesn’t need to recharge it’s battery, it doesn’t freeze up or reboot unexpectedly, and it doesn’t need a ton of stinking passwords that I need to remember. I kind of like that.