Technology has and can be a pain in the ass… And I’m willing to bet, so can you.
I have heard the many grumbling, banging, yelling, cursing, and plain old cries of “why won’t you work?”
It is an all too familiar sound for people of my background [ I'm an engineer, you name it, mechanical, computer, electrical, I work with it all] and I have always been curious seeing that people in general either have a love it or hate it relationship with their technology.
It may take the form of your car acting up or just not starting. Or even worse starting to act up and cause further irritation and pissed-offedness. And in other cases the phone, the fax, the copier, the printer, the computer, the email, the web page, or just the fact that the letter you were just working on crashed and it ain’t coming back even though you had auto-save turned on.
It is in my travels and experiences that it mostly comes down to how you manage your energies and how you direct your emotions into the devices around you. What I am getting at is your emotional state has A LOT to do with your interaction and experience with these devices. However, even the most knowledgeable of us, have issues with these complicated machines and devices and they can bother or downright piss you off when things don’t go as planned.
So here’s my 5 steps to minimize your technological meltdowns in the Future:
1. Don’t buy cheap appliances or devices that you will depend on when you need them. If you need it to just work then spend the extra money.
2. Try to keep a cool head. When everything around you is going to hell, your emotions can impact your environment. The little things turn in atomic meltdowns, and technology is sensitive to these types of high energy environments. Take a breath before you fax, cool down before you copy that important document.
3. Read the manual. I have solved innumerable problems by being able to go back to square one in the operations of a device and follow it step-by-step to accomplish certain tasks that were just not happening. When all else fails, read the manual again, then follow it.
4. If reading the manual, cooling your head, and the device is of good quality and condition. It may just be time to replace it and buy another one. You may not like it but things do break down and stop working. If it ain’t working, then get a new one and get back to work.
5. When in doubt, call me. Many times a issue or frustration can be alleviated by calling on someone who knows this stuff better than you do. I have helped many a friend and associate troubleshoot, resolve an issue or diagnose the need to replace in a matter of minutes versus spending hours or days on a machine that just isn’t going to work no matter what you do.
I hope that these steps will help you in the future. If you are experiencing a technology crisis, you can leave me a comment below, and I will try to help you resolve your problem or point you in the right direction.
