Tuesday, May 22, 2012

When technology fails

I always try to be cognizant of the fact that technology is not the end-all, be-all that society leads us to believe that it is.  Sometimes, it slips up.

Other times, it just downright fails.

I have 2 primary email accounts I use.  My google e-mail, which is what this-here blog runs on.  If you comment, email, whatever, this is where you're sending it to.  But I also have my everyday email.  The one my bills, my facebook, my twitter, pretty much everything important to me is run off of.  It's darn important.

So when the above-mentioned important email account suddenly stopped receiving emails on Thursday, I got somewhat worried.  I've had that account since 2007.  Countless accounts across the interwebs are accessible by that email.  Can I get it to work again?  Nope.  How come hotmail can manage to make my account "undeliverable"???

Despite my best efforts to not freak out, I allowed myself a moment.  You know that kind of moment.  The kind where you 100% lose your shizz for no good reason.  I knew it really wasn't a big deal, but there was a certain amount of emotional attachment to that particular email address.  It was my alumni account for my first undergraduate degree.  I cherished how smart and accomplished I felt whenever I wrote it out.  YES I survived 4 years of college, out of state AND with my life a mess, and I have this email account to show for it.

Okay, maybe it didn't mean that much (although all of the above is true)... but I still loved it dearly.

So after I lost it for  second, I decided to take swift action and regroup.  I moved on over to yahoo, and set up a new "darned important" things email account.  Slowly but slowly, I started to remember just which accounts happen to be linked to that account, and have started the switching over process.  I realized that my Twitter was connected to that email, and found out I had missed tweets because of the email outage.  Sorry guys, if you happened to tweet me during that time.  I wasn't ignoring you, I just didn't know said tweets existed.

It's times like these that I remember that as great and useful as technology is, we always need to have a back-up plan.  We need to know how to function without all of the short-cuts that email, online bill pay, paperless statements, etc... provide.  This is probably why I always want to learn the skills that are becoming less and less important to society.  Gardening, cooking from scratch, sewing, and generally being self-sufficient are important skills to have when technology is on the fritz.  They are skills that help me to appreciate my grandmother and my great-grandmothers, who had to make do with what they had, and who were always able to make something out of nothing.

Because in a culture that values leaving as little waste behind as possible through the paperless movement, when technology fails, you have to re-create everything out of nothing.

7 comments:

  1. gardening, cooking from scratch, sewing ... HUH??? I don't get it.

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  2. Favorite. Post. Ever. I love this and relate across the board, again. :)

    I'm a tech girl, too, fully reliant on all things computerized. But it's so important to know how to exist without technology. If you didn't live on the other freaking side of the continent, we could have so much fun! In a perfect world, we could be neighbors who share a garden, bike ride together in the afternoons, cook some delicious foods from scratch, and sew all of our own clothes. Preferably together because I can't figure out how to put together the sewing machine hubby got me for Christmas. Little old ladies who know how to do EVERYTHING are so inspiring. I need to put my eggs in a basket and let them teach me how to do things before they all die off. haha. Anyway. Again, LOVE this post. =)

    I'm sorry about your e-mail address being lost. The ends of eras are always sad and emotional.

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  3. My email stopped working for about 45 minutes once upon a time.. and do you know what I thought? VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

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  4. oh, technology. it's definitely a love/hate relationship. i've had tons of problems with my hotmail account, too. i use them for my personal email, have for the past 10 years, but i've recently thought about switching. i'm having a hard time breaking the brand loyalty, but they're having some major issues. this post has me leaning even more toward switching, but i'm dreading the process!

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  5. I am technologically stupid. And mechanically stupid. I cannot understand machines period. So glad I couldn't help you out. It would have been much worse.

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  6. I can totally relate. My last email address was my be-all end-all and it was through my ISP so I was screwed kind of. Had to change everything over to gmail. I freaked.... but quickly unfreaked.

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