Hey Edna, How's Your Mom and 'Em?

I really try to be patient and upbeat about technology. It obviously benefits me tremendously. I am a blogger. Twenty years ago that word made no sense. Well, to be honest, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me even now. But I am wholly cognizant of the things that technology does to improve my life.

However, one of my pet peeves is the endless loop that one gets in on the telephone when trying to take care of simple matters, like changing any kind of information. In the old days of rotary telephones, a person would simply call Edna at the phone company or Jerry at the bank and ask them to make the change. Edna would ask about your mom and dad, congratulate you on your daughter making the cheerleading squad, and make the necessary change. Same with Jerry.

Now, once it’s been established which language I speak, it is a series of loops, all of which almost NEVER get me to what I want. Sigh. By time I get to a human (by pressing the 0 button 10 or 20 times I have learned), I am so crabby that an apology is almost always necessary at the end of the conversation. After all, “Hank”, who claims to be in Texas, is actually in India and, no matter where he is, none of this is his fault. He is only trying to make a buck (or a rupee as it were).

But I guess if my grandmother could transition from a horse and carriage to a motor vehicle with grace, and accept that you could watch programs on a box in the living room, I should be able to be more patient when I am making a change that is allowing me to access nearly endless information on the world wide web.