Dear Kiantha: Technology’s benefits outweigh its frustrations

Dear Kiantha,

Technology is a dirty word if you cannot keep up with it. There is an app for this and one for that. The days of using your cellphone to make emergency calls are over, now you can barely see someone’s face because everyone has a phone stuck to it, every minute of the day.

I have a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with technology. Am I the only one?

Dear friend,

I am the former president of the technology love/hate relationship club so you are definitely not the only one.

I understand exactly what you are feeling about technology. I am pretty sure I spend at least 15 minutes a day trying to figure out which password goes with which online account.

I went into a chain store the other day and to my surprise and annoyance there was not one single cashier to check customers out.

Everything had been changed to self-checkout all because of technology and all its wizardry.

It took me five whole minutes to figure out where to insert my payment which happened to be cash.

Life seemed so much simpler with less technology.

I miss the times when I could pick up the telephone, call a company’s customer service number and get an actual human instead of a prompt to push a number to only be transferred to another option to push another number.

After thinking about technology and my struggles with it more deeply, I realize the challenge for me is not actually the technology itself instead, it is my aversion to having to do all the work myself and learning more futuristic ways of moving through the world.

I want someone to check me out at a store. I want someone to answer my call when I have an issue. In truth, I thought I missed the ease of a world with less technology, that is until I realized all the things technology does for me daily and all that technology does for those who are differently abled.

I can use FaceTime to watch my grandchildren as they take their first steps from 300 miles away. Because of technology, I can do things like sign documents electronically, have telehealth appointments, monitor my home while I am away and be present in meetings that are happening all over the country.

Does technology change quickly? Yes, it does. Am I annoyed when I get flustered or forget a password or log in? Yes, I am. However, the benefits to me and for others far outweigh the challenges.

Accepting that technology is here to stay means leaning into it. Trust me, technology, and the use of sites like Google and YouTube, are pathways to anything we can possibly imagine.

Soul to Soul,

Kiantha

Dear Kiantha can be read Fridays in The Spokesman-Review. To submit a question, please email DearKiantha@gmail.com.