Technology Takes Time

I am sitting here watching my roommate struggle with his new Chromecast that he received as a gift for his birthday from his brother.  A Chromecast is a cheap streaming device that is intended to be simple and easy to use.  However my roommate has been in the setup process for the past hour now.  What a great gift. The problem is we live on a college campus with college WiFi and the college WiFi has all sorts of rules.  Because of this he has to jump through all sorts of hopes just to get a simple device working. He is bouncing off the walls because this little piece of technology does not work. The Chromecast is supposed to make his life easier.  This is just another example of technology solving problems by creating new ones.

I have had similar problems with technology in the past. I will spend hours setting up some device that will make my life so much better, but giving myself headaches in the process.  Sometimes I will sink so much time into the device it feels like an investment.  I put so much time in the setup, but I will save more time in the end by using the device. 

 After a certain point it becomes a challenge to beat. It’s not even about using the technology anymore it’s about conquering it. I will bang my head against the wall all for the sake of my life easier.  But if I am always trying to setup some new technology is my life ever really easier? It is just a constant cycle of retiring old technology and adopting new technology and I will always be “saving time” with the next best thing.  This cycle will continue as long as there is new technology meant to make my life easier.

Why do I put myself through all of this? Maybe I like it.  I think society as a whole is addicted to it.  Massive amounts of people will go out every year to get the new iPhone.  They will put in the time to buy and setup a new device, which can take a lot of time, even though there previous phone was working fine. Furthermore every year after the release of the iPhone many reports of problems arise.  This year the new apps that were promised for the iPhone are not working.  People will spend there time trying to fix the app, and end up wasting a lot of time.  But people will still do it, because they are dyeing for that new time saving feature.

My roommate finally got the Chromecast working and as soon as he did he watched one YouTube video and then he left. He moved on after he conquered the device.  But it is all worth it because he might save some time in the future.  That is how we look a new technology. We sink all this time as an investment and hope that some day it will make our lives easier.