Have
you ever lost power?
Maybe
it was something random, like a windy day, heavy rain, or a car
hitting a pole down the street. Maybe it was a major storm, like
a hurricane.
When
I was a kid, when the power went out, the power went out. Pretty
straightforward. As long as it was safe, the kids went outside
to play. Landline phones often still worked. Peanut butter sandwiches
for everyone.
In
recent years, however, it’s amazing to watch the world effectively
smash up against the immovable object from such events. Cell phone
service goes down. WiFi routers aren’t operating. Phones and tablets
and more can’t be charged. Dogs are grabbing the cars keys and
driving on their own to the park.
Let’s
summarize it like this…
In
my childhood, a storm did not mean people walking to their cars
to run them so they could recharge their world.
I
start off with the ideas of storms and charging phones for a simple
reason. How are you charging the car?
No,
wait, let’s back up and I’ll ask again. When I ask, this time
keep in mind that many people are now using electric vehicles
that they charge at home.
How
are you charging the car?
While
you think about that, let’s consider that I have two cell phones.
Often, I carry both of them when I go for walks. More often than
not, something is wildly off. The trackers and apps register different
results for steps and distance and such, and there is little way
to reconcile the two.
For
some of you, the first reaction to that is something along the
lines of it’s me, not the technology. The phones are calibrated
differently. Or, when they provide numbers that don’t match, one
must have been in a pocket in my pants while the other was in
the pouch of my sweatshirt. Basically, the fault must be mine.
Couldn’t be technology.
And
you’d be wrong.
On
one day, Phone 1 might show 1,000 more steps than Phone 2. Next
day, Phone 2 will have significantly more steps. And yet on both
days, both phones will show the same distance covered. A week
later, the distance varies one day, steps vary on another, and
they still flip and flop as to which one shows the higher numbers.
It’s not a dozen steps here and there, nor is it the same phone
providing higher totals. Over time, they’ve matched when in different
pockets and they’ve been different in the same pocket (and vice
versa).
In
this particular essay, I am not making any wild claims about technology
or the advancements in the world. This is not me debating driving
ranges. Nor is it being ticked off by needing a laptop, a cell
phone and email access to navigate the process of signing back
on to my streaming service because a page appears stating they
will send me a text message, want something scanned, and request
a code to be input on a web site while asking that I hop on my
left foot and pat my head.
What
I am saying is that none of it feels completed. A lot of it seems
understandable, even good ideas in theory, but the actual real-world-use
has a glitch (or four).
Honestly,
any of that would be worth excusing. I don’t think any advancement
leads to a complete stop. There will always be tinkering and attempts
at improvement, or ways to utilize something in previously unpredicted
ways. So, incomplete or a glitch? Sure. Fine.
What
I sometimes struggle with is the consistency. No moveable parts,
no changes to anything in the equipment involved, and yet what
worked yesterday sets off error messages today. Halfway across
the house using wireless technology, but then have to find your
phone or walk three-quarters of the way across the house and then
down a flight of stairs to reset the router.
There’s
a joke folks in the automotive industry make about American-made
cars. It’s based on the idea they drive great in a straight line,
but have no clue what to do with a corner. The punchline arrives
because when you drive, every so often there’s a corner.
A
few years ago, I was in the Magic Kingdom at Disney World. Standing
in line for the Jungle Cruise. Long line, and Disney had all of
its line-developing-experience in use and on display as we crept
thru this turn and that, while never knowing how long we’d be
or what the next corner would add. Just introduced to the app,
I had been fascinated during the trip by the step counts I could
look up. After about an hour in line, I was looking forward to
seeing how many steps I had added and how far the line had been
for us. Turns out, according to the app, we didn’t take a single
step.
A
slowly moving line for an hour. Didn’t take a single step.
Later,
I was told one possible thought was that the twists and turns
happened quickly, were followed by pauses of a minute or so, and
the movement was all taking place within a limited space in short
bursts. The idea being the app wasn’t calibrated for a two or
three foot move repeated again and again over the course of an
hour. (Or, more precisely, technology does better with straight
lines.)
I
remain amazed by the things we can do today. Thirty years ago,
I would have been stunned to hear that a cell phone was not only
everyday for everyone, but had led to elimination of landlines
in so many households. Never mind that it would also be a camera
and alarm clock, while providing the ability to text and play
games and watch movies and look up all sorts of information.
Pretty
stunning.
Imagine
how great it will be once they figure out how to turn a corner.