Have you noticed how hard it is to\u00a0get things done lately? Whether you\u2019re calling a plumber, waiting for a doctor to\u00a0return a call, trying to contact a lawyer or asking for tax documents, it\u2019s\u00a0unusual to get a response. A lawyer might answer when you\u2019re paying for phone\u00a0time, but getting someone on the phone for free is so difficult, it\u2019s like
being a teenager back in my generation when we sat next to the phone and waited\u00a0for a boyfriend to call. I once told a millennial that when I was growing up,\u00a0we didn’t have answering machines. He looked at me for a moment in disbelief\u00a0and went back to texting the friend who was sitting beside him.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve tried to keep up with the\u00a0times. I text, email, use Instagram and send Facebook messages but the problem\u00a0remains. Granted, there are some helpful people out there, but all too often,\u00a0they can’t be bothered to answer a call or send a message. Sometimes I can’t
describe what I want in a text or an email and if I finally reach a human being,\u00a0it\u2019s like finding a Unicorn and I shower them with compliments and gratitude\u00a0for doing something that should be the norm, not the exception.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019m stumped with technology\u00a0and I\u2019m trying get help, my strategy is to become a good-natured pest, not an\u00a0angry one. That lessens my chances of getting what I need. Instead, I kill them
with kindness and naivet\u00e9. I might send an email twice \u201cby mistake\u201d and tell\u00a0them that if they already received the message before, my computer is having a\u00a0bad day. I complain about autocorrect and tell them how sorry I am to have to resend\u00a0the text. Or I might leave a message and a text, telling them I don’t the best way to reach them and thank them in advance for helping me.<\/p>\n
A few days ago, I was searching for\u00a0a customer service phone number to get help with an app, only to find out they\u00a0didn’t have customer service. No humans and no email. The chat bot sent me five\u00a0articles but none of them addressed my problem so I decided to come at it from several\u00a0directions. I became a good-natured pest as I emailed a tech savvy friend, asking\u00a0her to please give me a quick call. No answer. I texted her assistant who was\u00a0too busy deal with me. I emailed the app manager. No reply. I called my Mac guy\u00a0who was in the middle of trouble shooting for a large corporation. I turned to\u00a0Google and asked my question in several different ways but I kept getting the\u00a0message, \u201cSign onto the app and click \u201cthe \u201cso and so\u201d button. But that button didn\u2019t\u00a0appear on my screen. When I actually got a customer service phone number and\u00a0called it, a bright and happy voice said, \u201cPlease stay on the line. There are\u00a0seventy six calls ahead of you.\u201d Don\u2019t even ask me about the so-called music,
torture to my ears, that they subjected me to while they made me wait, hoping I\u2019d\u00a0just hang up. I did.<\/p>\n
When I\u2019d exhausted my options and reached\u00a0out so far, my arms had stretched to double their size, I put my head in my\u00a0hands and tried to manage my frustration. I was so upset, my nervous system was\u00a0vibrating and it all seemed so unfair. I\u2019m one of 73 million baby boomers, many\u00a0of whom who are having the same problem and no one wants to take the time to\u00a0help.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had a friend who graciously\u00a0offered to help me when I got my first Apple computer. I got so panicked when I\u00a0couldn\u2019t figure out how to use it, I emailed him so many times, he eventually\u00a0sent me a message that read: RTFM. When I sent him back a question mark, he\u00a0spelled out, \u201cRead The Fucking Manuel.\u201d I felt embarrassed but when I quieted\u00a0my mind and began to read the instructions, they started to make sense to me.<\/p>\n
A lot of us feel angst about\u00a0figuring out the smallest things: a new TV remote control. A space heater. A\u00a0computer upgrade. A map app so you can understand where you\u2019re going. Reading a\u00a0menu on your phone. But if you want to stay current and teach your brain to
figure things out, the more you try, the more you can do. There are certain\u00a0issues that require help from a professional, but it\u2019s surprising how much you\u00a0can figure out yourself if you don\u2019t get into a panic and lose your ability to\u00a0think. When you hit a roadblock, instead of winging and moaning, if you stop abusing\u00a0yourself and look at the situation with a sense of humor and keep on\u00a0trying, you\u2019ll graduate from the 73 million and get to the next level. \u00a0<\/p>\n
After thousands of attempts to\u00a0invent the light bulb, Thomas Edison said, \u201cI haven\u2019t failed. I\u2019ve just found\u00a0thousands of ways that won\u2019t work.\u201d So instead of feeling defeated and stupid,\u00a0we can remind ourselves to stay calm, keep an open mind, believe that we can
figure out our dilemma and try \u201ca thousand different ways\u201d. We can\u2019t know what\u00a0we don’t know but we can learn if we pester ourselves to keep on going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have you noticed how hard it is to\u00a0get things done lately? Whether you\u2019re calling a plumber, waiting for a doctor to\u00a0return a call, trying to contact a lawyer or asking for tax documents, it\u2019s\u00a0unusual to get a response. A lawyer might answer when you\u2019re paying for phone\u00a0time, but getting someone on the phone for free […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}