Tech Rage

(image by Pete Linforth on pixabay)

I find myself infuriated this morning because after booking a hotel online, the final bill came out way more than the price quoted. So I had to phone them to query the charge. After waiting on hold for forty minutes, it turned out they had charged me a $120 booking fee! So I canceled the whole thing immediately. This kind of time-suck seems to permeate our lives more and more as technology removes any human interaction.

Another example is last night we were watching a series on a streaming service and we were just finishing episode five of ten. Then a message came up saying that if we switched to premium, we could watch the rest of the series immediately. It felt like we were being held hostage by the provider and we were so angry that we decided to cancel the service immediately.

Every month, it seems that some charge appears on my bank statements for subscriptions that tech has created for me. There are Google and Apple storage charges, my website fee, my domain name fee, credit card fees, streaming services that automatically roll over into memberships after you “accidentally” watch one show. All these hidden fees are like little land mines that are waiting to get you every time you touch technology. We must remain constantly vigilant over the fine print.

This rant will undoubtedly make me sound old, but I’m sure that young people are also ridden with these fees. Perhaps they are wiser to them than I am, but I try to be very careful about accepting any new subscription. I don’t know how this generation can afford additional fees for every little thing they sign up for. They must have a higher tolerance threshold for dealing with the robots than I do. I spoke with a friend about this phenomenon and he called it “tech rage” and he said he used to deal with it constantly at work.

So today I am going to go outside and unplug for my mental wellbeing. I think we all need to find balance away from screens to feel connected and sane. Therefore, I’m wishing you all a hassle-free day filled with friendly human interaction and beautiful scenery. 

And if you feel like venting, please leave a comment about how tech has frustrated you lately.