Fraught tech

I'm gonna use this flightlog for throwing longer minilogs into / flights of fancy / casual extensions.

I've had a fraught relationship with technology this week

• toothbrush stopped charging 🦷
• water flosser got water damage(!) 💧
• Alexa has gone wappy 🔮
• coffee grinder making funny noise ☕
• coffee machine flowing slowly 🐌
• ariane update lost bookmarks and certs 📚
• obnoxious family at the pool all on their phones with a cacophony of videos and sounds 📱

What else? I'm sure there's more.. Oh yes!

• the volume is really low on phone calls, sometimes I can barely hear people 👂🏼

It's so interesting at the gym. The phone looks like an appendage on some people. They'll walk into the steam room with their phone! Before the world changed™ phones were banned poolside, but now it's encouraged almost: they've installed small lockers for valuables

I understand it, a lot of us have been attached to our phones stuck at home for over a year. I've taken my phone into the pool area a couple of times. I've stopped though: it's good for me to have a retreat from the modern world and from technology.

Alexa has been really annoying me. I have a routine set up to listen to fluid radio but now it's saying that phat 100 is off the air. The routine is typed out so it's not a case of me saying something and being misheard. Shuffle mode has been temperamental too. Seems like a server side issue, can't think how it would be the device.

These little stresses accumulate. We're sold a lie that technology has made our lives easier, and it has in a lot of respects, but it's more complex than that.

I helped my partner's gran set up an email address at the weekend. To reserve a library book online she needs email. To get a physical book she needs an email address. Seems like a joke.