A Love/Hate relationship...by Sheila Claydon

 

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I started writing books before the Internet and cell phones! My grandchildren find it difficult to grasp that there was a time when research meant a visit to a library and that people actually wrote letters to one another. And my older books, still in print thanks to a Books We Love retro reprint, do indeed refer to letters and landline phones. Nowadays, however, my characters are very up-to-date, especially in my last book, Many a Moon, where my hero and heroine use the Internet to help solve the mysteries surrounding them.

Having started writing books on a manual typewriter where I had to produce two paper copies, one of which had to be boxed up and sent to a publisher, I am very grateful for modern technology. Computers make everything easier, as does the Internet. I do however have a love/hate relationship with technology...and it's getting worse. Take yesterday as an example. 

THE LOVE - before I got out of bed I grabbed my phone and skimmed the headlines of two separate newspapers before reading the few articles that were of immediate interest. Then my daughter-in-law, who lives in Singapore, called me  on WhatsApp and we had a lovely hour-long chat where she brought me up-to-date with all the family news as well as telling me about her new job and her plans for Chinese New Year. After she finished the call I felt energised and much loved but also in need of breakfast.

Two minutes later, still before I had managed to get in the shower, my daughter started a long texting conversation. It was about some new ideas for her job and was very interesting. Before we finished we had exchanged a number of online links and a video and I had promised to edit anything she sent me. Then, of course, I had to watch the video. That only took a few minutes, just enough time for a granddaughter to get in touch by text with reference to some information I had sent her earlier. I was getting hungrier by the minute!

Then it was a WhatsApp from a friend who had just returned from holiday and wanted to arrange a time to talk. I parked that one, knowing I could reply later, and made for the shower.

THE HATE - later, breakfasted and with a coffee in front of me, I scanned my emails. There was an invoice to pay, quite a big one, but I could do that by phone so it shouldn't take long...except it did thanks to the darker side of technology. What should have taken minutes morphed into almost an hour when the supplier's card payment machine rejected my card. I was at a loss until I received 2 texts from my Bank, the first one warning me that I would shortly receive a second one! The texts were safety precautions of course, but because I know  never to reply directly to a text unless I am sure about it, I was forced to phone my Bank. This meant several minutes of answering  security questions  and then waiting...and waiting...and waiting...until eventually I was transferred to another number where I had to answer even more questions. Throughout I was talking to a Chatbot. Not a real person anywhere to be found. Eventually the account was unfrozen and I was told I could go ahead and pay although not for another 15 minutes!!! So I had another cup of coffee.

Later I logged onto the Internet to order something from a company I regularly use. Despite having had an account for several years, it wouldn't let me in. The inevitable Chatbot told me it didn't recognise my login details despite these not having changed. In desperation I clicked on the 'change my password' suggestion. No email with the reset link arrived, so I tried again...and again...until I outstayed my welcome and was told my account had been frozen for the next 5 hours!! Stupidly I then went across to the website's chatbox to see if it could be sorted out. It took me another 10 minutes of questions and waiting to 'speak by text' to a real person, who after one short communication disappeared for the further 10 minutes I was prepared to waste waiting. Eventually I gave up! Another hour wasted.

Yet back to the love - before the day had ended I had had a very successful Zoom meeting with a colleague, a get-together with friends confirmed, and arrangements made with another granddaughter, all things that would have involved travel, phone calls or letters pre modern technology. So do I love it more than I hate it...it depends on the day!