Five Fun Facts You Never Knew About Technology

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

Five Fun Facts You Never Knew About Technology - www.alliepottswrites.com #humorIt all started Sunday. There I was, thoroughly engrossed in the latest episode of Game of Thrones, which I was streaming off my AppleTV.  Little did I know I would go through all the stages of grief before the night was done, but not for the reasons the show’s writers intended.

The scene opened with a woman, barely more than a girl, attempting to stay warm as snow fell all around. Winter had finally come.

The girl’s horse whinnied and pulled at its restraint. She looked up as the camera closed in. The angle shifted. The horse’s ear pivoted as it responded to a danger not yet evident on the screen. I readied myself for action as the camera returned to the girl’s face once more, her readiness to do battle all too clear. Then …

Then the scene froze and the infamous buffering wheel icon appeared on my screen.

[SHOCK & DENIAL] NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

I wanted to chuck my beverage at the screen and scream, but I’m a responsible parent now and trying to set a good example (and electronics are expensive) so instead, I waited. And waited. And waited. But the icon refused to go the way it came.

Fun Fact Number 1: Unplugging the device won’t solve all problems

[PAIN] Figuring my router had yet again decided I needed more exercise in my life (it’s considerate like that), I balanced on the precarious edge of my children’s toy chest, stretching up to reset it. (The idea was to place it high enough where the kids couldn’t accidentally break it, but unfortunately, as my eldest at eight-years old is already almost my height, this requires placing it higher than I can reach on my own).

I returned to the television. The buffering icon stared back at me. I am sure if it could laugh maniacally at me, it would.

[ANGER] Fine. This could have been so easy, but you’ve made your choice. It’s time to do this the ‘hard’wired way.

I yanked the power cord from the streaming device as well. See how you like getting interrupted, punk.

Fun Fact Number 2: A ‘User-Friendly’ interface does not actually mean the technology is your friend

When the streaming device woke up from its thirty-second power nap I expected it to be well refreshed and ready to get back to work. But instead of seeing the usual easy to navigate screen of channels options I’ve grown to expect, only two options were presented to me – I could go to Settings or My Computer. Only that was a lie too as neither option took me anywhere. It was the technological equivalent of being given the silent treatment.

[BARGAINING] Dude, I know I just said some mean things, but thought we were buds! Can’t we move past this? I promise, just let me finish this one show and I’ll leave you alone for the rest of the night. You can even have the rest of the week off if that’s what you want. All I want is just fifteen more minutes.

Fun Fact Number 3: In the age of the Internet of Things, devices are more connected than you think

[DEPRESSION] After working on troubleshooting the problem for more than more time than I’d like to admit, I decided to give up on the AppleTV for the night and watch from the Roku I have in another room instead. The TV and sound quality isn’t as good in there, but what other choice did I have?

While the device powered up, and the channel options showed, HBO refused to load. Now, this could be explained by a spike in users online, but I like to think that my AppleTV sent a light speed signal ahead of me to the Roku player, convincing it to take its side over mine. After all, they do share the same network. Blood might be thicker than water, but bytes can last forever.

Fun Fact Number 4: You’ll never understand how isolated you’ve become until you see the ugly truth play out on social media

In a last-ditch effort, I sent a tweet out, alerting the public to my plight, hoping to hear that I wasn’t the only one affected by technological misery. Instead, I saw Game of Thrones trending, and like the glutton for punishment I’d become, I foolishly clicked on it. As meme after meme scrolled down my screen, it was clear that there was still a virtual viewing party going on out in the cyber world. It was also clear, I was no longer invited.

I sobbed (okay I didn’t really, but I sure thought about it). [LONELINESS]

Fun Fact Number 5: One of the best technological advancements of all time remains the printing press (but even that still has its own problems)

I gave up and went to bed, taking a book to help put my troubled mind at ease. [THE UPWARD TURN] I could trust a book. [WORKING THROUGH] A printed page was reliable in a way a television show broadcast over the internet could never be. [ACCEPTANCE] Yes, I told myself, as the ending was partially spoiled already anyway, seeing those final minutes could wait until tomorrow.

Sure enough Monday night I was able to tune back in and see how the scene played out. It was just as good as I’d imagined. Satisfied with my successful television (sorry, it isn’t television, it’s HBO) screen time, I returned to my computer to print some unrelated pages I would need for the following day.

A message box appeared.

“Please replace ink cartridge.”

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Proving there is reliability in the age of technology, it’s just the type of reliability that’s governed by Murphy’s Law.

27 thoughts on “Five Fun Facts You Never Knew About Technology”

  3. I hear ‘ya sister. I feel like I’m a slave to the gadgets that are supposed to be serving me. There’s nothing friendly about any of it. And I’m discovering that the more complicated this technology gets, the less I want to use it– or am willing to buy it. Forget FOMO, lately I’ve been grooving on JOMO, the joy of missing out.

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    1. Here here! And I’m all on board with that except when Game of Thrones is on. Now had George RR Martin been kind enough to have already finished the books perhaps I wouldn’t be this way as I would have already read them.

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    1. 🙂 I am amused now that I’ve finished the episode. I’ve managed to trace the issue back to my router, which has apparently decided that a recent thunderstorm was an excuse to add more vacation time to its contract.

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  5. Oh technology…I love it and hate it. Korea had the fastest internet in the world (literally). When I first came to China, I made jokes about how I was going to lose months or years of my life in the time I spent waiting for pages to load (I have to REALLY want to see a picture or video for me to wait for it). And to make matters worse, here in China, if I’m not having trouble with the internet itself, then I’m having trouble with my VPN which I need in order to access a lot of the blocked sites I like (google, YouTube, Facebook, etc.).

    I totally feel and share your frustration. I’m glad you got to watch the end eventually. And like one of the other commenters said, I’m glad you got a great blog post out of it.

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  8. I recently had over 100 spam messages in my WordPress spam folder that were entitled ‘Game Of Thornes Episode seven, series (something or other’). I wonder if these were sent at the same time as you were experiencing these problems? 🤔
    I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, but I know what you mean by that buffering symbol.

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  9. This happened to us at one point mid-binge through the latest season of “Orange is the New Black” and we were equally devastated. Took about 24 hours before we were finally able to watch it again. The moral of the story is: I feel your pain.

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  11. LOL LOL LOL. I snorted a lot of times reading this. I too will suffer with the 8-year-old-taller-than-me syndrome. Darn kids. Now… we come to the crux of this post… As your accountability partner I feel obliged to ask… “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING WATCHING TV…? GET BACK TO WORK SLAVE.”

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    1. Let me rephrase – I wasn’t watching tv, I was researching storytelling techniques as well as how to make people care about unlikeable characters. 🙂

      Totally legit use of my time.

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