Sketch

A drawing from 2006.

High Expectations Lead to Frustration

The harsh robotic sound of someone's English grandma chirps from your windshield, In 300 yards, turn left. "BUT I CAN'T TURN LEFT YOU STUPID THING! ARGH!" This is a common response to the gentle prod of the GPS as it kindly, but unfalteringly directs you to your destination. For as much as we yell, the GPS calmly responds to our mistakes and hysterics with the calming and rational statement of facts: Recalculating

Your computer is running slow. The video of cute puppies your aunt sent is not loading like it should. You grit your teeth in frustration and while you're waiting open another tab or two to your Twitter page, daily feed and a game you'd been hooked on for weeks. All the little circles are spinning....as you wait....and wait....and wait.... The video gives a little hiccup and you sit up from your slumped position. Wiping the drool off your face your eyes gleam, hope! Only to find the video hasn't buffered enough to start playing in full. Angrily you shove some chips in your mouth trying to occupy yourself as the computer slugs along.

Frustration at technology. Is it really all the technologies fault? Is it your GPS' fault that you haven't updated it's maps in so long it still thinks the Union of Myanmar is called Burma? Is it your computer's fault that you haven't emptied it's trash in so long there are now possums gnawing on your screen? No dear reader, it is not the technology's fault. But perhaps you have realized this all years ago and now you are frustration free. My sincere congratulations! One of the secrets to happiness has now been unlocked, you may buy it in the store for 1,600 gold pieces.

But for others, the frustration may linger. The solution? Lower your expectations. Technology is great but it can only do what it was meant to do or what you tell it to do. You are the superior being, take a lesson from the GPS and be more civil, even when you're upset. :D