A short while back, I was temporarily locked out of the main digital platform that I use to connect with my network… Again!
This had already happened almost exactly one year prior, so the process was now familiar and I was able to bypass all the emotional turmoil of panic, fear and anger. Instead, this was just another admin task that stole away some of my head space and mental energy for a while.
The process to get my access back ended up being a bit more difficult than last time due to some inexplicable technical errors, but once I was able to communicate with an actual person, everything was resolved fairly swiftly.
My only gripe though is this: when I queried insistently what had caused me to be locked out in the first place, I was told that due to their “privacy policy”, they were unable to share with me what actions had been taken on my account, as well as the reasons for this.
This is the point at which my emotions kicked in: namely disbelief and frustration. Sadly though, also resignation.
I was reminded again of the risk of our over-reliance on tech tools as well as the impact on our business and lives when these go wrong. I have heard so many stories of people who suffered significant losses to their business or reputation, or spent endless hours dealing with situations where the tech says “no”.
We seem stuck in a pursuit of ever-more “cost-effective” digital tools and automations, but the cost is still very much there – except it sits on us individuals.
As I have mentioned before, we would do well to:
- evaluate the risks of the tech we rely on becoming unavailable
- consider de-cluttering all the tech we no longer need
- keep on top of our backups, our security and passwords.
I know, such a bore! But that’s the way our world is going. Don’t like it? Maybe go offline intentionally every now and again. It’s surprising how much pleasure can be found in slowing down and switching off for a while!