How do you feel when you lose or forget your phone or when it drops a call? Or when your e-mail or Internet is down?
How about when your Cardinal Card won't swipe you into your dorm?
Let's take it a step further.
What about when the power goes out? No hair dryers, no cell phone chargers, no TV or coffee pots. You feel helpless and lost.
You feel like your whole day is on pause until you get those luxuries back.
Don't worry, I'm not about to lecture you on how our generation is too reliant on those things. Rather, this is a simple observation of how much these things deeply affect our lives.
We've all been sitting there, on a roll, working on that paper that is due tomorrow and all of a sudden your computer shuts off and of course the last time you saved was two hours ago when you started it. Great.
Another example was when the Otterbein Webmail was down at the beginning of last week. For almost 24 hours, and what felt like weeks, we did not have access to that e-mail account.
Now I'm sure that we all have alternative e-mail accounts, but, at least for me, that was useless because everything I needed — homework, papers, things for my job — was all stored in that e-mail account.
Even though we complain about the technology on campus, we have to give the Information and Technology Services (ITS) a break. They work really hard to make sure that we have everything we need in working condition.
Don't get me wrong. I am still going to complain about technology itself, but a giant thank you goes out to ITS for keeping up with everything and dealing with the wrath of our complaints.
But everything for our careers will depend on a computer and a phone. It is scary to me that we stumble when we're told we have to do without.
Find a thesaurus instead of right-clicking in Word. Get a pen and paper instead of that calculator.
Last week, a friend needed to find a scrapbooking store, so the obvious solution was to go on Google Maps to see where the closest one was.
Two out of the first three nearest stores listed on Google Maps were out of business, and had been for a while apparently.
So Google, of all Web sites, doesn't even update their stuff? I'm genuinely surprised.
I find it interesting that we rely on technology when I find myself questioning the accuracy and quality of it to begin with.
It amazes me how we rely on it so much that when it fails us we have no idea how to recover.
Cross your fingers that the overhead projector in class doesn't turn on this afternoon. t&c;
JESSICA MILLER IS A JUNIOR PUBLIC RELATIONS AND JOURNALISM MAJOR AND IS A BUSINESS MANAGER FOR THE t&c.;
