So, there is this curious little app that allows you to report where and when cellular calls are dropped. If enough dropped calls are reported, supposedly the carrier will try and rectify the problem. Sounds perfectly logical, does it not? Sounds like it has potential to correct the problem, right? Here's the dilemma: every single time I try to report a problem, the app comes back at me with "You currently have no service." No shitake, Sherlock. That is why I am trying to report a problem.

Interesting how that works out, or doesn't work out - as the case may be. I dig technology. I think mobile phones and all the doo-dads that come with them are the coolest things ever. I also think social media is pretty darn hot. Along with the fascination, though, comes a significant amount of frustration, as dropped calls, insufficient service, necessary reboots, and blue screens of death loom, making themselves known and putting us temporarily out of commission. I am only a meek and mild user. I may be able to influence the way a product should work or share ideas for cool, hot functionalities or continued new product development but I am, alas, not a techie or developer.

I have a little understanding. Little. But that is as far as it goes. So I must rely on those that have a steeper base of understanding than I. I must sit back and wait for the next best thing, the better phone, app, or netpad. And while I am waiting, I am getting better at using the product that is or will be obsolete before the next quarter. Sometimes, thinking about this makes me tired. How can I possibly keep up? How can I, someone who has been playing around on a computer for less than two decades, possibly comprehend or be a part of the next tech evolution? How can I, who about a decade ago was teaching myself how to attach a document to an email as an alternative to faxing, continue to cram tech info into my already crowded brain?

Lucky for me, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Somehow, I am able to grasp snippets of knowledge and add them to the already over-stuffed library in the back of my head. It daily surprises me that my children still suffer through long division and the quadratic equation in their homework. A computer, resting in my palm, does all of that and more. It surprises me that many hospitals are still using paper records, that they have not gone paperless. It surprises me that with all we know and are capable of, we still cannot predict earthquakes or stop flooding waters.

The hot and cool of it all is that we are still subject to life around us, no matter how into technology we get, no matter how savvy we all are, no matter what we learn in school, the waves still break, the creek still rises, and it's still impossible to drive safely in a blizzard. Where will the next year in tech take us? Not the moon, and not to a city at the bottom of the sea. But it will make the world smaller and thus bigger, all the same time. And thank goodness, a crowded brain, somehow, always has room for more.

by rayannethorn