The trouble with technology

It seems very apt that I should open with that line for my latest blog post given everything that has gone on lately. In fact over the past week or so I’ve been unfortunate enough to have three very expensive pieces of technology break on me.

My Car

My iPhone

My Camera
All in the space of a week. My car has developed an indeterminate fault that requires the garage to diagnose it. My iPhone has developed a fault where the screen fails to operate and my camera has developed a fault wherby the mirror assembly is shafted and would cost near enough £200 to repair.

I am of course sat here now waiting for the next item of technology to break, but it does raise an interesting point about reliance. All too often in my job I hear the phrase “You don’t realise how much you need something until it breaks” due to people becoming reliant on technology, It’s an expression I never believed until recently, or at least, never half believed.

Of course with the camera being irreparable without prohibitive cost, this leads me with the option of having to replace my darling little baby 30D and insuring it. My iPhone breaking means it has to go off and be replaced / repaired as I can’t repair it myself, and of course my car has “a fault”, meaning that no matter how hard I try to diagnose, I can’t find it, and I’m reasonably competent with engines and electrical systems. If I could repair each and everyone one of these myself (and I stress that I probably could repair my camera, if I ordered the parts, tools, and had an antistatic clean room to do it in) it wouldn’t be so bad. I wouldn’t “miss” it as I would know that I could repair it.

In the case of my iPhone, it’s gone off somewhere in Tamworth, leaving me completely cut off from the rest of the world when I’m out, although this is a slightly pathetic thing to say, I need my e-mail on the move. I really do! Not having access to emails is stupidly prohibitive and I will firmly maintain that once you get a smartphone that is capable of receiving email, you will never ever go back to a regular phone.

And now we’re onto the camera. Do I loose it for a month and get back a camera that, whilst repaired, will never function in quite the same way? Yes I know that cameras are supposed to be resilient et al but the last time my camera went in for repair, it came back with a new pentaprism, but has under metered the light ever since, meaning I have to slightly over expose every image. When the camera comes back, I can be assured that I’ll be able to see out the viewfinder, but it means that there could be another issue. Similarly the replacement camera is £635 and of course I was too stupid to insure it when I got it.

I’ve become so reliant on these bits of technology that I cannot bare to be without them! True I should have insured certain things, and for me and photography, having a “spare body” is always worth having. The trouble with technology I guess is that we use it. I know it sounds silly but we really do use it. A Phone now is never just a phone, it has apps and email and extensions and things and doo dahs etc etc . A car is no longer merely a form of transport, it now has electronics, entertainment, it becomes a central part of our lives where we can get angry, relax or enjoy ourselves, and of course, a camera is not just a camera, for me it’s a livelihood, it gives me pleasure, it stops me spending a lot of money on other things and gives me great opportunities, it’s not just a camera, it’s my night out or weekend off.

The trouble I have with technology, is that I use it for exactly what it’s intended, and I get so used to having it.