subject: Overcoming Computer Woes and Remaining Sane [print this page] Overcoming Computer Woes and Remaining Sane
Unfortunately, if you find yourself getting angry with either your personal computer or the internet, the situation is not likely to change without adopting a whole new thought process towards what are usually to you frustrating situations in processing data. There are a lot of people out there who harbor 'computer resentment' so if you're among them you are not alone. Often such people respond with irritation at the slightest thing going wrong, even something as trivial as not immediately being able to locate the pointer.
What steps then should one take to overcoming what I call 'computer rage'? First of all, simple troubleshooting should help things out dramatically. Many computer users will spend a great deal of time in anger only to find out that it was their fault after all- not the computer's. This realization usually comes as a begrudged relief or a short-term truce. But if we can eliminate, from the very onset of a problem, of whether it was the fault of the individual or not, we have come a long way.
Patience consoles anger, and reflection stimulates patience. So if we take a moment to look at the problem to at least eliminate the possibility of our mistake, we begin to see the problem more objectively and less personal. Often we take the designer's shortcomings as personal, as if they were insulting our intelligence. If we can just see the problem in isolation, it eliminates this personalized anger.
The digital age is as full of flaws and design weakness as any other past technological revolution has shown to been. The idea that the computer revolution would be perfect and save us from all sorts of toil and drudgery was nothing but a pipe dream.
