Earlier this Summer I wrote about an incident where Tom managed to pocket dial me during our biggest handbells performance of the year, you can read it here https://hereiam.church/technology-betrayal-the-pocket-dial/.
Building off of this topic from June I’d like to add another experience I have had where technology doesn’t work according to plan.
Earlier this month I had to be at the airport at 6am for an early flight. Wanting to ensure I gave myself enough time to get to the airport I set multiple alarms from 3:45 to 4:15am. I triple checked to make sure these were all set before laying down to go to bed.
Even though I knew these alarms were set I still woke up multiple times in the middle of the night in panic, thinking that I didn’t wake up in time. Each time I checked my phone in the night I saw that I still had plenty of time before my first 3:45 am alarm went off.
The next time I awoke though caused a stir of panic, it was 4:40 and none of the alarms had gone off. To my dismay I saw that the alarms I had all set had no sounds associated with them.
Now I do not know why Apple even has the options to set a “silent alarm,” or why it was activated in the first place, but I did not have time to fret as I had to quickly get my things together to make the trek to the airport.
Thankfully I randomly woke up at that time and was still able to make the flight in the nick of time, but this tech mishap caused a lot of panic in the moment.
There are a couple of lessons learned from this experience. First, phones don’t have to be used for everything. After complaining to my friends about my phone alarm not working multiple times in one week, one of them gave the recommendation of getting an alarm clock. For only $14.99 all my worries could go away of not being woken up on time. Not only would it work at the same time every day, but it also has a battery backup in case the power goes out. Some problems don’t require fancy tech solutions, the “old fashioned” way works perfectly fine.
The second lesson is that we are incredibly blessed to have technology tools that serve so many purposes. Things that used to take multiple systems and devices are now all rolled into one. My main alarm clock is also my main form of communication, a device I play games on, and a place I do most my reading. Living in this age of technology where so many resources are at our fingertips is a sight to see.
Technology plays a huge role in our lives nowadays, but we do not need to tie ourselves to the usefulness of these tools. Sometimes, and more often than not, the old way of doing things is a perfect solution, especially when wanting to wake up on time.
Written by Will York
