By JJ Rosen, Atiba Founder & CEO. This article originally appeared in The Tennessean.
Frustration has set in.
After nearly a year of pandemic-life, it’s understandable why anyone would be at their wits’ end. Trapped at home, worrying about everything from work to school to whether it’s safe to go to the grocery — it’s enough to put all of us on edge.
That’s why I wasn’t completely surprised when I walked into our home office to find my normally easygoing wife having a serious argument with our laser printer.
After half an hour of rebooting, downloading new printer drivers, and reciting tech-god prayers, she was no longer messing around.
No matter how much she chastised the machine, it refused to budge. With its blinking red lights and random beeps, it seemed to almost take joy in taunting her as it held its ground. She was fuming as she demanded that it print the one-page document she needed.
When tech behaves badly
“Tech rage” has always been common, even in more mellow times.
Whether it’s cursing your computer out or physically assaulting it, who among us has never felt their anger boiling over when a piece of technology fails?
As an IT consultant, I have both witnessed tech-rage and suffered from it myself here and there. Much like its more notorious cousin “road rage,” tech rage can summon up intense feelings of anger that we all know are illogical, but nevertheless are very real.
