Growing up in Nashville, the mere mention of snow has always sparked a flurry of urgency. It was a predictable cycle: schools closed, store shelves emptied, and tales of “snowpocalypse” hit the chat across town. For us Southerners, snow wasn’t just weather – it was an event.
Back in those days, a little dusting could halt our routines. Anyone familiar with our driving skills in snow knows the sight of cars sliding into ditches like reluctant skiers. We couldn’t rely heavily on technology to make up for a lack of practice.
One winter in the late ’70s highlighted the issue for me. Driving a monumental Pontiac station wagon up the infamous “9-Mile Hill,” my mother and I found ourselves, and dozens of others, suddenly stuck. As the snowflakes fell, traffic halted, and we joined the slow slide of cars back down the icy slope. What could have been an adrenaline-filled sledding adventure quickly turned into a search for somewhere warm to wait out Nashville’s version of a storm.
Why didn’t we maneuver our way out of there, you might ask? At the time, our automotive technology was limited to rear-wheel drive with zero guidance from real-time weather apps. And believe me, no smartphone weather alert or GPS was there to warn us when it was time to brave the grocery store’s apparent avalanche of bread and milk panic.
Flash forward to a recent snowstorm as I navigated the same hill in my kids’ Subaru equipped with all-wheel drive and automatic braking assistance. While my winter driving skills have hardly improved significantly, today’s technology made up for those shortcomings. I drove past that same spot where we were once stranded, marveling at how tech smoothed out what used to be a white-knuckle task.
In the business world, technology often gets pigeonholed as strictly a productivity tool when it’s so much more than that. Look at how spellcheck aids those of us who often meander through grammar, or how spreadsheets assist the numerically challenged. Similarly, poor snow drivers might find their salvation in today’s smart cars loaded with features that mitigate the snowy slip-ups of yesteryears.
Reflecting on these advancements begs the question: is tech our enabler or compensator? Over the decades, I’ve witnessed the evolution from compasses and maps to GPS, from typewriters to cloud-based word processors. It’s not just about improving productivity; it’s about offsetting our weak spots, providing new capabilities, and yes, sometimes saving us from a snowy ditch.
So next time there’s a sprinkle of snow in the South, I may not rush home as frantically as before. Technology not only builds our confidence but bridges the gap between human error and smart solutions. As we continue to adapt and grow with these tools at our disposal, the real challenge lies in deciding how best to incorporate them into our daily practices—before the next big snowstorm hits.
JJ Rosen is the founder of Atiba, based in Nashville, TN. Learn more about our technology services at Atiba.
