Westover: Life Lessons in Technology from the Rogers Blackout

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After the recent power outage, I was making a list to make sure we were prepared for the next eventuality. Flameless candles. Battery Operated Reading Light One of those breadbox-sized power banks that holds its charge for three months and can charge a phone or boil a kettle.

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But while laying the groundwork for Law 2.0, I didn’t anticipate a different kind of interruption. Just as COVID-19 is adept at mutating into newer, sneakier variants, the same is proving to be true for life’s little nasty surprises.

It made me think about how terribly dependent we’ve become on technology that few of us understand.

Remember when your TV got filled with static electricity and you shook your bunny ears? Or did your dad get on the roof with a ladder to “adjust” the satellite receiver? Or when you just gave something a good whack to shake the connection? Those options are no longer open to us.

We’ve gone beyond the individual fix, and now collectively rely on a group of technical experts to reset our proverbial bunny ears in the sky. Even more than that, we have not incorporated “old-fashioned” layoffs because we have deemed them unnecessary.

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I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I had cash in my physical wallet. I spoke to several people last week who were emptying piggy banks to buy a cup of coffee. And I was reminded of my dad’s advice as a teenager: always have a $20 bill somewhere with you… just in case. I will from now on.

Remember when you could deposit a quarter into a pay phone? Or, worst case scenario, make a collect call? I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these previously ubiquitous pieces of infrastructure. The same is true for a phone book made from real paper or a rotary dial that you can plug into a socket. I’m not suggesting that we turn back the clock, but I am nostalgic for simpler times.

Don’t get me wrong, they weren’t always easier.

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Like when the biography of the famous Canadian you wanted to profile for 11th grade history was already checked out of the library, and suddenly you were researching some other historical figure by default. Or when he had to write his essay in French without the benefit of online translation software. Or walk to his friend’s house for advice because his brother was talking on the only phone in the house.

Maybe these mini-trials and tribulations built some resilience. They forced us to look for creative solutions and I am convinced that we had more free time. Now, when our technology, as miraculous as it is, fails us on a grand scale, we throw up our hands and post memes (if we have internet, or run to the nearest Starbucks to do the same if we don’t)… because there is literally no nothing else we can do.

I don’t have the solution, and I certainly don’t want to go back to the days of three channels and perpetual busy signals (remember that?). But for the record, I could get by without autocorrect.

Last Friday’s Rogers blackout underscores that perhaps we should be looking for a happy middle ground (no pun intended)!

Suzanne Westover is a writer from Ottawa.