Tech is great - until fails!

We've all been there. Blue screens of death, lifeless batteries and data wiped before its time. Technology just never seems to work when you need it the most.

1. Printers. Don’t even get me started. Printers are something I personally would never buy. Why? Because they never work and especially at the times you need it the most, those in the journalism suite at NUI Galway would know this best. Perhaps sometimes a printer even fails on you as you’re minutes away from a live show and trying to print out scripts for the anchors and director. But, luckily there are engineers out there to fix that problem quicker than Monaghan getting knocked out of the GAA playoffs. An average Joe, like myself, would just give it a swift kick in the hope it will cop on and do its job.

2. Another piece of technology that fails when you need it? Your recorder. Yes, I mean after you’ve interviewed people for an important documentary and with no fault of your own your data gets eaten by an overpriced card reader bought by that same Monaghan man waiting for Sam McGuire Cup.

3. The next device we all use, whether we want to or not, is an alarm clock. It’s a wonderful way to start the day when you wake up in a frantic hurry after your alarm clock decides it wants to sleep in too and not go off at your requested time.

Okay, maybe we can’t blame technology entirely for that one. You could have set the wrong time while you were falling asleep or the other classic mistake setting your alarm for 7pm when you really need it set for 7am. Been there, done that several.

4. I’ll be the first one to admit it. I love my beautiful, coral iPhone 5c. It’s an addiction - a sick addiction, and I know I’m not alone. But how come the geniuses at Apple and Google haven’t invented a phone that doesn’t need to be charged.

You’ve been there: sitting on a long bus journey alone and that evil message comes up “10 per cent of battery remaining.” Oh crap, there are no power outlets in this bus and I’ve left my portable charger at home (or more embarrassingly perhaps you used all of its power already). Does this actually mean I have to sit back, relax and look out at the beautiful Irish scenery that most of us could take for granted? How did they ever survive in the 20s!?

5. Don’t even get me started on computers. It fires me up when I’m writing a paper on Microsoft Word and I ignore the reminder saying my laptop is about to die because I’m thinking of a really academic thought that’s going to change the world. You’re on page 9 of a 10 page paper then BOOM. Your laptop goes black. It’s dead, hello darkness my old friend.

Luckily the Google gods have invented Google Docs, so that problem hasn’t happened to me in a while. I encourage you to use it as well. Oh, wait has this article turned into an ad?

Alright that rant is over. But it’s true. We’ve come so reliant on technology despite it failing us time after time. Well, I have anyway. Is it our fault though? Think about it, you couldn’t just handwrite a paper and turn it into a professor, that would surely earn you a solid D-. And, could you imagine a life without your phone? That would amount to blasphemy, Siri is a lifesaver!

Technology does have its perks though, I know that. But sometimes we just take it for granted until … *computer goes black.*