Technology can bring frustration

Unless one chooses the lifestyle of a hermit, it is nearly impossible to avoid the long arm of automation in this modern world. We've come to depend upon the automated machine to give us cash, wash our cars, clean our pools, serve as a quick way to buy things at the grocery store, answer our inquiries on the phone, and on and on.

There is no question that advances in this field of technology have made our daily lives function much smoother. However, with new developments in automation comes the potential for a new set of frustrations, especially when things don't operate as they should. For these moments, I offer a few rules.

Let's start with that annoying automated voice response that so many businesses use. Since I am not the hermit type, I am resolved that I must learn to deal with it, even if it means that I will never speak to a real person again should I need to use the phone to place an order, make a complaint, renew a membership or just plain obtain information.

I find it infuriating to have to converse with an automated voice as he, she or it recites a list of options from which I must select in order to proceed. I admit there are times that I feel ashamed for interrupting and being so rude to that overly pleasant, faux human phone voice on the other end. To avoid such guilt, I am establishing a rule that all such phone calls must offer at the very start the option for the caller to choose to speak directly to a human representative.

Automated teller machines, better known as ATMs, have been with us a long time, and so have improved tremendously over the years. It is the ATM user who has not advanced. My sister Jan suggested that a rule be enforced for folks who stand before an ATM machine but cannot remember their security code, thus creating a line behind them that looms larger and larger. The person with the temporary memory loss is to step aside and go to the back of the line.

A related rule is for those who opt to use an automated video vending machine such as those provided by Red Box or Blockbuster. They must have the movies desired in mind before attempting to rent a video. If the film is not available, the consumer must step aside and let the next person have a go at it.

Parking machines need to be standardized so that wherever I park, I do not need to learn a whole new system to obtain a parking pass. And speaking of a standardized system, let's establish some universal way for credit card machines to function. Do I swipe or don't swipe, sign or don't sign, press "enter" or "clear," use the stylus or my finger?