All Psyched Up: Technologically Handicapped

By Dr. Linda Hancock on July 19, 2025.

I have a funny story to tell you this week. Well, it wasn’t funny when it happened, but it didn’t take long for me to see the humour in it.

I have always thought about my body as being merely transportation for my brain. Sports and physical activities have never been at the top of my priority list and frankly I spend most of my life thinking, reading and doing cognitive processing. Technology is also not my expertise.

So, when something practical occurs, I often just, “don’t get it” and end up asking for help.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, my internet went down and I called my son in Saskatoon who advised me to call the provider. I was instructed by the technician to look for a white tower with a light on the front. Unfortunately, it was under my desk against the wall in a location that was not at all convenient. Because of my escalator accident last year and chronic pain in my knees it was a real sacrifice for me to crawl under the desk, but I made it only to be told that I needed to stick a pen in the back of the tower.

I crawled out, got the pen and again experienced serious pain while crawling back under the desk to insert the pen into the tiny hole at the back of the tower. It didn’t work! Next, I was told to get a toothpick. My third crawl was successful but now I had serious physical pain to deal with.

Then the provider said we had to reboot the television and asked me to get my remote. Because I haven’t watched tv for seven years, I didn’t know which of the four was the right one. We exchanged photos and then, without success pushed buttons and tried what she called “diagnostics. I am usually a calm person, but this long ordeal was weighing on me. I explained that I really didn’t care if the tv ever worked but was told that we really needed to do this as it was part of my “package”! In frustration, I glanced down and was surprised to see that the unit was unplugged!

Back to my office. It was good to begin work again but next came a paper jam. I reached behind the printer to open the door at the back not realizing that a number of short cords would cause disaster. The camera from the top of my screen, one speaker and my mouse all fell to the floor, behind the desk where they were unreachable. Luckily I have a “grabber” which retrieved the mouse that was broken so I ordered a new one to be delivered the following day.

So, now I was back to decades-old techniques with pen, paper and phone in order to work with clients.

The following day I got the new mouse and was thrilled. I installed the tiny wireless plug into the tower and found that now the arrow worked but when I typed, there weren’t any letters that showed up on the screen. Back to my son in Saskatoon. We finally figured out that I needed to have the little thing-a-ma-hooky for each mouse plugged into the two tower ports in order to move the arrow and see what I was typing.

I remember when we were first told about how wonderful our lives would be once we all had computers. We would save paper, time and effort. Is it just me, or did I misunderstand?

When things work, it’s great but when they don’t, I am hooped! I have a funny feeling that I am not alone when it comes to technology.

By the way, you don’t need to worry about me. My eldest grandson came to my condo today and has made a plan to get longer cords and re-organize my office. No more crawling under the desk. Yeah!

So I guess you could say that my very best “connection” is with my grandson!

Dr. Linda Hancock, the author of “Life is An Adventure…every step of the way” and “Open for Business Success” is a Registered Psychologist who has a private practice in Calgary. She can be reached by email at office@drlindahancock.com

15
-14