Tech struggles are REAL

One of your classmates noted in a participation log that tech struggles are real.

I am here to confirm to you all: Yes, yes they are!

If I may break through the fourth wall (or maybe better in this case to say “pull back the curtain”) and share some of my process in this class … well, the tech struggles are REAL.

I’d like to think that I’m good with tech. I was using computers in the late 1980s, creating art, programming HyperCard stacks, etc. I was on email in 1991. I remember using FTP services to upload/download attachments, with fussy file naming conventions. I hand coded websites in html. All of that.

Still, the reality of my every day is that I’m not on Pinterest/Instagram/LinkedIn/X/every-other-platform daily, and even when I’m on the platforms I’m consuming more than anything else. New features come and go, the platforms themselves evolve quickly and are often unstable, and then each summer I get to this class and I have to set everything up again and figure it all out.

Folks: Tech struggles are REAL.

If by some miracle I’ve made it look easy, well … can I get a badge for that? Because each week I’m setting up tools again, fussing with features that allow people to join groups, clearing out old posts, setting up demos. And the tools are always changing, sometimes dying, sometimes being born. I miss Twitter’s good ol’ days, and I posted updates there a lot. It was a great hub! But no one wants to be there since the algorithms changes and a lot of the content took a turn for the more toxic. LinkedIn has really upped its game, but it’s a real-name professional platform, so we don’t want to use it in that way. Instagram just doesn’t work in that same way, even though it offers hashtags. Each week it’s a mess of setting up, testing out, copying over, etc. And I struggle.

That’s all. I just wanted to validate the struggle for everyone. If you’ve had moments of “why won’t this embed/upload/link/whatever” … we’ve al been there.