High-Tech Resilience

I am just now emerging from a very painful, protracted technology meltdown. Despite having taken care of full-proof double backup, problems occurred which erased large amounts of important data.
What struck me is the number of sympathisers who used exceptionally loaded words to describe how they had reacted under similar circumstances: `I went crazy’, `I really lost it’, `I felt like jumping off a cliff’ were some of the colourful phrases I encountered. What words would you have used?
We each have our own, unique `resilience map’ which defines the areas of lesser or greater resilience we may possess. Sanjay may be able to take in stride talk of potential layoff in his workplace, whereas Rebecca may turn into an anxious wreck with even the slightest hint of such organizational changes. Conversely, Sanjay may be rendered completely helpless when rushing his kid to the hospital’s Emergency Ward, whereas Rebecca might demonstrate exemplary resilience and presence of mind under the same set of circumstances.
Here’s an important survival skill. Now that so many of us are so highly technology reliant, it is crucial to develop a very specific, new brand of resilience: the `high-tech resilience’. The hi-tech systems we have come to rely upon for both our professional and personal lives are bound to suffer from occasional hiccups, moodiness or overall collapse. And we humans need to learn to maintain our resilience as we encounter these technological challenges. We need to learn to handle these situations with calm, perspective, patience, flexibility and yes, sometimes humour. It isn’t always easy, but it’s becoming an ever more important part of keeping sane and healthy in the new technological landscape of our lives.
And me? Well, I am pleased to say that I was able to maintain my equanimity throughout this ordeal, and certainly I responded much better this time than the last time my technology let me down. Here’s to building more high tech resilience… for the next time!

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