Voices From Afar

I'm not sure how this happened, but the Luddite in me is all but gone. It seems I'm a techno geek of the worst variety--you know the type, the ones who are all hooked up to Blackberry, Outlook, computers and gadgets synching as if by magic, so a small glich means absolute catastrophe.

Most of you know what a musicphile I am, added to the list of 'philes' next to my name. And that this, long held obsession is all about my Ipod. Now the sad part of this tale is how much an ignoramus I am about technology in general. One small click, which I'm never too timid to make, and somehow I've erased all sorts of information that took hours to amass and document. I've done this once to my Outlook, much to my Computer Person's amazement. He insisted it was impossible to lose all that info, therefore he would search my hard drive for all of it, and of course I had, somehow, zapped it all away. This is a terrible thing for a person, whose entire work is loaded on to one of these machines. And in truth, on a scale of one to ten, my knowledge of the computer is probably about a 7.1, just above average, but hardly savvy enough to fix whatever mess I've created.

What does this mean? It means I spend an inordinate amount of time talking to tech people, mostly men, although when I was on Verizon in LA, most of the tech people were in Bangladesh and a fair number were women.

After receiving the newest Ipod Touch for Christmas, I was, of course, trying to plug it into my system and to upload music for my listening pleasure. Well, for whatever reason, I couldn't download the newest Itunes software, something that is supposedly easily accomplished. After several attempts, I called tech support, speaking to a young man, obviously in his late to early thirties. I could tell he was Caucasian, casual in dress, and tall. During a lull as I rebooted my computer, at his advice, I asked where he was, to which he replied New Mexico. He was, what they refer to as level one in tech support since what he advised me to do erased my entire Itunes from my computer. After a minor freak out, I phoned back, shrieking at the next tech person, who appeared older, still male, and Caucasian. He seemed less insouciant, and more conscientious, which led me to believe he was older. He took me through the steps, and realized I would require the assistance of the second level tech person. He patched me through to another man, older than his last predecessor and still Caucasian. This man, whose name was Don or Dave, was the voice of reason, so reassuring from so far away. He was infinitely patient as I went through the steps he asked, never making me feel stupid when I admitted I had no idea what he was saying.

Of course he was the one who fixed the problem, this man who was in Austin, Texas. During our brief interchange as the computer booted up, and during a lull, we revealed minor details about our lives. I learned he lived in Austin, had a son, and that he worked for Apple as a tech voice on the ends of so many calls like mine. I also learned about his wish for more adventure, perhaps living in a place like New York, which may feel more alive to him than the suburban life he must lead in Austin. Perhaps it's my curiosity about people, but it never fails that these faceless voices on the other end of each of these calls ends up taking on a two dimensional feel as I ask probing questions, in my need to place these people on to some geographical map, of sorts. That is the thing about this life where a caller so many miles away can fix your machine half way across the world, in some cases, and in yesterday's half away across this vast country of ours--this need to be able to place a voice to some geographical area. After laughing about my own technological idiocy, we laughed and then had to say our 'good-byes.' There was just the slightest catch on his end as he wished me well and a 'happy holiday,' this man, who was patient enough to teach me how to fix my own computer. I felt the slightest twinge as I, too, hung up with this stranger. In the end, this weird intimacy I'd just shared with this stranger seemed the summation of our world where all of this technology has brought together such disparate lives. My Ipod Touch is up and running, ready for me to start fiddling around with what music can be loaded.