We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Technology absolutely make some things easier! There's no argument in that. The invention of the remote control, for example--such a simple device--has changed, and is still changing our lives. I remember way back in the late 1970's, when my family was still a one-television-family, and we had an old behemoth console TV (you know the ones with the carved wood and the magnetic doors to close off the front when people gathered in the living room to socialize withOUT electronics), my dad used to call my mom in from the kitchen, where she was invariably busy with the never-ending duties of being a farm wife and the mother of three boys, to change the channel for him. Believe me, no one was happier than my mother when we finally got a TV with a remote! One could argue that my dad actually had a remote control for our TV, called my mom, but that's a completely separate topic for another blog.

35 years later we are living in a world that was only science-fiction fantasy 50 years ago. Computer controlled cars, effortless vacuuming, 3-dimensional television, and it seems like everything is connected to everything else and every device is expected to do everything. My first Atari game console in 1978 was just that: a game console. A wired game console. I doubt kids today could even fathom being tied to the TV with cables and cords to play games, or having to stay in your bedroom with your door closed to listen to music so you didn't bug your mom.

Earlier this year I bought an Xbox One, touted as the world's first all-in-one entertainment box. And it pretty much does do everything I like to do: Netflix, exercising, YouTube, web browsing, Amazon Prime streaming ... oh, and it plays Xbox games, too. It's amazing how far we've come in the last three decades with infra-red technology and wireless Internet. And it seems as though each new electronic generation becomes more and more all-encompasing.

But there's a downside to giving that much power to a single device. I call it "The Edgar Factor" (if you've seen the 1984 movie "Electric Dreams," you know what I mean). One drop of cold champagne on an overheated circuit and you can kiss your love life good-bye!

This truism manifasted itself last night when I discovered my Xbox locked! Meaning I can't sign into my Microsoft account, which, if you're not familiar with the way the console works, you need to do in order to use Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, even to access games in progress saved under your gamertag.

So before I panic, I log into my account online (it's accessible that way; online, on my phone, via SmartGlass; just not on my Xbox) and enter live chat support. 90 minutes later, after giving a very detailed account of what was happening and doing everything the tech instructs me to do, the account is still locked. And I'm told, "I will turn this over to our Consumer Advocacy Team. This could take up to 3 days but please check your email within 24 hours." So while they say they're working my issue, I'm staring at a $500 piece of plastic, inside of which, just beyond my reach, are all my entertainment accounts.

Please Stand By ...