Technology Poem by Paul Reed

Technology exists just to defeat us
No matter how hard we try to grapple
It will always emerge the victor
Like gravity taking on the apple
We desperately left-click and right-click
We press control-alt-delete
But no matter how many buttons we press
We will always taste defeat
Whenever we learn a new technique
To get over a new problem we’ve found
Technology invents a newer problem
To bring us back down to ground
‘Switch it off, then back on again’
Is their oft-heard advice
To solve all of your technical ills
On almost every device
But eventually even that doesn’t work
The screen ‘freezes’ and ‘locks’
Your equipment is gripped in a malaise
And needs a complete detox
Or maybe a major defragmentation
That sounds like it might do the trick
But after you’ve waited about 24 hours
You find your PC is still sick
‘The emails are down’
Is another sorry statement we hear
All messages are stuck in the ether
Lets go to the pub for a beer
How did the technology geeks
Manage to become billionaires
And leave us with this bundle of problems
By downloading all their cares
Onto the likes of poor you and me
Who struggle to sort things out
But lets face it, everybody
We’re on the wrong end of a rout
We bandy about acronyms
Like PDFs and HTMLs
As if we knew what they were
But it still doesn’t ring any bells
Because we are mere pawns in the game
Clicking and typing away
We have all been bamboozled
By the ‘technos’ of the day
We are now slaves to a technology
That doesn’t even work properly
And by the time they sort out the problems
We will all be grey and elderly
So my advice to you at your keyboard
Or waving your phone in the air
Is get yourself off to the pub
Give me five minutes and I’ll join you there