Human Archives

The First Signs of Spring… Sort of

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We’ve had an unusually cold and rainy March. Though with climate change, the unusual and unpredictable is becoming the new norm. One day, the temperatures remained chilly, hovering around freezing and lower. Yet, the sun broke through the dreary, gray clouds. I seized the opportunity to rake up the leaves in part of the front yard. Most people rake their leaves in the fall, but I’ve adopted the practice of leaving them as cover until spring to help the plants, soil, and small creatures through the winter.

Much to my surprise and delight, several new shoots were doing their best to break through. Even a week later, they’re still pale green, evidence of their etiolated state. However, I’ve noticed more shoots appearing and growing bigger and taller. Some have already succumbed to another round of frost. I woke up to a light dusting of snow everywhere last week. Others have tumbled over from some curious, and curiously hungry, squirrels. Yet, they’re still determined to make an appearance. This makes me feel hopeful about the regenerative and resurgent energy of spring.

I also have a small patch of crocuses. I planted them about 2 years ago, but I have yet to see one emerge. Though I can see shoots and the bright, tightly budded yellows and purples, the flower never emerge. I can’t figure out if the plants are damaged, or if the rabbits and squirrels continually nibble them. Ever since I was small, crocuses have always been an early sign of spring for me. I suppose they might be an early sign of spring eating for the animals. Even though I don’t get to enjoy the crocus flowers, I feel heartened to see some signs of new life after a long, cold, and somewhat snowy winter.

Despite the cold, gray, and irrational weather, I enjoy the vigor of spring energy. The plants and animals are all determined to carry on as though the sunshine and warmth is coming. I, too, participate in this belief. I refuse to wear my puffy, winter coat, even when it’s freezing. Instead I layer up, grumbling and huffing, in an attempt to stay aligned with the spring spirit.

We’re expecting more rain this week, but with temperatures closer to double digits. Slowly inching our way into the new season. Hopefully we can enjoy some nice weather before the heat waves start.

True Confessions

Customer Service Woes

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Late last year I upgraded my smartphone to one of the latest and greatest Pixel models. Since I never had any issues with the previous two pixel phones, I wasn’t anticipating any issues. However, less than 3 months in, the phone started to freeze. Read last month’s blog “The Smartphone Dependency.” Though the problem was diagnosed and deemed irreparable in about a day, the next steps took weeks.

After confirming fundamental damage with the designated repair shop, the troubles began. The repair shop updated my service ticket with the information for the replacement order to continue directly with Google. What followed was weeks and weeks of phone calls, emails, automated verifications, and lots of waiting. To start, even receiving a callback took days, despite the support window estimating the time as less than 1 minute. I had to go through the form several times to even get a callback.

Each time I spoke with an agent, it seemed like there was progress to creating the replacement order. After several calls, and no replacement order generated, one agent discovered there were two orders for me causing problems on their end. He resolved that issue and assured me the notification email would arrive shortly. Days later, I called again.

This agent said he would call me back after reviewing case notes. The call back arrived, hours (days?) later around 4am. Needless to say, I missed the call. After more emails with no replacement order, I called again. The agent confirmed my call back information in case of disconnection and put me on hold to review the file. We got disconnected and there was no call back. Even worse, I couldn’t request another call back because the current call was still in progress. Then, more emails.

I requested another call back. This time the agent successfully placed the replacement order. Even before reaching that point I had to ask the agent to review the notes carefully. He was asking me to send him the receipt for the orginal order, even though it ordered directly through Google! I told him the order was already on my record. Yeesh! At this point, I remained on the phone with the agent while confirming the replacement order email to finally complete the next step of the process.

To date, the new phone arrived within a day. I’m busy transferring data. Fingers crossed for a better outcome.

Digital Dilemma

Crossing the AI Divide

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Now that so many of us are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) regularly, discerning when to disclose this information is tricky. In some ways AI seamlessly inserted itself into our lives, upending, disrupting, and transforming even the most basic tasks.

For example, it’s likely many of us use AI to assist with writing. However, AI may be involved in different stages of this process and to varying degrees. These stages could include creating a first draft of a work based on a prompt or a review of something existing. AI might write, edit, and finalize an entire work. However, there would have to be some human intervention, even if it was a minimal amount to adjust prompts. Is disclosure required for all of these uses?

Sometimes at work, I draft an email or message. Then I use Copilot (Generative AI tool) to help achieve the right tone, make sure the statements are clear, and check if anything might sound confusing. Other times I might use Copilot to draft an Executive Summary or Conclusion for a document I wrote. Copilot is terrific at providing high-level succinct summaries. It’s perfect for an Executive Summary and Conclusion.

But do I need to disclose that, especially if I’m proofreading and making final edits? And if so, how and when? And in which ways does using Copilot differ from doing a task I might normally have to do, or would potentially delegate to a student? In my mind the big difference is that Copilot can do it instantly with a relatively high level of accuracy.

Other organizations might use AI as Chatbots to provide automated assistance to customers. In some cases, this information is readily available. As soon as a chat opens a message appears alerting the customer that they’re communicating with a Chatbot. I find it’s easy to know when I’m communicating with a Chatbot, even without disclosure. In my experience, most Chatbots have a hard time understanding any question that isn’t about something really basic. Even then, misinterpretations are easy.

As we all become more familiar using AI, I’m hoping more guidelines and practices will emerge. Some places are starting to require labels for AI-generated content, especially images. However, as AI becomes better at replicating human work, discerning the difference will become more difficult. Without guidelines, the line between human and AI may become blurred beyond recognition.

True Confessions

Glad I Grew Up When…

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I think every generation goes through a period of nostalgia when they reminisce. When they can look around at all the changes. The dramatic changes, like the way smartphones have fundamentally altered our habits. Or how social media has completely changed how we interact and communicate with each other. They can observe these things, shake their head and say, I’m glad I grew up when…

Last week, a bit under the weather, I had one of these moments. From a young age, I always had a strong love for books. Paper books, because when I grew up, that’s all we had. Some people ventured into books on tape (yes, cassette tapes), but we didn’t have audiobooks, ereaders, or people reading books to us in little YouTube videos. We had paper, words, and sometimes some illustrations. That was enough back then.

During a chat with my mom she asked how I was feeling. She remarked when I was sick as a kid, I never watched much television, preferring to read instead. However, I would have watched TV all day, except watching game shows and soap operas got boring. This was before we all had unlimited access to shows through Netflix or other platforms. Cartoons were only available a few hours a day at certain times. And even then, options remained limited. Had I been a sick kid at home with Netflix I may have remained ill all through middle school.

Reading articles about Gen-Xers and getting some good flashbacks watching “Stranger Things,” (whenever I want, I might add), I’ve come to appreciate the limited options we had. I’m glad I grew up when the pace of life was slower. When we got to experience boredom, real boredom, because there wasn’t anything good on TV forcing us to go outside, hang out with other people, and get creative.

Mostly, I’m glad I grew up during a time where “street smarts” meant just that, learning how to navigate the physical world. Thinking about the cyber and digital dangers awaiting today’s children is terrifying. Even in your own bedroom you may not be safe from predators and bullies. And the limitless choices and ability to customize anything and everything is also damaging. It’s probably impacting us in ways we can’t even begin to understand.

Digital Dilemma

Disconnection with Close Connection

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Perhaps one of the greatest ironies about having so many communication options is the way it impacts close connections. Growing up we had three main forms of communication: telephone, snail mail, and in person. Long distance was extra challenging because phone costs were high, even for calling another county in the same state. Mail was inexpensive, but could take a while. For close connections, we relied on meeting in person.

These days I see people sitting in close proximity to each other communicating with their devices. This is even when they are close enough to speak to each other. I also notice frequent, inexpensive communication methods delaying, or filling in for, in-person meetings. Perhaps the most difficult thing to understand is people ignoring, or side-lining those close enough for real-time meetings, in favor of spending time on a device communicating long distance. Or even sometimes, perhaps more often than I think, people are turning to AI companions.

In the last year I’ve read several articles about younger people turning to AI companions for “dating” rather than try their luck in the real world. Or even with one of the many dating apps available. Having survived decades of dating, the good, the bad, and the ugly, part of me can’t blame these decisions. Real world dating involves a lot of perseverance, effort, and building up the stamina to deal with rejection. Plus it can get expensive.

However, all of these experiences are ways for us to build skills in communication, especially how to understand non-verbal cues. It provides a valuable way for us to learn about human connection, social interaction, and lots of opportunities for self-discovery. I don’t see how any of these things are possible with so much digital communication.

First of all, AI companions agreeable, complimentary, and affirming by design so we feel compelled to keep messaging. While this may sound idyllic, it’s not actually helping anybody prepare for life where we are continually confronted with all sorts of different opinions and mannerisms, many of which may challenge our own. Secondly, digital communications provide us with an opportunity to review and edit, or wait, before replying. Verbal conversations are dynamic and happen fast. Sometimes I say things too quickly or something I say isn’t received well. But this is also an important part of the learning experience to build awareness of the close connections around us.

Digital Dilemma

The Smartphone Dependency

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I replaced my smartphone in December. My previous one was still working, but it was getting old. Some of the features weren’t working properly. I had concerns about staying protected against cyber threats with the older technology. Eventually I caved in and bought the latest and greatest.

The transfer was smooth. Within a couple hours of unpacking my new phone, it was set up and ready. Everything felt and looked like my old phone, except it worked better. Plus it has more memory so I’m not at the limit anymore. However, within a couple of months, things started to happen. As though the universe was sending me a strong signal to stop using and relying on my phone so much, it started getting bunky.

First problem is the phone freezes. Since I often rely on my phone for the time this resulted in some near missed appointments. The first few times it happened, I checked my phone to see how much time I had between meetings. I was completely unaware the time wasn’t updating. Then I would happen to glance at the tiny, almost invisible clock on my computer and realize it was actually a lot later than I had thought. Each time the freezing happens, I have to restart the phone.

It’s so unpredictable that I started wearing a watch again. Sometimes the phone freezes multiple times in a day and sometimes not at all. Another thing is a weird, staticky pattern taking over the phone display. This also requires a restart, provided I can see enough of my screen to do that. In short, the phone is unrepairable and getting replaced.

However, the threat of possibly losing my phone contents, or the use of my phone even temporarily, got me thinking about my dependency on it. The tricky part is that even if I didn’t want to use my phone so much, sometimes there aren’t good alternatives. Everything has slowly morphed into being part of mobile devices and digital culture that weaning away from that can be challenging.

Before going digital I relied on disparate sources. For example, I used a planner, the paper kind. I still sometimes reminisce about the Quo Vadis Sapa. Point being, there’s danger in having the smartphone as a one-stop-shop. When the phone goes, everything goes with it, even if you have a good backup the recovery can still be hard.