Technology Frustrations

Computers are an invention that is to make our work easier and faster than the old fashion method of paper, pen and postal service. We can send a message in seconds instead of weeks.

The internet which requires a computer or smart phone to access allows us to share or gain information across the globe, instead of from our local community. News travels in seconds not months.

I use the computer and internet to write this blog. I research the internet for information regarding my sheep and other interests. I have meet wonderful people on the internet, including my awesome husband.

This week I have been putting the financial information together to file the required taxes in the United States. I worked as a bookkeeper, using pen and paper to records business money transactions for others. I learned to use the awkward and frustrating programs that first appeared with computers being used for record keeping. And I have used a computer program for my personal financial record keeping for the past thirteen years.

I procrastinate. I dislike record keeping, so I put off months of record keeping to do in one or two days. Which works out to recording all the transactions in three settings of two days of work at the computer, instead of doing it daily. At tax time is the final push for getting everything entered and starting on the current year. I run the reports and print off necessary information to file the tax return.

This year inputting the last of the receipts into the program, the computer “crashed”. Yes, years of work gone in the blink of an eye. Computer no longer works or runs correctly. The screen of various neon colors and flashes assorted images. It is an old computer. After working hard for me the past seven years, the computer has gone senile. It will rest in peace somewhere, on a shelf in the closet. As with the computer’s current state of “mind” I will be unable to wipe its memory and dispose of it properly. Yes, my faithful computer has become a dust collector for the top shelf in the closet.

Due to my paranoia of someone obtaining my financial information and using stealing what few finances I possess, I have always kept our financial record keeping on a computer that does not ever get to play with the internet. The one used for the internet searches and information sharing never gets to know my financial records keeping.

I did contemplate returning to my roots of paper and pen to record all my financial expenses and income and miscellaneous records. The thought of how much time and work is required in keeping track of expenses and income is with such a method. I would not have time to do what I enjoy doing. Yes, the computer does make it easier and faster than paper and pen.

A new era has dawned, I only have one computer now. I realized two years ago, my financial information is on the internet. With everything being paid by auto pay, bill pay and other means. The information is out there somewhere in the great expanse of the world wide web.

So, after an hour spent downloading the program, I am set to enter the entire year of financial receipts and deposits a second time.