If there’s one thing I can state with certainty in 2024, technology is not getting easier. Just about every aspect of our lives, personal and professional, is getting automated, appified and otherwise “wired up” like we were living in a 90’s cyberpunk novel. Many aspects of those landscapes were eerily prescient (hello mega corporations), but there is one trope that you might not have considered yourself to be a part of: “hacking” your own technology to fix a problem or change an outcome. Let’s be clear, when I say “hacking” I’m referring to the more genteel, non-criminal activity of solving a technical need or problem via unconventional and/or creative methodology and materials. At a certain point, lots of people started using the term ironically (or in self-deprecation) when they managed to solve technical issues on their own, sometimes without even understanding how it was done.
Hang on, Neo. You don’t know Kung Fu yet.
Internet purists will lambast me if I don’t post the usual disclaimer, “In order to truly hack something, you need have a full understanding of how that thing works.” In the day and age of YouTube videos on just about anything and everything, it’s possible to find an endless supply of “How to hack (a thing)” and a lot of them are quite good. But many of them are not, so how do you sort out the bad from the good? Well, you can either work for 30+ years as a technology consultant, or you can at least try to get some basics under your belt, at least as far as hacking personal technology is concerned. I’m only going to outline the topics – there isn’t enough space nor attention span to spell it out in full. Not all of these areas of study are compelling – some are hella boring, but these are things that I believe everyone should know at least a minimal amount about in order to be competent, productive person.
- Know how your internet works – do you know the difference between a modem, router, firewall and access point? Wired and wireless? What’s an SSID? Do I have guest WIFI? How do I “reboot” my router? Is Bluetooth the same as WiFi? What’s bandwidth and why is it important (or not)?
- Know the parts of your computer and peripherals – is that USB-C port or a Thunderbolt port? What’s a function key? Is that a power button or a reset button? Is my printer wireless or wired? Whats the difference between “sleep” and “shutdown”? How do I change my ink cartridge? Does my phone have a sim card? Is there a warranty on my device? How would I go about getting it repaired?
- Know who provides your technology – whats the brand or manufacturer of your smartphone? Model? Who provides your email? How do I contact technical support for this bit of software? Do you know who your internet provider is, and what they are supposed to be delivering to you for your monthly internet bill? Is this software free, or do I pay for it? Do I even own this software?
- Understand where your data “lives” – is it on your computer’s internal storage? How do you navigate your device’s internal storage to find things? Is your data in the cloud? Which cloud provider? How do you get access to that data from something that is not your computer or phone? Can you? Is your data backed up? Is it encrypted? Should it be? Who owns my social media posts? Is my private information searchable on the internet?
We are well past dismissing this type of knowledge as something only “nerds and geeks” need to know. Whether we like it or not, we should start thinking about this type of technology savvy on the same level of importance as understanding how road traffic works, managing personal finances and differentiating fact from fiction. Failure to grasp the basic concepts of technology will just add more struggle on top of the regular uphill battle we face everyday.
Image by Bruno /Germany from Pixabay
