General News
20 July, 2026
A Mum's World: Boy oh boy, technology tests patience
Is technology really making life easier, asks Yolande, or are we moving the workload onto our desks, phones and passwords?
Boy oh boy oh boy, I was getting cranky on Saturday while trying to link my Medicare Card to my MyGov account.
Have you tinkered with any of this infuriating mandatory technology lately?
Convenient is not the word I would use to describe the experience.
Any fairly ill-equipped Russian hacker could very easily steal my identity any day of the week, then AI my voice and image to make me appear to say and do whatever they like because I’ve given my birth certificate, passport, driver’s license and Medicare Card details to literally countless organisation who have promised the tightest security to protect my privacy.
Really?
I’ve had my details stolen from at least two of them that I can remember: Optus and Qantas.
So, when the computer bot representing Medicare told me it didn’t believe I was Yolande Grosser and locked me out for 24 hours – even though I have the strongest digital identity – I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Life is too short to dwell on such frustrating struggles, though, isn’t it? Boy oh boy oh boy!
I used to love filling out a lovely long form, popping it in the mail and letting the person at the other end of that transaction do their job.
These days I feel as though the workload is all on my desk, which is actually an electronic device, and it’s a full-time job providing evidence that I really exist.
Therefore, when Kym suggested some help collecting and cutting wood just out of town, I knew the fresh air would be good for me – and I had to anyway because that firewood keeps me warm.
No high-tech digital devices, apps or AI involved in moving those logs, cutting them into fireplace-sized pieces and plonking them in the trailer.
I made us tea and coffee in our keep cups, put on my coat, boots and gloves and off we went.
Talk about one extreme to the other with the same level of crankiness!
Yes, fresh air, lambs frolicking nearby, and logs to lift, but the lack of safety around the large, life-threatening blade spinning wildly, unguarded, left me speechless.
You know that anger experienced when your child nearly runs into traffic – the anger that is actually fear.
There was a lot of that going on.
Did my husband want to lose all his limbs and widow me?
Was I going to have to call 000 while holding bits of him together as I waited for the medics to arrive?
It took me a while to get over my fury at the danger he was putting his life, and therefore mine, in.
I tried to look displeased for a while, but it really hurt my face and started to give me a headache, so I gave it up to God and just focused on l lugging logs and not looking at the whirling saw blade, praying for safety, since clearly, my husband wasn’t the least bit worried.
Boy oh boy.