I offer some thoughts and, hopefully, understanding of a problem that some might think of as a “First World Problem”– namely, the frequency with which things break down in our everyday life and our inability to get the proper and prompt help we need to fix them. This happens primarily in the digital world, including our devices, website functionality, internet connectivity, and –the elephant in the room—our inability to get direct human help from anyone to fix problems or breakdowns in any of these arenas. The result is a toxic feeling of helplessness which is, perhaps, the most toxic of all human emotions. People react to and defend themselves against helplessness in only three ways: 1) they become depressed, 2) they get angry, or 3) they somehow go about making other people feel helpless. I argue that the blame for these breakdowns and for the absence of adequate support and help in our digital world lies with the corporations, the companies, the institutions that seek to save money by reducing funding for Customer or Technical Support.
