Differences
I was amused today as I listened to my wife tell me about how she fixed the dishwasher, something that historically we would have quickly called the 1-800-fix-me-now number and paid the $125 “show fee” to have an incredibly talented maintenance guy take the thing apart and then tell us the simple fix, making us feel incredibly foolish (this one would have) or replacing a fairly expensive part and then putting the number on speed dial for the inevitable 2-3 years before calling again.Â
Our problem this time was that the soap tray wouldn’t pop open during the wash cycle, and thus the powder turned to ooze and the dishes got quite hot with no soap on them as they were washed. Instead of calling the maintenance guy, my wife went out to the GE web site and looked up the FAQ (frequently asked questions) sheet for dishwashers and found that when the soap tray doesn’t open, something may be leaning up against it preventing it from swinging to that open position. Amazingly, we had a lasagna tray in the bottom rack that could easily have been the cause of our soap tray malfunction, and sure enough, once moved, the dishwasher was back to normal operations.
I’m very grateful that my wife saved that $125 or more (though she mitigated that gratitude by offering to spend it immediately on other things), but more importantly, I’m proud of how she figured this out and embarrassed that I didn’t point her in that direction or look it up myself with me being the supposedly high tech, web literate, internet savvy guy that I am. Equally as importantly is the difference that is emerging in how my wife and I use the internet and communicate with our friends and colleagues. Here’s a very quick run down:
Category                                    My Wife                             Me
Primary Use                                 Games                                 News
Networking                                 Facebook                            LinkedIn
Location                                      Kitchen                               Home Office
Preferred Method of Dialogue     Text                                     Email
These are just a few of the differences and each one reflect who we are. For my wife, the internet became a primary means to connect to me amidst all my travels (instant messaging and email) and then later became a fun way for her to stay in touch with her Mom and her sisters (games – every Sunday night). That means of staying in touch turned into a means of entertainment (on line games) and a means of social networking with family and friends (Facebook). For me, it’s always been the same, which is a means of staying in close contact with friends and business colleagues anytime, anywhere and through many different paths (email, instant messaging, chat, IP voice, webex, and blogs). For me, it’s a means to an end - that level of connectivity that couldn’t be achieved before connectivity became so easy with the internet. For her, I think it’s an end to a means – that level of entertainment that makes connectivity so much more meaningful and fun.
Regardless of the differences that are emerging between my wife and I on the use of the internet, I want to go back and reiterate how impressed I am that she went to the web when I would have made that call. In fact, when I got back a couple weeks ago from an extended trip, I had 4 things that needed to be done, and sure enough, I made 4 phone calls. All were done over the period of 10 days, and it’s very questionable as to whether even if I had tried (with support of the FAQ pages on numerous web sites) that I could have self-performed more than one or two of those tasks (ok – the window washing I could have tried but it would have been a serious risk with me up on those 30 foot ladders). So now I have to add one more category to differences noted above:
Category                                    My Wife                                  Me
Get Things Fixed                        Internet – FAQ                            1-800-fix-me-now
I stand amazed and inspired, and I’m convinced I need to turn over all the fix it stuff in the house to her now. And my pride won’t stand in the way either…I’m never too proud to save money or let others use their talents to solve problems!