Verizon failed and NJ’s addiction withdrawal began

This week, Verizon customers experienced a huge service failure and a lot of anxiety. The service failure was on Verizon’s end. But the anxiety is our fault.

On Wednesday, many Verizon customers across New Jersey and beyond were receiving SOS messages, and their phones were acting wonky. Tens of thousands of customers couldn’t make calls and went without data services.

Verizon owned it.

“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” a company spokesperson said in a statement. “They expect more from us.”

By late Wednesday night things were back to normal.

We have grown so accustomed to things working properly and speedily just as they should. We feel entitled now. This is just one example of technology that was developed to make our lives easier, being taken away even for a few hours and our first-world existence crumbles.

Read More: Why are Verizon customers experiencing service outages in NJ?

Is it technology’s fault we let ourselves get this enamored with it?

I’m old enough to recall a childhood where there was no texting, no social media, no internet. If you wanted to call someone, you needed the patience of waiting for them to be home.

You didn’t think about it because there was no other way. Technology has shortened our attention spans and distorted our view of our own importance. Even if it’s done grudgingly, you have to admit we were more peaceful without it.

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