Technical Difficulties ?

Today at work, a conference call / webinar I was attending got started about 5 minutes late.  BOTH our in-office liaison and the leader of the meeting, dialed in from Ohio, felt the need to verbally blame "technical difficulties" for the delay of the start of our meeting.  That got me thinking ...
are we confusing "technical difficulties" with "technical ignorance" ?

I hear this phrase more and more often, and not just at work.  I hear it on phone calls, at fast food or other restaurants, and even at church meetings where computers or tv/video equipment is being used.

To me, technical difficulties suggests that there is something not performing correctly with whatever technological device the person is using.  This is NOT the same thing as technical ignorance, which suggests the thing not performing correctly is the USER, not the device.

I guess it just sounds better to blame an inanimate object, but if we're honest with ourselves we're not being fair to our technology with this kind of phrase.  We should just own up to our own ignorance and apologize for not having learned how to use whatever technology we're using before this moment in time.

Song Of The Day:
Of course a country song is the best to sum up my thoughts on this subject.  Trace Adkins' song "Don't Lie" is about a broken relationship, but he could just as easily be pleading for people to not be false about "technical difficulties."

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