Aggravation is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “an act or circumstance that intensifies or makes worse.” Every one of us have it and some have it more than others. A lot of time aggravation is caused by those who we are forced to deal with who don’t care enough about what they are doing. One example of this is a letter I received the other day from a famous pharmacy. It stated they regret to inform me that my wife and I had a problem. The problem was the company administered flu shots to us and then sent our personal information to an unspecified third party in error. On the letter was a phone number to call if you had questions. I tried calling it and after fifteen minutes of waiting and hearing the message about how much they care about my call about 30 times I finally hung up. I couldn’t help but think the number was provided so they would know it was a complaint line and they just wouldn’t bother answering it. I am really getting aggravated by all the losses of my personal information.

My personal information has been lost by the Veterans Administration. An employee who just didn’t care enough brought out a laptop with millions of vet’s info and left it on a train years ago. All the VA had to say was they were sorry and would institute more stringent procedures to prevent this in the future. Wait a second, since when did they have so little concern about vet’s data that they would allow a person to take that data out of the facility? Not only that, we have no way of knowing if it was even an accident because nothing seems to be done about it. The employee could have sold the data for a pretty penny and said they lost the computer. This is another example of aggravation. For month I had to monitor all my transactions to make sure no one was using my credit card, bank account etc. I did find someone had stolen my credit information but I couldn’t say if it was taken from the VA data or not.

Then there was more aggravation when I found out my bank had been hacked and millions of accounts and credit card numbers were jeopardized. Again I had to close my credit card and monitor my accounts for years. No one cared about the fact millions of people got screwed. No one looked in the procedures the bank was using to protect their data and therefore we don’t even know if they were using the most secure encryption or not. Some might say they couldn’t have or they wouldn’t be hacked, but I say I just wanted to know if they did their best or they were not careful. If they were not using the best protection then they should be punished. Banks have a duty to try their best to protect their client’s accounts and if they don’t there should be criminal charges and penalties to make up for the trouble caused to the customers. They charge enough fees and we are just supposed to pay them and not complain, but here might be a case when they should pay us.

As aggravating as this was, I thought to myself at least this is probably the end of all this aggravation, but then it happened, my credit card number was being used by someone again and I had to close it and get another. More aggravation. More aggravation was caused to me when a department store I shopped at, Target, announced that millions of their accounts had been hacked. Talk about aggravation here it was in spades. Again I thought I would like to know how well my data was protected, but I guess I never will. It wasn’t very long before the same announcement came from Home Depot another store which had my information. This was a double aggravating whammy. What good is the internet if none of our precious data can’t be protected by those who use it? In the case of the VA it wasn’t even an internet problem but just one of carelessness.

We are told to protect our data and this has become the joke of the century. Our personal data is everywhere and many of the hands it goes through could care less about what happens to it. If this isn’t aggravation what is? In the space of about ten years I have had my personal information stolen or lost at least four times and my credit card information stolen a couple of times. I don’t think I am typical but from what I have seen, I think the average person has had their personal information lost or stolen at least a couple of times in this period, another problem is people don’t always know when this happens until something bad happens and they get aggravated.

But all I have talked about so far is aggravation caused by problems which affect us financially. There are other things which can really aggravate us. Some people say the biggest cause of aggravation is the aggravation caused by family. A good example of this is when children are told not to do a certain thing because it will cause problems, the children think they know better and do it anyway and then all hell breaks loose. Most parents experience this at one time or another. I must say I have been pretty lucky in this area but I have heard so real horror stories from others. People tend to get more angry and aggravated at family members for some reason.

Another aggravating thing is when we have work done and it is not done correctly. How many people have brought their car in for repairs and got it back only to find they still either had the same problem or additional problems. I recently brought my new car back to the dealer because the power seat was making noise. The power seat is hooked up to the computer and moves back and forth automatically when the door is opened for easy access and exit. After I was told it was fixed I went to pick it up and the seat still made noise when the actually control on the side of the seat was used, but it no longer worked with the computer and moved when the door was opened. The car was worse than when I put it in. Aggravating.

For my last aggravating story which I am probably repeating, a man went into a bank which was automated. There was many cash machines and a booth in the center of them with one woman working there. I was behind him on line. He went to a machine and punched in the amount of money he wanted to withdraw. No money came out but a receipt did and it indicated he received his money. Aggravated he went to the woman and told her what happened and her reply was, “impossible.”