Do I feel empowered?

The ubiquitous of IT and its far-reaching capabilities that penetrated in every aspect of our lives have posed many questions in its role as an empowerment abler. We do not need to think too much about IT in order to identify its characteristics and components that have facilitated and generated feelings of empowerment for example, I have control over access to a vast amount of information. However, further reflection on the previous posting that highlighted the concerning aspect of the way in which Gmails operates behind unsuspected users and what I have experienced with my broadband provider last week led me to consider that the unknowns are challenging and threatening the feeling that I have of empowerment.

As my broadband contract was close to an end, I called and spoke to a very friendly customer service to discuss my options. As a valued customer, I was offered a deal but I wanted to compare it with other providers before taking it. I was told that the offer would expire in 7 days and hence I needed to make a decision and call back. Afer two days, having compared the prices online, I decided to renew my contract, so I called. Then, I was told that the offer was no longer available and the price has risen. I was questioned why I had not taken the offer there and then as it was my fault. After reading the note on their system and my explanation, the customer service accepted the fact that there had been a mistake on their part and I have been misled as holding an offer for 7 days is apparently not possible due to a price change. Despite that, they were unable to offer the same original deal. I had to repeatedly argue my case and I was finally given a credit to make up the difference. Until that credit note was offered to me, meant that I had to pay the price for being misled. It did not make much sense to me and I felt rather powerless, the unknowns were challenging my feeling of empowerment.

Unknowns exist and will always, but I had a feeling of empowerment, facilitated by the Information revolution. Perhaps this is fallacious?