I think an appropriate apology should address the overall situation, not a particular event. Say you're loading some data over the network, and it's taking unus

I think an appropriate apology should address the overall situation, not a particular event. Say you're loading some data over the network, and it's taking unusually long. You decide to display a message, "sorry that it's taking so long". But what if the user is not even in front of their computer? The intent and effort behind the apology seems wasted. What if the user was on a fast, but metered connection, and the data loaded very quickly, but wasted half of their monthly data package? How do you intend to apologize if you didn't even bother to call the OS or ask the user if it's OK to start a huge download? I feel like blanket apologizing in any, except the most clear-cut scenarios, is going to feel excessive in one way or another. If you're just writing an error message, focus your attention on making it more informative instead.