Thread Drift

[Crankin]

Does anyone besides me feel like her head is exploding from the increasing pace of technology?
The chance occurence of moving and having new appliances that need at least a PhD to use, installing Nest to run the thermostat, and a change over to Google Mail at work is sending me over the edge.
Some, in fact most, of these things are not computer related. I really feel like I don't know how to use half the things in my home. I just cannot remember, and there is nothing wrong with my memory, except for when it comes to this type of stuff. I am kind of like this with my bike, too. Don't like change, at all! I can feel it if there is one teeny thing off with my bike set up.

[Helene2013]

I love technology...but too much is like not enough.

I just want a cell phone to us a basic calls (read E-calls) and get my music in it. Ipod would have been great with music and basic phone - not a fan of flip phones). Why do we have to have the zillions things in it (trying to fit a computer on a 3'' screen anyway) at a very high cost with high plans almost mandatory (at least for Canada). Why can't we get a simple phone at a decent price?

Why do we have to get a clothes washing machine or dishwashers that has so many different options? Anyway, I always use basically the same setting on most loads.

Even tv and their attachments...way too much for me. Heck! Even my alarm clock is a challenge to move back/forward the time on it! Dah!

I don't mind using it...if someone else sets it for me (like TV with Roku, with our intelligent cable box, name it). If hubby was not here I would not have a third of the stuff as it is too much for my head too.

Ah ... we bought a new Canon wi-fi printer when I got injured in January so I could send the medical papers to my insurance, etc. Our high-end printer does only print. But it worked for about a month on wi-fi. Now...it refuses to work without the USB cable. I tried removing, uninstalling, reinstalling, getting new software, name it... wi fi is active on the printer but all our machines (computers, iphone, ipad, etc.) are not seeing it. Works only with cable. Grrrr So I gave up. So much for technology.

[IBrakeforPastry]

Yes, Crankin, and maybe I'm a skeptical fuddy-duddy, but I also feel much of it is unnecessary, and just something else to break or go wrong. I don't have cable anymore, but I used to enjoy watching HGTV. I would laugh at the appliance commercials with all these gee-whiz features and think "why?" Same with computers. Every time Apple updates their software, my computer slows down even more, and I have to learn new stuff. The salesboy at the store told me my computer was "old" and I should probably get a new one. Things get outdated too fast, there's no continuity, and, if you haven't realized it, you hit a nerve with me. It's going too fast, and we're becoming its slave, not its master.

[Pax]

I'm one of those Apple people who just lost the use of my iphone with the latest update, I'd been having issues before that and spent forever trying to get things resolved with Apple, this was the last straw. I'm going the opposite way now, less and less tech (when I can find it), my only home computer is a chromebook and I just got a simple android phone... still wish it wasn't necessary to have either. I do appreciate the value of modern tech, I just wish it wasn't so complicated and pervasive, I can still barely turn our fancy new oven on.

[Crankin]

I couldn't live without my I Phone, more for work related things, though. I know I use only .5% of the features and the only apps I have are related to email, Facebook, Yelp, etc.
DH sets up everything for me, and like you, Helene, I really don't know anything about how the wireless printers work, blah, blah, blah. We just got ours working at the new place, after a week. It really is the house stuff that just seems silly. No, I do not want to be able to control my washer and dryer from my I Phone! I figured out how to use my new oven for simple baking yesterday, but no way was I going to try the convection oven. I will never use it, but DH thought we "needed" this. I don't like the microwave at all. It has a dial instead of push buttons for some of the set up and figuring out how to set the clock was an ordeal. I think I really do have a problem with changes in the actual physical actions needed to take to complete a task. Everything seems to be taking me longer, like even opening up the veggie drawers in the fridge, because the pull out is on the bottom, not the top.
And the TV, well, we have full cable now. Before we had a combo of digital antenna, cable, and Apple TV. I never learned how to use the Apple TV and there were a few times I wanted to watch a show when DH was gone and I couldn't. He seems to regularly swear at it, when it is not synched or something, so I don't see what the point is. So now, I can turn on the TV and change channels, but that's it. I have never learned how to access the guide, look for movies, or play them. But, of course, there were times a few years ago when I rented a movie (tape) and couldn't watch it, because I couldn't get the VCR to turn on. In my house, it's always some long thing to complete a task, with many options. I hate it.
So, I am not a total Luddite, but the past couple of weeks have made me irritable, most of it stemming from this. The newest thing is, that last night DH set up the Google mail, which stole all of my contacts...

[Pax]

Crankin - my brother has a TV set up that has boxes for HD, streaming, wii, and some sort of gaming console. When my SIL had surgery and I went over to sit with her, we were going to watch some old movie on TCM, neither of us could get the TV to come on, he has four different remotes and things have to be turned on in sequence... we played cards instead.

[Crankin]

So now I will have to get rid of Outlook for my personal email, to get my contacts back. Just because my work got rid of Outlook, Google is assuming lots of things. I had my laptop set up differently before I got this job, so I have options. The contacts are still there (don't know how DH accessed them), but are not showing up in my email. I had to do some emailing for my volunteer work for AMC, which is when I discovered it. This is not a crisis, but just an example of the annoying things that have piled up in the past few weeks.

[emily_in_nc]

Planned Obsolescence.

I watched an amazing video from "The Story of Stuff" a few years ago all about this, and it does make me crazy. Manufactured "needs" and all that. And yet, the "simplification" movement is huge. How is all this crap simplifying our lives?

I used to be the computer guru in our family (Windows not Apple) and helped all my family members with their systems, networks, etc., but now it is all moving past me. I am on Windows 8.1 and have no desire whatsoever to upgrade to Windows 10. I am sure I will at some point because I'll be forced to, but I am not enthusiastic about it. And my stepdad has a wifi printer he can't get machines on his mixed Windows network to "see" and wants my help, and I am so dreading it b/c I have almost no clue about it other than I am good at researching and trying things and being more patient trying different solutions than he is.

Don't even get me started about my Android tablet...very little about it is intuitive to me. Like how the he*l do I copy/paste text? I am so used to Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V on my Windows PCs that it's very hard to train my hands to do otherwise.

Crankin (and others), I share your frustration. I fear this makes us "old dogs".

[Crankin]

Yes, DH sees having all of this stuff (like Nest) as a way to simplify, while I just see it as one more thing to learn. A thing I don't want or need to learn, like algebra! He gets excited about gadgets. Nest will now know when I am heading home and raise/lower the temperature accordingly because it's synched with my I Phone. The test will come one day when I want to shut off the heat and open the windows, or worse, put the AC on.
Funny, my kids are a bit Luddite for their generation.

[emily_in_nc]

Yes, DH sees having all of this stuff (like Nest) as a way to simplify, while I just see it as one more thing to learn. A thing I don't want or need to learn, like algebra! He gets excited about gadgets. Nest will now know when I am heading home and raise/lower the temperature accordingly because it's synched with my I Phone. The test will come one day when I want to shut off the heat and open the windows, or worse, put the AC on.
Funny, my kids are a bit Luddite for their generation.

I wouldn't have even known what you were talking about w/ "Nest" except that we happened to be in Home Depot and Lowe's this week buying stuff for the RV, and I saw it there. Otherwise, I've been so out of the loop on the latest in home improvements for the past few years while we've been traveling and living in foreign countries. Sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

Talk about Luddites, we don't even have Smartphones, only dumb little flip phones to make calls on. I take photos with a digital camera and use my Asus Transformerbook (laptop/tablet hybrid, Windows 8.1) for the internet. I do have the Android tablet as well, but it's an old one (Galaxy Tab 2) and very lightly used. I mainly want to use it for reading e-books and have the Kindle app, but I'm confounded now because the silly Axis 360 app that I am required to use by the library I'm a member of says I already have it registered on six devices (not so, only three; I don't even own six devices), so it won't let me me open a book. (I have submitted a question to them about this but have not received a response yet, hoping Easter weekend has something to do with that....)

SMH...

[shootingstar]

I work for govn't and was disturbed that they decided to make a service only electronic for citizens to log in and submit some info. It pisses me off when at work, some tech evangelist is touting electronic only.

I've had and use my home computer for past 20 years and have gone through 3 computers. My career entails working heavily content management and group training.

What is disturbing that all of us will be required to use technology as the only way to deal with govn't in terms of submitting info. and the cost of technology /changes in use goes up, not down. THis is the last thing we should have to worry about in the last 2 decades or last decade of life.

My partner bought an iPhone a month ago because he was requested to for his subcontract job. I haven't got one yet..there's no point as long as we can Skype one another daily. So I still enjoy using by digital pocket camera (I'm onto my 3rd one since they don't make them last beyond 3-4 yrs. I do take thousands of photos.)

I just blog and that's enough in addition to email for me.

It amuses me when I read about people unplugging for vacation, etc. I'm happy just checking email once a day when I'm on vacation.That's all that's necessary.

[Crankin]

Well, given my dad was not able to learn to use a computer (the mouse confounded him), I think Shooting Star's point is well taken. I have a client, just a few years younger than me, who is a true Luddite, mostly because she has lived a sheltered life in one small town, and done the type of work that did not require any tech skills. She has been increasingly frustrated by things you can only do on-line, including signing up for Mass Health and other government things.
On another note, we got a call last night that my exchange student son and his wife had a baby boy early Saturday morning! They are all fine, we heard the baby cry over the phone (we were in the car), but she had a difficult time, ending up in a c section. So happy for them and waiting for pictures.

[smilingcat]

You might want to remind the techies that NO COUNTRY in the world is 100% wired! Not even in France where ISP is the government.

Older people are left behind in the fast pace world of tech. I'm not that old and have no interest in Pininterest, facebook, twitter, or what ever else that may be around. Just don't have idle time. And surprise not everyone owns a computer or know how to use them. Someone suggested to go to a library to use the free computer. Not everyone even in the gen-X know how to use it.

ANOTHER BETTER REASON: Every time someone in government suggest go 100% digital, I remind them what about those below the poverty line. They are deciding whether to heat the house in the winter time, buy warm clothing or food. THEY DON'T HAVE THE LUXURY OF OWNING A COMPUTER AND SOMETIMES NOT EVEN A CELL PHONE!! Let these techies survive for a month or two on the wages of those in poverty and see when they will ditch their computers and cell phones.

Things like this makes me angry. Forgetting about those who are less fortunate, those in poverty etc.

[shootingstar]

My partner retired about 15 yrs. ago in his late 50's. He has gone through 3 computers - 1 desktop, 1 laptop and now iPad. This is not even his iPhone and yea, he has a 5 yr. old Garmin ..which is now, god-send for this contract job of his for required GIS information.

It's pretty scary in terms of high tech investments..in ADDITION to health care costs..which by the way, even Canada's public health care system doesn't cover 100% (it never did). ie. dental, specialized drugs needed for many years, etc.

We have in our municipality some low income discounted municipal services after an application review (based on income, etc.) ie. transit, recreational services...but nowhere is there non computer information submission.

For me to breathe poverty in my workplace..I would be viewed as a renegade, Luddite (which already I don't want ageism working against me at this time in my career).. I'm not in a decision-making, management role at work. Already some people at work, know that I don't have a cellphone. HOnest, I keep this fact low-key.

Dumb as it may seem, it is small reason why I do blog outside of work....just 1 signal that I DO use social media and do interact with others. I do blog for more meaningful personal reasons which I won't bore people here on TE forum.

I wish I could retire and not play these little games to maintain my "progressive" shiny façade to the working world, in my line of work. But that is reality of remaining job relevant to a major employer.

[rocknrollgirl]

Love this conversation! We joke all the time about finding a place to retire where we cannot get any service! This forum is my only form of social media.

No FB, or twitter or snapchat or instagram. We don't text. We just ditched our flip phones and got track phones at Walmart for 50 dollars and a pay as you go card. I have a laptop and a tablet that I use when I travel. We were just about to cut the cable cord, but comcast has a monopoly in our town and we found out that if we cut the cable, they would jack our internet rates up three fold. GRRHHH.

It is a joke at school that I am " off the grid". They tried force me to sign up for twitter so that they could send me messages in case of an emergency. I laughed, and responded by saying. Well, I have worked here for 28 years right? And you know where my classroom is right? And you know where I live, 2 miles away, right? So I am pretty sure that if there is an emergency, someone will tell me. Found out quickly enough on 9/11.

My hubs and I go all day without emailing or talking, unless it is about what time we are running after work. My coworkers are horrified by this. They walk around ALL DAY with phone in hand. I do not get it. My computer is on on my desk all day. Pretty sure I can go to the lav with a cell phone in hand. Drives me crazy.