Just because something is new doesn’t automatically make it better, easier to use, and more consumer-friendly than older technology. Progress for the sake of progress doesn’t always prioritize the customer’s wants and needs. And if we’re being really honest, there are lots of issues we have with modern tech and corporate attitudes that we’d love to change if we had a magic wand.
The ironic reality is that not all modern conveniences are all that convenient. The members of the AskReddit community recently took to an interesting thread to vent all about how certain tech changes have made their lives that much harder. Scroll down for some very relatable opinions.
#1
Just let me use the website! I hate having to download a damn app for everything.
Image credits: slitherfang98
#2
Scanning QR code to access the menu and order the food.
Image credits: NoDish1669
#3
Why do I need an account to use your website? It’s just one time service.
Also, I called customer service because your website is not user friendly and does not have the services I am calling about. Stop asking me to hang up and go to the website.
Image credits: 9atesirben
To be fair, just like newer technology isn’t automatically better than older tech, older technology isn’t immediately better because it’s vintage either. You have to evaluate each bit of tech and software on its own merits, as well as in relation to what the competitors offer. Meanwhile, a product, service, or company’s age isn’t much relevant, unless you want to establish whether or not it’s reputable and trustworthy.
The ‘latest, freshest, newest thing’ in software may not be the service that you or your company need (even if it feels cool to be on the cutting edge of something). Meanwhile, a slightly older bit of software that has been tried and tested by many professionals may get you better results. Similarly, the latest smartphone or home appliance model might be awesome to have (and to subtly boast about at dinner parties), but it might not be the best fit for you.
#4
Subscription based payments.
Image credits: innocent_pig
#5
Touch screen devices everywhere. Many people with tremor disorders (like me, with 2) can barely use them or can't use them at all. (Estimated 10 million people in the US with just Essential Tremor alone!).
Image credits: dooky15
#6
Car park apps. Just f*****g let me pay without downloading an app, creating an account, trying to figure out what code this car park you wankers and no I'm not going to let you use my location.
Image credits: basicissueredditor
The reality is that new tech and software are a bit of a double-edged sword. Sure, they potentially offer new features and capabilities, but there’s always the chance that they’re more gimmicks than actually useful for customers.
On the other hand, newer tech and software can mean that you and your company are better protected because they’re constantly updated. What’s more, from a business perspective, it makes sense to invest in cutting-edge tech from time to time.
#7
Everything being “smart”.
Things have become so smart that’s it’s gone full circle and are now just dumb and unusable.
Image credits: brownhornet1000
#8
Constantly being available to contact.
Image credits: thisremindsmeofbacon
#9
The whole applying for jobs online situation... i only work in hospitality and low wage jobs. I miss the days of walking round town with my CV printed out, where I could talk to a manager about a vacancy, instead of wasting endless time filling out the same details for jobs and often silly questionnaires when I'll often hear nothing back at all.
Image credits: kushqt420
Forbes warns that outdated tech and ‘legacy’ systems can reduce a company’s competitiveness. For example, older tech and software may be limited in terms of automation, can have worse response times, and may be more vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches.
Similarly, older tech may impact productivity. (Though, to be fair, constantly changing tech and software would mean constantly having to ask your employees to (re)train, which is also time-intensive.) Forbes also notes that using old systems may sometimes be done out of habit rather than because the tech is better. Often, people don’t like to change things when they already have something that works.
#10
Social media.
The (dis)information and entertainment overabundance is dangerously addictive and rots our brain.
It has immense potential for good, but, as always, some bad actors in a good thing spoiled the whole thing.
Image credits: Pagiras
#11
Having to do anything that involved a chat bot or ai.
Image credits: Bugaloon
#12
Windows automatically saving all of my files to OneDrive. I like to think I'm somewhat tech savvy but I can't for the life of me figure out how to stop it from happening. Recently moved a bunch of MP4-files from a USB to my PC then a short while later my e-mail stopped working because the OneDrive storage was full due to the files I thought I saved locally.
Image credits: furrymittens
What are some modern ‘conveniences’ that you personally think are incredibly inconvenient, dear Pandas? What examples of newer tech and software make your life harder rather than easier? What older tech do you still use despite it being labeled ‘ancient’ by others?
On the flip side, what are some great examples of modern innovations that you believe are genuine upgrades over vintage tech? Let us know in the comments below!
#13
2 factor authentication for EVERYTHING. You are a free recipe website. You made me set up a password. Let me use it. No, I don't need a second form of id to use this site. You have exactly 0 of my vital information. No money. No numbers. And everything you have that someone might want is freely given on my public profile.
Email, banking apps? Sure 2 factor me there. But Allrecipes and YouTube? Why?
Image credits: AtheneSchmidt
#14
Today I had to go to the urgent care.
I was the only one there. They could have just taken my ID and insurance and had a practitioner see me.
But the only way to claim an appointment- even by walk-in - was by scanning a QR to register.
Except that they were on the first floor of a big building, and mobile service wasn't great.
So I went on their Wi-Fi, but their website was down.
So they had to print out paper forms that they had done away with, except their Internet was also down.
So they had me write my information on the back of some receipt paper, and finally saw me.
But they couldn't bill my insurance, because their system was down.
And then they knew they had to send my Rx to a Walgreens, but couldn't, because their system was down.
So they called the closest Walgreens they could find for my RX, but it was actually 30 minutes away, because their system was down.
So I asked for a paper RX order and went to the Walgreens next door, who had to contact the Walgreens 30 minutes away to get the RX transferred because the system was down at the urgent care.
But they couldn't verify the RX being transferred because the system was down at the urgent care.
Image credits: DangerSwan33
#15
My tumble dryer has a dozen presets for every kind of clothing (shirts / jeans / sports / silk / etc) but absolutely nothing on the machine or in the manual indicates temperature, which is literaly a universal pictograph written on every item to tell you how to dry it.
Also I just spent a couple hours setting up my new TV. Used to be you plugged it in, turned it on, and it worked. .
Image credits: HonoraryCanadian
#16
Cloud services. I have my own portable drives, not every free version of a cloud service has limited cloud storage, so it fills up and they can compel you to pay. Less tech savvy people just bite the bullet often. But I had iCloud tell me that my solution was to copy it to my pc, and clear it out. Then I go to my phone, and my photos are all gone. I never asked to delete them from my phone!
Image credits: YossiTheWizard
#17
Doctor's apps and AI customer service representatives. AI in general, really.
Image credits: EmpressOfUnderbed
#18
Applying for jobs online.
Can't just show up and ask for an application anymore, everything is done online now, and most of these companies application websites are some backwoods-a*s s**t with no security certificate, and a UI that looks like it was programmed in Notepad.
Image credits: jasonxtk
#19
Apps... anyone and anything and their dead grandma just has to have an app for every mundane b******t.
Image credits: rince89
#20
Bluetooth headphones
they took our headphone jacks.
Image credits: Sc0ttiShDUdE
#21
Not being able to physically own a copy of a video game anymore. Even if you have the disc, you still have to download the game. You’re paying for the privilege to play the game, not the actual game itself.
Image credits: OrganicLFMilk
#22
AI. No, I don't want whatever your pollution-powered disinformation machine "thinks" the information should be, I want *the actual information*. Get the f**k out of my face and leave me alone, you overhyped autocorrect function.
Image credits: RottenPeachSmell
#23
Internet-connected appliances. Why the F**K does a car, fridge, or f*****g washing machine need a g*****n software update?
#24
This is sorta a tough one for me.
I love my prosthetic legs to some extent but in order to use them properly, and adjust settings, I need my phone & the app. There are definitely some benefits but also would be a huuuuge downside if my phone wasn't available. Also, power outage? Charging it would come down to a generator as well as sometimes software problems. Stuck on an island? I'm screwed.
I still have my very first prosthetic (3R60) which is purely mechanical that I take with me on every single trip in case there are power issues. In a month I'm going to Disney World and taking 3 knees with me: my everyday one, my water knee & that 3R60 Incase anything happens.
Love all the new tech but it could get you into trouble. My old legs were able to be adjusted with a 4mm Allen wrench; even one of them that had a microprocessor, it could still be manually adjusted. Unfortunately no more of that.
Back in 2012, I took my family on a Norwegian Fjord cruise for a week, the following week was with our Norge family. My microprocessor knee died the VERY FIRST DAY of the cruise. Thankfully I had my mechanical knee as backup. Would've been easier with the other knee but thankfully knew how to walk with the first one.
Image credits: MonoPodding
#25
Mobile phones
everyone you dont like but are obligated to talk to (boss) can contact you any time.
Image credits: a1b2t
#26
Child safety locks. Now me and my niece cant get to the pantry.
Image credits: Bubbly_Strike9383
#27
Idk about made my life harder, but search engines "correcting" your search if they think you misspelled a word is a thorn in my side. The suggestions they give if they think you misspelled something are fine, it's when they start deciding "no, this is what you meant" without you saying so and overriding the search results that it becomes an inconvenience.
As someone who's often looking up non-English (well, non-Modern English) words, it's annoying. Stop being "helpful" and let me search for the thing I'm searching for.
Image credits: TheSaltyBrushtail
#28
Website cookies, they're designed to remember bits and pieces to make your life easier, but are used to track your history, create a profile and use it to make accurate personal digital image of yourself, available to the highest buyer or government.
Image credits: snafe_
#29
Dating apps. They’ve made my life significantly harder in so many more ways and given me so much more anxiety than just bumping into someone randomly at the store etc.
Image credits: bgp70x7
#30
Many teachers like me are pressured to use their school's online Learning Management System (Canvas in my case, or Google Classroom, etc.)...there are a few benefits, but on balance it makes things worse.
#31
When you order a new product (Roomba) and the owners manual is online. And they want you to link it to your phone so you can turn it on from work or whatever. I just want to push a button and make it go. And I like paper manuals.
#32
Internet. In short, because before the internet I wasn’t daily forced to know exactly how many immensely stupid people are alive in this timeline.
#33
I! Want! Buttons! In! Cars! F**k touchscreen everything in cars, I don't want to look for 10 seconds not looking at the road finding the volume button for the rafio.
#34
Touch screens. I prefer buttons.
Image credits: Sea_Suggestion9424
#35
Automated bill pay when you have to navigate a labyrinth of pages just to update your f***ing CC# or email.
Image credits: DoppledBramble3725
#36
Espresso machine, saving money at home instead of coffee at a store. Sure, but then there's the cleaning and the grinding and the getting the perfect foamy top, and the five cups a day problem. Took me twenty minutes to make a cup of espresso.
#37
Online shopping replacing brick and mortar shopping. I do a lot of hobbies where the feel of things is really important, I live in a high package theft area, I have ADHD and want to start on things without having to wait 3-7 days for my supplies to arrive, I wish I could just hop on down to whatever store I need, be able to check online if they have it in store (not online!!!) and pick up what I need right then!!!
#38
Arguably, cars. We completely redesigned how we build cities in the 60's and 70's because of cars and the change is arguably for the worse unless you're an automobile manufacturer. It's also a huge contributor to global emissions.
