Sunday, August 9, 2015

"I Can't Pop Popcorn Without a Manual"



Notice how simple everything is to use?

"I can't Pop Popcorn Without a Manual"

"I complained to Carolyn, as usual. “What they hell am I supposed to do, go get a computer education so I can use my microwave popcorn?” And then I thought, “how come all those wonderful science fiction writers didn’t predict this? This was never on Star Trek, they always had food makers that effortlessly made your food to exact specifications, and they tasted good. NO CONAGRA; NO TASTELESS FOOD. No lack of diversity, and complete conformism and boredom of food! Gene Roddenberry, you should turn over in your grave.”

This article speaks truth. Why are they making the most simple things so complicated where they are so overwhelmed with whistle and bells, it is unusable. Remember on the Jetsons how everything was simple?

Here is a list of things I can't figure out to use myself:

Windows 8. I hate it, I have to search for everything even to shut off the computer. If I had time, I would strip Windows 8 off this computer and download Windows 7.

Open Office/Word programs. Anything complicated like making a brochure, forget it.

Cell phones. Why do I have to press on it a certain amount of seconds to get it to turn on? Our main phone usage remains a landline. Yes that is how much I hate cell phones.

DVD player, we own an old used one, but it's such a struggle to figure out what button to push, I don't rent movies anymore. Hooking one up to a TV is a nightmare I left to others.

CPAP machine: I've had panicky moments screwing up the settings so just plug it back in and hope for the best. Thankfully that usually works.

Airconditioner: The landlord put a new one in with the remote control. I can figure out how to turn it on at least but not much more. There's 10 other buttons on the remote that make no sense to me.

Cable remote: Don't ask me how to pick one of those by choice movies. Even for stripped down-cable the bill is too high.

My TV is 20 years old, but the new ones I have seen at other people's houses scare me. I don't want a TV that hooks up to a computer with a million confusing directions.

I don't know how to use smart phones, blue-ray--is that what they are called and many other aspects of modern technology. My car is 12 years old but I am sure they are complicating those too as we speak. One thing I don't like is how nothing has ON and OFF buttons anymore.

Everything new they are making it seems, makes things much more complicated. They have thrown user-friendly in the trash can. Even Yahoo email used to be easy to use until they ruined it. A friend of mine downloaded Windows 10 on her laptop. I said, "Don't do it, your computer is not new enough, it will collapse the computer!" It did. They have sent me their free offers too and I don't want them. The newer the program the more impossible it is to use.

I believe someone could make millions if they came up with very easy technology to use, stripped down to the basics, put what each button does right on it and make it simple.

I'm old enough to remember the days when there was great hope regarding technology. We believed it would make life easier. The only new invention I think that has been somewhat life changing is the Internet. For me it was like taking a library home with me. When the internet bust out in the mid-90s I was in heaven though it would take until the early 2000s to manage having it at home. The phone wires in my bad neighborhood weren't good enough for the phone modems back then. However technology as a whole has seemed disappointing. Outside the internet it really didn't change modern life. If anything the work world is regressing back to the 1890s and social life has worsened. There aren't that many labor saving devices that really made life much easier outside of what was achieved by the 1950s. Day to Day life really didn't change that much outside the life of screens, and being online. The medical world is still very limited with few miracles there. Some of us have asked "Where are our flying cars?"

2 comments:

  1. Dear Peeps, anything to keep us constantly confused. At the risk of sounding like one of those conspiracy-theorist wankers, i seriously think the confusion tactics are intentional - to keep us feeling inadequate, while hogging up our time on things that should only take a few moments. That's one shure-fire way to keep people from thinking about what really counts (the Gospel).

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  2. I think they want us confused too. Hey where is the theory in conspiracy theory? :P I think they want us taken up with busy work, so the most simple tasks have become onerous beyond belief. They want us scurrying around and more, and yes keeping us away from the gospel.

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