Is technology getting “too complicated”?

[Mama Looigi]

I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, viewer discretion advised.
Some people seem to think that technology is getting ”too complicated”, which honestly pisses me off because they probably gave up right away |:<
Of course, I understand that some people just can’t do tech, and that’s fine, but the problem is that it’s very likely that most of them don’t care enough and then go complain to forums other than GBAtemp (the nerve!) and never learn anything

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I see what happened, you talked to your grandparents didn't you?

 

[Alexander1970]

I’m not gonna sugarcoat this, viewer discretion advised.
Some people seem to think that technology is getting ”too complicated”, which honestly pisses me off because they probably gave up right away |:<
Of course, I understand that some people just can’t do tech, and that’s fine, but the problem is that it’s very likely that most of them don’t care enough and then go complain to forums other than GBAtemp (the nerve!) and never learn anything

Definitely.

Technology today is made for THIS generation and maybe the still previous one.

Its to fast,to awkward,to much for "older" people.

But why ?

BECAUSE OF NOBODY IS THERE TO EXPLAIN IT TO THEM !

With calm, endurance and simple words.

 

[Veho]

No. If anything, technology is getting simpler. User interfaces are getting more intuitive, processes are streamlined and automated, everything is getting point and click and forget. Which may be the reason people expect everything to be simple and not require any knowledge or research, and why you seem to get so many questions about, relatively speaking, simple things, and why people give up at the first hurdle and fork over the money for a simpler solution.

 

[Mythical]

I think the issue with most people who have trouble with technology is they get overwhelmed. Just gotta power through it and read carefully. That being said most people can learn anything regardless of the type of person they are. The more you learn the easier learning gets

 

[Alexander1970]

I think the issue with most people who have trouble with technology is they get overwhelmed. Just gotta power through it and read carefully. That being said most people can learn anything regardless of the type of person they are. The more you learn the easier learning gets

Hello.

I invite you to go in a Room with 20 "old" people with together aged 4.657 Years.They are all alone,no relatives,no one to talk with but interested in "NEW TECHNOLOGY".

Our "teacher" today is an 20 year "old" Student who think he knows "the World".

Have fun with it.......

A joke ?
NO this is the real world today.NOBODY cares of old people,nobody has TIME for them.

THEY HAVE NO CHANCE TO LEARN.

 

[tech3475]

From what I've seen, I think there are different aspects to it, for example:
1) Analytical skills
2) Research skills
3) Fear
4) laziness
5) Health (particularly with age)
6) Status Quo and not seeing a reason for change

Most of the tech problems I solve come from just ****ing Googling something, I've had people bring me things where they don't read the ****ing manual or they don't see the full potential of something until I show them (or force it upon them like my parents smartphones).

 

[Taleweaver]

Heh...this thread reminds me of a work anekdote.

It was one of those obligated seminars about stress control. The tutor started with an anonymous quote. Something in the lines of "nowadays, there is far more to keep up with, which introduces an unhealthy amount of stress". We were asked to guess when this quote was made.
As it turns out, we were all off by a serious margin: it was said somewhere in the late nineteenth century.

The illustration there was pretty clear: technology advancements, and the eventual inability to keep up, is from all ages. It's not fun to realise that you're not keeping up, but it's just the way it is.

I think the issue with most people who have trouble with technology is they get overwhelmed. Just gotta power through it and read carefully. That being said most people can learn anything regardless of the type of person they are. The more you learn the easier learning gets

Hmmm...no, sorry. I don't agree. The feeling of getting overwhelmed is the symptom but not the root cause. Back when I was younger, my fascination for technology kept up with my fascination for the world. This is what I wanted to be, this was what interested me. But as I grew older, I found that my patience has grown shorter. Once you've got a job, a household to maintain, a girlfriend and/or a dog, you have less time to spend on things.

Can most people learn anything, provided they put their mind to it? Sure thing. It took him several dozens of attempts, but my father eventually learned how to write and receive mails (and after some nail biting failed attempts, I at one point managed to get him to abandon some ancient outlook express client to a mail client that actually allows you to locally backup your entire mailbox). But did it get easier? No. Rather than learning how to use his computer (or rather: the internet), he has learned that a son is pretty convenient to have when you're stuck on a basic problem with...anything.

 

[FAST6191]

I mentioned it the other day in another thread ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/kids-and-pseudo-understanding-of-privacy.533935/ ) but it is something I find thought provoking and is related so I will go it again
http://www.coding2learn.org/blog/2013/07/29/kids-cant-use-computers/

I would also echo what tech3475 said. The fear is quite a big one -- depending upon the age then computers in their formative years are likely to have been something the military had post world war 2, to maybe a punch card thing that was so expensive* only (around here anyway) the college and the brewery of all people had them/one. Couple that with a lack of intuitive fixing/usage routines (have you tried turning it off and on again is a running joke but is also an example of things that might not occur to people, also https://xkcd.com/763/ ).

*I met one of the earlier computer programmers after they became commercial things once. He had to forge his own path from the maths department to it. Not the same guy but around the same time runtime was so expensive that the programmer had two secretaries to type things down for them and they would compare their entries .
Come up during that and you are likely to have some fear. Even today I (I have been pulling apart computers for over 20 years at this point, electronics even longer, software similar timeframes, they are things I know and do day in and day out, have high level training in and self taught even more so, part of all that means I have broken and fixed more than I can possibly remember and continue to do so to keep current,**,) pause and have a measurable amount of cognitive dissonance when I hear of people dropping £200 on a single purpose laptop (training, programming a specific class of device, one specialist printer...) and consider it a bargain at twice the price. Intellectually I know why they do it, indeed I might have even suggested it. Another time a restaurant I did stuff for was having fun with their music systems so they dropped £80 (was a sale) on some fairly nice sound having tablets (on startup and on the thing itself it proudly proclaimed some swish audio manufacturer) and were delighted with the results.

** I don't know if I could be sent back in a time machine with a pack of antibiotics, a copy of https://geekologie.com/2009/11/cheat-sheet-hang-up-in-your-ti.php , and recreate computers in my lifetime there -- I know the ideas of purifying silicon, doping it and so forth, and carry on right up through making logic gates and digital logic itself but for purely from scratch I have some hazy spots. Those that came after me probably would though.

The health thing is also a fun one. Somehow my hands still work despite falling on them many times to this day, and my sight similarly functions well, far more so than many others my age. To that end "slow down" is a thing I often hear. Bad sight and lower dexterity is a killer.


All that said yes and no to the question of the OP.

I see things dumbed down to uselessness all the time and I hate that. I understand the push but as one that relishes exploring things and making them dance to my own tune it really annoys.

Other times I see needless complexity added, reliability dropped, repairability dropped, and opportunities for customisation closed off, tolerances for a bit of abuse dropped... often no real reasons. We often had perfectly efficient and cheap means of doing the tasks before but oh well.

 

[zomborg]

Just gonna give you a short example from my time.
My dad was born in 1950. Public, end user home pcs had not been invented yet. There were no laptops or notebook computers. There were no tablets. Smart phones had not been invented yet. They had never even dreamed or imagined of a mobile phone but at least they had land line phones.
Dad said they couldn't even afford a TV until he was 12. Basically dad had no exposure to tech. When the first mobile phones were created he and mom were amazed, heck everybody was amazed to think that we could actually take our phone with us and talk anywhere.
So dad coming from an Era with no tech, he actually did amazingly well learning to use an analog flip phone but despite having made many attempts to teach dad how to make the transition to smart phones, he cannot grasp it.

 

[FAST6191]

When the first mobile phones were created he and mom were amazed, heck everybody was amazed to think that we could actually take our phone with us and talk anywhere.

Precursors and obvious leading tech had happened for some decades before your parents were born, and some early examples were, now at least, quite famously dismissed as "nobody would want that". It is not a huge leap from CB radio, train radios were wireless, speaking of CB radios I don't know when people started to stuff uplinks to the landline network over them for mining camps and whatever else.

I can see people not knowing tech being impressed but anybody doing any kind of "wireless" work would not say it came completely out of left field.

 

[DeoNaught]

I don't think so, Coding langauges are getting simpler, and easier than previous (yet still used ones ) like C, now you have Gui programming, like Scratch and the Arduino IDE.

Mostly for end users though, code is getting slightly more complex, but only so more programs can be more simple. One of the good things though, is that it's more understandable, with // comments, and *even more comments.

I think the problem is; is that because programs are getting simpler, people think they don't need to learn much about the computer. a proper basics in computer should be in school. like, how to do basic stuff like Install a anti-virus, Wiping your hard drives, Understanding the components inside the machines.

Most people just throw money at it thinking it will go away, it's kinda why Indian Tech support scammers are still a thing, people think paying them money will solve the problem.

 

[zomborg]

Precursors and obvious leading tech had happened for some decades before your parents were born, and some early examples were, now at least, quite famously dismissed as "nobody would want that". It is not a huge leap from CB radio, train radios were wireless, speaking of CB radios I don't know when people started to stuff uplinks to the landline network over them for mining camps and whatever else.

I can see people not knowing tech being impressed but anybody doing any kind of "wireless" work would not say it came completely out of left field.

Hey that's right! I forgot about that. My parents even had a cb radio. It was a fad in the 70s for everyone to go around with one in their car

 

[Exannor]

In my opinion, I wouldn't say too complicated, but more "too compact", " not easily upgradeable", or even better "disposable".

Certain people go through phones like crazy nowadays and go through the new iPhone X and keep upgrading whenever a new phone would come out when back then an S3 or, even better, a nokia would last a long time.

Also with iPhones, the removal of the headphone jack. In my opinion, a big no-no. Apple as is, is already bad with their hardware being only for their devices and their support being junk as well with Rossmann and some others proving that.

Even though the Macs have decent hardware, making them non-upgradeable for the price that they are being sold at is bad and for the most part, I don't own a Mac nor do I ever want to own one, the stories that I hear is that after about 2-3 years, they become slow or in need of an 'upgrade' which is buying a new one. We've also had that little thing about how the updates for apple products was (either the iPhones, Macs, or both, can't remember) slowing down the products massively, angering users only to come into the store and get a new phone.

There are also those $150-$300 practically unibody laptop computers that no one should buy other than people who want to surf the net and watch yt or do all work online(imo microsoft office online and other programs such as google docs have a long way to go) with a non-upgradeable SSD, no empty sodimm banks as everything is on the motherboard. I could understand to an extent the CPU and GPU being fully soldered on the mobo, but ram and the hard drive is just a massive why for me other than of course the company wants to make them compact and not easy to get into.

 

[Ryccardo]

We've also had that little thing about how the updates for apple products was (either the iPhones, Macs, or both, can't remember) slowing down the products massively, angering users only to come into the store and get a new phone.

That mostly shows how perception can influence reputation more than technical merit - the purpose of that "feature" (on iPhones, though Macbooks and certain other brand laptop models may also reduce performance without a battery inserted) was to reduce peak current consumption, because a battery is not an ideal voltage source, and excessive load may lead to an excessive voltage drop (potentially causing crashes or more insidious corruption); Microsoft DIDN'T do that, and guess what we got? Lumia 950s that, on a battery more than half a year old, spontaneously reboot at charge levels less than 40% or so...

(Would Apple have done better, by clearly explaining to the user what was happening and why, and giving them the choice? Definitely yes, which brings back to the topic of rampant oversimplification at the expense of power users...)

There are also those $150-$300 practically unibody laptop computers that no one should buy other than people who want to surf the net and watch yt or do all work online(imo microsoft office online and other programs such as google docs have a long way to go) with a non-upgradeable SSD, no empty sodimm banks as everything is on the motherboard. I could understand to an extent the CPU and GPU being fully soldered on the mobo, but ram and the hard drive is just a massive why for me other than of course the company wants to make them compact and not easy to get into.

I bought (new, at full retail price) an Acer ES1-111M, which mostly qualifies (it has one slot of DDR3L, an integrated 32 GB SSD, and an Ethernet port (a deciding factor in my choice) which wasn't available in any of its direct competitors); the difference between it and the ES1-111 (which also sold for 250 €, if you could find one) is that they saved 50 cents removing the SATA plug and four SMD capacitors to connect the data lines (which are nearly useless in a laptop, where the hard drive cables are going to be 0 cm long, and indeed can be replaced by plain wires); needless to say, after adding them, both storages just work

 

[Minox]

That mostly shows how perception can influence reputation more than technical merit - the purpose of that "feature" (on iPhones, though Macbooks and certain other brand laptop models may also reduce performance without a battery inserted) was to reduce peak current consumption, because a battery is not an ideal voltage source, and excessive load may lead to an excessive voltage drop (potentially causing crashes or more insidious corruption); Microsoft DIDN'T do that, and guess what we got? Lumia 950s that, on a battery more than half a year old, spontaneously reboot at charge levels less than 40% or so...

(Would Apple have done better, by clearly explaining to the user what was happening and why, and giving them the choice? Definitely yes, which brings back to the topic of rampant oversimplification at the expense of power users...)

The downclocking to keep an aging phone stable and usable makes sense, but not informing users was just malicious. The only reason I can see why they would do so would be to get people to buy their new phones.

 

[Exannor]

The downclocking to keep an aging phone stable and usable makes sense, but not informing users was just malicious. The only reason I can see why they would do so would be to get people to buy their new phones.

I agree, from the standpoint that Ryccardo put out it does seem a lot more understandable, but for the common user seeing that apple is downclocking or slowing their phone on a new update with no explanation as to why is shady/loses the customers trust and it also gave some people to talk about how they were intentionally downclocking to make you buy a new phone.

A simple “Hey we are slowing down your phone so it’s more stable in our future updates” would’ve even sufficed(for me anyway) from them. But with the current controversy that’s been brewing on Rossmann’s channel how they are intentionally saying that you can’t recover your data and hiding things, they’ll probably stay the same with explaining future important updates such as the downclocking

Sadly their way of announcing updates hasn’t become a meme like my 3DS’ balancing trick

 

[sarkwalvein]

Technology is getting easier to swing it, harder to master it.
For sure.
IMHO.

 

[SG854]

I'm a lazy person. But my parents force me to learn new technology whenever they want help on something.

 

[Stwert]

Depends on the people/circumstances/previous experience and so on and so on.

No point using me as an example with the amount of technology in my life. But my next door neighbor, who is in her 70’s does pretty well all things considered. They’ll still get me in to sort out problems, but in the whole she does brilliantly. Her husband, however, has no interest in technology, couldn’t work a computer if his life depended on it.

I think if you grew up with it, keep yourself informed and have always used it, you’re always going to be fine with it. If you’re newer to it and prepared to put in the time and let people help you, you’ll do ok.

One thing I will definitely say though, age has bugger all to do with it. I know people almost twice my age who do fine with it. Likewise I know people half my age, or younger who are forever getting me to help them with things because they just can’t get to grips with it.

For me, personally, no. I’ve not found any kind of technology too complicated. But then, I’m an ex-engineer and a software developer, so I fully accept what I find simple, others don’t. Which is why I’m always happy to help and teach.