Something I Am Starting to Feel Myself

[Sukerkin]

Technology marches on, seemingly at an ever increasing pace. Some of us, as we gather years and the wisdom of life experience, lose our facility to adapt to and make use of new devices and interfaces:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20664470

I am getting the distinct impression that this tendency to avoid technology I do not know how to use well is starting to affect me too, which given the hi-tech engineering I do for a living, is a definite warning sign that designers are failing to make their products usable by different generations.

 

[Blindside]

Technology marches on, seemingly at an ever increasing pace. Some of us, as we gather years and the wisdom of life experience, lose our facility to adapt to and make use of new devices and interfaces:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20664470

I am getting the distinct impression that this tendency to avoid technology I do not know how to use well is starting to affect me too, which given the hi-tech engineering I do for a living, is a definite warning sign that designers are failing to make their products usable by different generations.

My 92 (as of last week) year old grandmother has an IPhone and IPad that she uses regularly.

Admittedly she has screwed up her apartment's wireless network more than once and she must be the dread of the Apple Store with her frequent complaints about how her (insert piece of technology here) "just stopped working."

 

[granfire]

My 92 (as of last week) year old grandmother has an IPhone and IPad that she uses regularly.

Admittedly she has screwed up her apartment's wireless network more than once and she must be the dread of the Apple Store with her frequent complaints about how her (insert piece of technology here) "just stopped working."

LOL!!!
I think I loff her!
makes them earn their wages, for sure!

My mom used to be pretty savy around the computer, but once she retired, she started to avoid them like the plague!
It's a bit of a problem since she does have to supervise my niece on her growing technology consumption....

 

[Flying Crane]

I just got onto Faceplant less than a year ago, I barely admit to owning a cell phone (not a smart phone) that I only carry when I know I might have a specific need for it which is almost never (I don't even remember the phone number for it, so I've written it on the phone itself and I can barely manage to check any messages on it), I've never sent nor received a text message, I don't wii or any of that stuff, I don't do electronic banking...

I'm only 41. I just don't have any attraction nor desire for any of it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I Deal with HiTech stuff all day and I am having all sorts of it foisted upon me at work.

I carry a regular old Cell phone and that is only because my wife makes me carry it. They have tried on 3 different occasions to give me a smart phone at work and all 3 times I have told them we work way to close to the Hudson river for you to give me one of those....so far the threat has worked

My mother, in her 80s only carries a regular cell phone in the event her Grand kids want to call her

 

[SacredCoconut]

How about being 21, and i liked phones better with out touch screen. I use computer lot, so if i have to do something with smart phone it feels so clunky and slow for me. Well for emails and calender its better than my old one, but it consumes battery too fast.

 

[K-man]

Back in the 60s I was making transistor radios in matchboxes, in the 80s I could program a Commodore 64 and even make simple games. In the 80s and 90s I used the most advanced computer equipment in my work. Now it has run away from me. Sure, I have all the Apple toys but have no idea of using them to their full potential. As Suker says, there is definitely a stage in your life where you throw your hands in the air and say enough is enough. My brain is turning to mush! :asian:

 

[Dirty Dog]

I was born nerdy, grew up nerdy, and I'm still nerdy...

 

[granfire]

Back in the 60s I was making transistor radios in matchboxes, in the 80s I could program a Commodore 64 and even make simple games. In the 80s and 90s I used the most advanced computer equipment in my work. Now it has run away from me. Sure, I have all the Apple toys but have no idea of using them to their full potential. As Suker says, there is definitely a stage in your life where you throw your hands in the air and say enough is enough. My brain is turning to mush! :asian:

Actually, I am thinking it is a matter of 'enough is enough'
or rather, leave well enough alone.

I mean 'There's an app for this' IS a joke, right!

Yeah, people can do the wildest things with their cell phone, but are in awe when you can mix flour and yeast to make pizza...or crochet a scarf (AKA a long rectangular piece of 'cloth')

 

[Xue Sheng]

Back in the 60s I was making transistor radios in matchboxes, in the 80s I could program a Commodore 64 and even make simple games. In the 80s and 90s I used the most advanced computer equipment in my work. Now it has run away from me. Sure, I have all the Apple toys but have no idea of using them to their full potential. As Suker says, there is definitely a stage in your life where you throw your hands in the air and say enough is enough. My brain is turning to mush! :asian:

I started with DOS…..My first certification was Windows 3.11…… Windows 8 release date was announced..... I instantaneously had the thought....my brain is full.... I was so done with operating systems, smart phones, tablets and all such electronic hoopla…… sadly….it is my job…. I am now testing Windows 8….. Getting ready for a Windows 7 rollout and doing upgrades to Mountain Lion…. As well as testing VDI…. My brain now hurts…..make it stop…make it stop….:anic:

 

[K-man]

Yeah, people can do the wildest things with their cell phone, but are in awe when you can mix flour and yeast to make pizza...or crochet a scarf (AKA a long rectangular piece of 'cloth')

Actually, I heard somewhere that you can even make phone calls with them!

 

[granfire]

Actually, I heard somewhere that you can even make phone calls with them!

the call quality is crappy, you might as well send a carrier pigeon.

A German cartoonist drew a comic back in the 50s or 60s...a room sized sewing machine and the house wive sitting in a chair pilot style. I mean, really, she was tiny on the machine...then he lists all the stuff the sewingmachine can do.....'we opted to omit a sewing program' :roflmao:
I mean, a lot of the phones fail when you hold them up to your face like you would a phone... oh, and they make old style receivers now, you can plug into your cellphone...like Bogey used to have, just in pink! :lol:

(I wish I could find that book with that cartoon, I have looked online soo long... it's sad!)

 

[Cirdan]

What is this "app" thing everybody keeps talking about

 

[Flying Crane]

Ray Bradbury wrote a sci-fi short story back in the 1940s or 1950s, about how technology will run everyone's life, everything will become automatic, you can't get any peace from your wrist communicator (aka: cellphone), the house is programmed to do everything for you, etc. The guy in the story gets fed up and murders his house. He is sent to an insane asylum for it.

 

[Sukerkin]

Bradbury wrote quite a few stories that do that thing that sci-fi is so good at - examine the human condition and reflect it in a future or other-worldly mirror.

 

[Flying Crane]

Bradbury wrote quite a few stories that do that thing that sci-fi is so good at - examine the human condition and reflect it in a future or other-worldly mirror.

given that it was written in either the late 1940s or early 1950s, I was absolutely amazed at how accurately he portrayed what was to come. One guy in the story keeps getting calls on his communicator from his kid, asking about his allowance and other mundane, pointless stuff that just keeps interrupting his day. Sound familiar?