Feel old - technology

[everetting]

I am in my fifties and am feeling old with technology. I can do Internet banking and just about manage parking apps, but anytime something new comes along, it seems to take me longer and longer to get to grips with it.
I know some on MN will be my 99 year old grandmother learned how to do Internet banking never having used a computer before.
But with everyone else a bit older, do you feel like this? I worry that I am going to reach the stage where I just can't get to grip with new things. And it worries me that every bit of new technology seems to make my life harder, not easier.

I get like this too and passwords for everything gives me the rage these days or technology not working. I find it more time consuming to sort things out when the default position is online. In a lot of ways o wish we could go back to a simpler time/systems.

I'm 54 and don't feel like that, I love new technology and learning how to use it.

I am definitely older than you - by quite a bit! - but use this technology all the time - I had to at work before I retired - I worked in photography and picture editing so it was bread and butter to me. I learned as I went along rather than doing a course.

One thing you could try is to google "How to ....... X, Y or Z" - and you can be sure a YouTube video will appear telling you what you need to know.

I don't understand loving learning how to use it. I have enough going on with my life. Learning it is a necessary evil. Definitely not fun.

@mischance I already do that and do figure things out. But it is taking me longer to get to grip with new things than it used to. And I resent wasting hours of my time getting to grip with new tech.
Even finding a decent YouTube video that explains it takes time. So many times I have started watching one only to realise they are explaining how to use an earlier version

@turmeric I agree online default is longer often. I just rang my bank earlier with a query. Call quickly answered and addressed. Took less time than when I have used a chatbot.
The first line of tech seemed to set out to make our lives easier. This line of tech is simply to cut staff and transfer the work staff used to do, to us.

I'm just fed up about how little real change there is - I spent half an hour turning off all the new features in our work web browser - just clutter and crap added

I'm 65. Earlier I was poking around on my phone and somehow started a video call to an unknown number.

I have no idea how that happened and struggled to see how to hang up. Luckily they never answered.

I do banking online, spreadsheet for budget, can send emails and texts, can use MN....... but every few months I hear about some new innovation and I think Fuck Me I am So out of touch.

I remember when Star Trek introduced the idea of communicators, phasers, tricorders. They all exist now in some form.

To think my Dad's first family car didn't have indicator lights - it had little arms each side that stuck up to indicate to the car behind (but often no car behind at all).

Now I understand how my paternal gran felt - born 1884, died 1976. The changes she'd seen.....

Be careful what you wish for. I’m getting irritated at the use of “technology” to supposedly make life easier when in reality it takes longer and puts the onus on the customer to fucking do everything. Eg self-service tills, ticket machines at railway stations. The latest brainwave is Royal Mail installing machines in the post office. Took ages to weigh the item, make sure it fitted through the large letter template, select the value, select payment type etc etc. Meanwhile 2 members of staff were hanging around offering “advice” when it would have been far quicker for them to have sat behind the counter and served me. I suppose the aim is that after 6 months there’ll only be 1 staff to assist, and then eventually none.

It's all the passwords and logins that get me. Even when I ring the bank I have to ask them to try a different security question - I say "ask me my mothers maiden name as I know that"

A friend stopped at services and decided to stay overnight at the hotel as she was too tired to drive home. They said they could only give her a room if she booked online. She is not tec savvy. She had to stand in reception on her phone trying to figure out how to book a room when she was already there.

That's exactly what's happened in our PO, we've had self service machines since pre Covid.

I don't feel like that OP, I find generally new tech makes things easier for me. For example QR codes for returning on line shopping and not having to print out labels- genius!

That would irritate me to be fair, that's ridiculous.

Totally agree, OP. I'm in my 50s too and am becoming increasingly annoyed at the lie often sold to us all that doing things online is easier etc. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

I use the internet a lot and certainly wouldn't want to be without it, but I'm no fool and know full well that many things used to be much simpler and quicker before modern technology. Spending ages trying to find a workaround for some tech problem is not a valuable use of life in my view.

Younger generations who've never known a time when things were done either in person or by phone or post, won't know just how much time and effort they're effectively having to waste as they've nothing to compare it to.

I've been an early adopter all my life; I was programming web apps before most of my friends had used eBay. Increasingly, though, I can't be arsed. I have no TikTok or Instagram presence because I don't live my life through a camera, signed up for Telegram and that other Next Big Thing, took a look and thought "nah, too much hassle", and really fucking hate all the extras they keep adding into my browsers and OS.

Everything seems to be built by incompetent idiots. If I'm saving some corporation's overheads by doing business remotely, I want them to provide an interface that works every time and a variety of support options that can actually answer my queries!

It's always been obvious that tech (or, rather, the humans who run it) want people to suit their systems rather than make systems to suit people. But they could do it with significantly more grace. Why the fuck can't the self-checkout thingy deal with a bag on the 'out' tray, so I can pack as I scan? It's already robbing that nice lady of a job, depriving me of an everyday human interaction and forcing me to listen to its godawful beeps and repetitive greetings as I shop. The least it could do would be to make my self-checkout efficient!

But, no, my convenience doesn't factor anywhere in the design. Bastards.

I keep up to speed with developments. As I see what's coming, though, my thoughts go like: "That's amazing! How clever! And they could go from there to ... that application, and that other thing! Interesting! But it won't work right, will it? They're assuming the internet never goes down and everyone has high-end equipment using perfect streaming. Haha. And then some money man will come along and bowdlerise it, then they'll hand it over to a team of jargon-spouting fuckwits who've never lived in the real world, and it'll all go to shit. They'll blame the end users."

Argh. I also feel like my Gran, born 1900. She talked about when the countryside was full of people working in the fields, there were no planes in the sky and there were birds everywhere. My life's been easier than hers, largely thanks to technology. All the same, I sympathise more than I ever thought I would with her cynicism about progress.

I enjoyed that rant 😬 Thanks for the thread, @everetting!

I think self service checkouts are a good example. When first introduced people used them if buying a few things like a loaf of bread and a pint of milk. It was quicker.
Now in Asda you have self checkout for trolleys and only one or two manned checkouts. Self service for trolleys is not quicker but longer.

I'm happy enough with new technology and software, for now

I can't help wondering at how unnecessary some of it is and how it has limitations

I accidentally bought a 'smart' washing machine, all was fine, until the servers hosting the app broke down and I was left just about able to put on a basic wash

Banking apps are currently the bane of my life - encouraging us to download the app, then telling us that what we want to do can only be done via the website, which won't touch us now ad we've logged into the app or now requires a OTP, a card reader or a phone call, instead of a user name and password