What modern invention is meant to be helpful but is the opposite?

[HippyDays]

Snooze button…

I’m so used to it now I sleep through for ages hitting snooze. So today when I really had to get up early I didn’t. And missed my train.

I am blaming the invention of snooze rather than admit my own imperfection 😁

Car parking apps. I refuse to use them and drive to a different car park.

Just let me use cash or a card.

Push button starters for cars. Because now I have to find somewhere to put my keys while I am driving, and remember to pick them up when I get out of the car. If only there was a handy place to plug them in so I never lost them.

Agree. I've often found myself with soapy hands and no water, having to wipe the soap off with loo roll. Trains are especially bad for this.

Email.
I know, I know.
But honestly, make it stop! It's never ending.
At least let me charge to send emails to me and then the sender gets their 25p back if I reply or something.

I would say touch screens on cars. So they look much slicker and do more stuff, but I think you have avert your eyes longer to eg adjust the heating or aircon, de-mist the windscreen or swap radio station than when it was dials and knobs that you could turn one notch to the right etc, without looking.

And agree all the beeping and dinging, I reversed into my drive, perfectly, using my eyes and the mirrors, for about 15 years. Got a new car, now I find it more distracting and probably takes longer because theres a series of beeps telling me I'm 6" away from a leaf. I know - I can see it!

Also I bought some de-icer the other day and the only options were fancy scented ones. I think I ended up getting a berry one. It's to de-ice the outside of your car, what does it matter what it smells like? I felt like it was fixing a problem that wasn't there!

I think you might be using it wrong.

Works well on my gravel drive.

My husband's colleague saw an elderly man mistake one for a urinal, at a service station. The mess was pretty bad apparently 😳

I totally agree re car touch screens. I'd much prefer knobs to adjust volume and heating.

Totally agree. Hate them.

I remember the invention of the snooze button. Complete shitshow. Most people agreed after 6 months that it just makes everything more painful. It should be banned. Even the concept of it as an option wrecks the head

@Chiseltip Anything that beeps on a car. I've just changed my car from one whose only beep was if the fuel level was low to one that now beeps multiple for things every time I get in it and I find myself trying to work out what pinged and why. I've managed to drive for 43 years without getting a speeding ticket - I don't need a ping to tell me there's a speed camera ahead!

My car is like a fucking slot machine. Surely some genius will come along and offer low hi cars.

Anyone without a tumble dryer benefits from a heated clothes dryer. Saved me from damp clothes taking days to dry for about 8 years til I moved house and had space for a tumble dryer. As it seems to rain about 200 days a year I can't rely on being able to line dry.

Keyless cars. This has to be one of the worst invention blunders ever, has made cars much more vulnerable to theft, and it's your fault if your car is stolen, if you didn't use a Faraday pouch. The manufacturers don't want to admit this.

Built-in delays when pressing a button. Televisions seem particularly bad for this: when you switch mine on, there are twenty whole seconds before you can actually use it. Even the old cathode ray tubes were quicker than that. On an old set, when you changed channel, it happened instantly, with a satisfying click. And I've had to train my parents not to press a button a second time if they think it hasn't responded, as this causes chaos; for example, pressing 3 twice gets taken to be 33.

@Sinkintotheswamp I too refuse to use car parking apps, even if it costs slightly more. Ditto using your phone to pay for things: this must not become normalised. If your phone is stolen, you are screwed; and as we know from other threads, this can happen very easily.

Devices such as Alexa, and Ring doorbells, I have refused both. As far as I am concerned, somebody is playing the long game to normalise being spied on in your own home, and paying for the privilege of doing so, softening us up for Orwellian telescreens. (Yes, I know this happens in lots of other ways as well, such as everything you buy, or do on the internet being monitored.)

Anything requiring a subscription: these add up quicky. I put up with the ads on Youtube, rather than pay to silence them.

Having to "create an account" for something, especially online shopping. I've sometimes abandoned a purchase, it it's too complicated.

They are also very bad for the insect population. Ghastly things.

Computer on every desk. My career (many moons ago) used to be managing people to get the best out of them, delivering multi million pound projects, interesting, high powered, fast moving.
Any reports were dictated on the go, sent to a typing pool and delivered in a timely manner.
Before I left in the noughties, the job was dull. Typing up stuff endlessly. They paid tens of thousands of pounds to train me as a specialist, got rid of the typing, document production specialists and ended up with a compromise which was supposedly cheaper, but provided a slightly worse result on both sides.
A computer on every desk, just means more people spend more time on computers.

LED lights. Supposedly good for the environment but the glare is terrible for wildlife, terrible for humans, just painful and ugly to look at.

Agree with the leaf blower comment, too. So noisy, idiotic, inefficient, wasteful, awful for insects and people's respiratory systems. Use a bloody rake.

I use a normal airer and a dehumidifier, I had a heated clothes dryer and it took longer than that method, couldn't fit as much on and was forever rearranging the clothes on it. I just turn the whole airer now, and if the heating is on it dries even quicker.
Have a tumble dryer but it's small load one so only use it if I need something quickly. Heated airer took longer and created more work for me.

Bag? Pocket?

Endless passwords and 2 factor authentication nonsense. Fair enough for banks etc but why does everything need a complicated password that needs endless changes. I’ve got about 15 for different systems at work. Some must have a special character, some can’t have a special character, some last for months and others only a few weeks, some constantly have errors so IT have to get me back in, some you can’t reuse old passwords, but you mustn’t write them down like I’m going to remember them all forever.
Apps for everything. I can’t get on a bus where I live without an app so have to have a relatively modern smart phone with enough battery and data for your return journey even if you are 6 years old or poor or have cognitive impairment or don’t want a bloody smartphone .
Love my heated airer though

Most apps, QR codes, most modern cars

Anything with voice control or voice recognition.

I always think that wireless charging for phones is a bit emperor's new clothes. If wireless charging had been the initial way to charge phones, and then wired charging had been invented, people would be thrilled because it would mean they could hold their phone and use it while it charges - so much better than it having to be physically on the wireless charging station.