To think that parts of modern life are preposterous (lighthearted)

[madnessitellyou]

Not long after I bought my first car in the late 90s I realised I needed an ice scraper. I went to the local hardware-cum-poundshop-cum-Home Bargains-type place and purchased the one ice scraper they sold. It was a couple of quid and served my ice removal needs very well until twenty-odd years and several car changes later I lost it.

Given pandemic and laziness I turned to Amazon. There were pages upon pages of ice scrapers of different designs. I suddenly found myself overwhelmed and spent a good 30 minutes reading reviews of ice scrapers, agonising over which one to buy.

How is this real life? It wasn't the first time I've wasted time forensically reading reviews of fairly insignificant items.

Am I getting old, or missing the point of what the modern world brings us?

Modern life has brought us too many options and too much choice, which shouldn't be a bad thing but it is a waste of bloody time when all you want is and ice scrapper or in my case, last week's time warp reading through what may or may not have been real reviews for decent combination padlocks for my garage door. 😕

Back in the day I used a cassette box.

No need for high fallutin SCRAPERS.....

Buying an ice scraper felt like I was an actual adult back then. I also bought the 1998 road atlas.

My new ice scraper has just been delivered. Teenage dd has feigned excitement to humour me.

@TinkersRucksack

Back in the day I used a cassette box.

No need for high fallutin SCRAPERS.....

Haha

Same

But yes, OP, I agree. The world is a crazy place these days.

I couldn't agree more. A month or two ago I was looking for a laptop sleeve, nothing fancy, but not a plain black one either. There were hundreds of pages of them on Amazon, I spent bloody hours looking at them.

The more choices you have the more possibility of getting it wrong until buying the most mundane thing involves hours of research and comparing reviews!

@TinkersRucksack

Back in the day I used a cassette box.

No need for high fallutin SCRAPERS.....

Cassette box? Oooooooooo you were posh. We had a library card and glad of it.

I find a library card (or, in my case, supermarket loyalty card) works better than a cassette box (or a tic Tac box).

My preposterous modern life thing is i seem to find choosing what's for dinner stressful. How can it be anything other than a celebration of the fact we can have nice full tummies i dont know. I think my gran had boiled potatoes, seasonal veg and whatever protien she could afford every day. She never flapped over pasta or rice.

You lot are geniuses with your library cards. I'm doing this next time.

This morning I was too lazy to go back into the house to get water for the not-very-thick layer of ice on the windscreen, so I just pressed my hand against the glass and melted a small patch sufficient to then widen with some windscreen wiper action.

It was, I hope, at least a bit more efficient than trying to whittle down choices on hated Amazon. Sticking it to the consumer capitalist agenda with my frost bitten hand ✊

Too much choice and too much instant gratification these days

@RedLimoncello

You lot are geniuses with your library cards. I'm doing this next time.

This morning I was too lazy to go back into the house to get water for the not-very-thick layer of ice on the windscreen, so I just pressed my hand against the glass and melted a small patch sufficient to then widen with some windscreen wiper action.

It was, I hope, at least a bit more efficient than trying to whittle down choices on hated Amazon. Sticking it to the consumer capitalist agenda with my frost bitten hand ✊

😂😂😂😂 that's an incredible (baffling) set on decisions you made this morning, properly made me snog-laugh. I'm no better in some aspects of life myself though, not even remotely

Sticking it to the consumer capitalist agenda with my frost bitten hand

Power to the people, sister.

I know this feeling.
When I bought our house there were conveniently placed holes for loo roll holders beside both loos, so I duly went off to the local building supplies shop. Imagine my horror when I was confronted by an entire wall, something like 6+m wide and a good 3+m tall covered in loo roll holders. They were in every material and colour. I just stood there, like a rabbit in the headlights, then backed away quickly.
My husband came back fro a business trip and wondered why I hadn't made any progress, so suggested we went together. His reaction was exactly the same, overwhelmed.
To this day, 18 years later I still don't have loo roll holders.

Sticking it to the consumer capitalist agenda with my frost bitten hand ✊

Is that emoji a fist or have all the fingers fallen off through cold?

There’s been research done about excessive choice causing humans stress! I can believe it!

It's baffling, for sure.

But what baffles me even more is the way that I often know exactly what I want, but despite the massive choice available to me I frequently can't find the sort of thing that is exactly what I want.

I read once that the brain can only cope with a set number of decisions every day.
I think it is contributing to the epidemic of stress and depression we have in modern life.
For anyone struggling with dinner decisions, I highly recommend hello fresh or similar. I used to be on the verge of crying in the supermarket a lot of the time. Now I feel like a weight has been lifted and I have more brain power for other stuff.

What gets me is...who felt compelled to share their reviews of ice scrapers?

They sat down, logged into Amazon and wrote out a review of their beloved ice scraper. For fun.

I agree that there is way too much choice for every-bloody-thing. I also think we have to remember so much more stuff - it’s no wonder I can’t remember stuff - my brain is full.

That is my excuse, and I am sticking to it.

Quite @ButtWormHole - why bother?!

Don’t get me started on passwords and not being allowed to use one that’s too short, or too similar to my last 6, or doesn’t have special characters in it...

I actually do believe it is causing this stress epidemic

God I hate a website that is a password nazi.

I also loathe that we are asked to review every single fucking thing these days.

The deluge of emails chasing for feedback , reviews and bloody advertising ....agh!!!!

@ZebraSpotts i have to ask, is there much tongue action involved with a snog laugh?