To be so drained and fed up of constant electronic forms and passwords and apps?

[Bananabreadandcupofcoffeethanks]

Hate it so much I can't express it. Nothing works right for me, you need a fairly recent smartphone for apps to work for example.

Then with electronic forms. Fuck me. I'm trying to fill in a whole complicated form for an appointment and cannot get the 'electronically fillable' form to work. So now I have to print it, and hope the printer works, and then take a photo and scan or something.

I don't have the energy to do this now. It is now a whole multi step process with lots of little bits to get the task done.

I just fucking hate it all when it comes to appointments and job applications and whatnot, and then everything needing an app, or an account with a password that needs xyz to meet criteria.

God needed to get that off my chest.

Absolutely OP I totally hate all the tech and IT that's involved with EVERYTHING now. I'm rubbish with computers and yet everything is done this way. I too just like chucking a few coins into a machine for my carpark or just manually filling out a form but unless you're savvy on the computer- it's a tough slog!

It's cookies I hate. 'We care about /value your privacy' that's why the default setting is to accept marketing cookies. So I always opt for 'change settings', accept functional cookies ' so we recognise you when you come back' and refuse marketing cookies.

So, if I've said they can remember my preferences, why do they ask me Every Fucking Time? And when I move to a different page on the same website? It's a travesty.

I have a bit of experience with user design, and I have to say that a lot of programmers and developers are basically half-baked techies who don't really understand the purpose of what users are trying to achieve.

I had to do a LOT of directing to get them to understand the purpose of functions, and how to make them sleek, efficient, and clearly understandable.

I prefer apps, I'm a techy person. But a lot of them are shite.

Nowadays we seem to have to do everything ourselves so companies can employ fewer people.

Unfortunately, yes. Businesses operate on the accepted principle that to thrive, they not only have to make a profit, they have to make an increasing amount of profit every year, to cover the cost of inflation, increasing costs of energy, raw materials and labour. Enough profit to satisfy shareholders, the most powerful of whom are insurance and pension funds. Who themselves have to generate enough money to provide their pensioners with thirty years’ worth of income from thirty years’ worth of saving 5-10% of their salaries. It doesn’t actually stack up, especially when on top of this as consumers we are not prepared to pay the prices that would be needed to support the level of salaries we’d accept as employees.

I do agree that it’s worrying how much more is expected of people just to survive in society now though, and how many are getting left behind because they just don’t have the capacity. It wasn’t that long ago that most people spent their entire lives herding a few sheep and living off turnips and porridge. Our brains haven’t evolved away from that as quickly as the world created by a very small number of people.

That’s nothing compared to the hell that is adverts on catch up tv, you can’t even fast forward them 😡

absolutely

to get them to understand is like trying to get a small child to understand further maths.

pus as I mentioned previously the (lack of) communication skills.

I don't think it's anything to do with age.

I know when I was a kid I used to be able to remember everyone's phone numbers, but it's easier to remember those than it is very similar but slightly different passwords because everyone has different rules. I often use the # in my passwords, but I'm seeing an increasing number of websites which demand a symbol but you can't use a #.

MN could do with reading this! The number of times I have to reject cookies on the MN website is ludicrous. Same with the Times website. And my employer's blog!

If you opt out of email marketing, the company can't keep emailing you to ask you to change your mind.

The same laws apply to cookies (it's not actually GDPR, it's separate regulations from 2003). So it's the same rule - I've said I've rejected cookies so you don't keep asking me.

Some websites get this right, so it's really not that hard.

I'm surprised the barriers were shut if there were no staff there, they usually leave them open (and are supposed to, you can't be imprisoned in the station!)

Totally agree op. Fucking usernames and passwords make me want to rip my own eyes out! Such a waste of TIME!

Yes well needless to say so was I. I think it was staffed still but very sparsely so eventually someone came , he was probably the only person on that evening .

My ee sim card got damaged and is completely dead, went to the ee website clicked on "replace a lost or stolen sim" .... it insists on sending a verification code to initiate the process of replacing a lost or stolen sim.... how the fuck am I supposed to receive a verification code when my sim has been lost or stolen you complete and utter fuckwits!!

i feel this deeply

same as im sick of having to pre book everything even if it’s free 😡

I couldn’t agree more

i feel like it’s making us dumber. You need to use your brain and your body or you ‘lose it’. It also gives a sense of satisfaction and gets you doing something ‘different’. I feel at my most depressed when I sit there on screens all day not doing anything physical.

i honestly find it really depressing in a way therapy cant fix, like existentially depressing. I cant help but think the future is most people living in virtual reality half the time, AI scarily advanced and forever advancing because of neuralink systems and continuing to exploit the earth beyond limit

I call companies up where I can, don't use self checkouts, rarely shop online, but it's getting harder and harder.

The problem is, by not going with the flow, you actually draw attention to yourself.

We passed the point a while ago where someone not on any social media and with no internet use was innocent. Now the very first thought is "what have they got to hide?". Certainly in the western world, and certainly if you're applying for a job ....

I think it's when internet became mobile that the world changed for the worse. Before then, when you had to sit down at a computer and purposefully do something online you could get up and walk away.
Agree with existential misery. I feel like we have sleepwalked into a " better" " easier" way of doing everything while making ourselves stupider and excluding the old, the very poor, the technically challenged. That's wrong, it's fundamentally wrong that you need a mobile internet enabled device to basically function in society.

it's fundamentally wrong that you need a mobile internet enabled device to basically function in society.

You could say the same of money.

it's fundamentally wrong that you need a mobile internet enabled device to basically function in society

I don’t know anyone, young old, poor wealthy who doesn’t have a phone. And it will get more important. Society moves on.

As I said. See also: money 😀

I'm of an age to remember some friends whose parents didn't have a phone - from choice. It's incredible how vocal a minority they were on TV and radio bemoaning the only way you could contact some companies was by phone.

(Although, 50 years on, and there are some companies you can still only contact by phone)

You could say the same of money.

Except that money works everywhere. Mobile phones don’t.

My late DF didn't have a phone, mobile or landline, internet or TV, so some don't.

Exactly! This is what some people don't seem able to grasp, how it was so much easier years ago to get a problem sorted. You simply phoned them, spoke to a human - who was actually in the same country you are in - and they gave you an answer. What could be more simple? I spent ages one day recently trying to get a phone issue sorted. The chat was useless, every link I tried didn't work, and I was tying myself in knots. Eventually I managed to book a call-back and got it fixed, but what a palaver. I've been waiting a month for a response to my last "contact us' form request. Bad, bad, customer service, but it seems the customer is no longer a priority.

A lot of the companies don't want to be contacted, I'm sure British Gas would rather I wasn't able to easily contact them to tell them my smart meter is not connected properly or they might have to do something about it.

so many people with elderly parents spend so much time having to support them with this stuff , it takes away independence rather than giving it .

My late DF was great at his finances, and easily kept on top of paying his bills - until cheques became obsolete (not in the UK), and suddenly I had to take over paying them. He didn't have a computer - and why should he have to learn how to use one in his late 80s? He didn't have a smart phone either, but had very arthritic hands and would have struggled. Taking away independence from elderly people is just so wrong.

I don’t know anyone, young old, poor wealthy who doesn’t have a phone. And it will get more important. Society moves on.

Said by someone with no empathy. Yes, everyone might have a phone but I can guarantee there are many who don't know how to use most of the functions on it. The majority of people on this thread are fed up with the modern technological age and how people no longer matter, so saying "society moves on" is not helpfu. Society has always moved on, but in earlier times it was much more easy (and less expensive) to keep up. Many elderly people are floundering and baffled by the modern world - and one day that may well be you!