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.

I don't have a complex life but, while I was on holiday, I made a list of all the things I had to sort out when I got home. I thought "How do other people deal with this/more stuff?" Maybe a lot of people don't on some level.

Ah! I have it through work so not aware of that. What a nuisance!

I totally agree. Technology is great in some respects, in others it falls very far short, especially in everday life. Some websites are so user un-friendly that it is just a battle,

Had no idea parking apps were so hated. There are three car parks in town all equally convenient in terms of location. I always put the one that doesn't let you pay via an app as my last resort one should the others be full.

It's so much more convenient and unlike the annoying one where I have to overestimate how long I'll be there to make sure I'm covered I can just pay for a bit then extend it if needs be.

I like to imagine that whoever designed Government Gateway has long since fled the country under a cloak of anonymity to live in a monastery atop a mountain in order to atone for their sins for the rest of their life.

Yep. Would love to go back to my mum’s day, where the only annoying thing she had to deal with was “the school”. And that was before bloody WhatsApp!

Yes it does, it shows us just who is too young to understand how much more simple life used to be!

I'm not in the UK, but I sent a message via their website to a government department a month ago to ask a question - they still have not replied!!! In the good old days I would have phoned, not had to wait three days in a queue, and got an answer straight away.

Personally - and obviously I can't speak for anyone else - my main bugbear with stuff like the parking app is that it just assumes you have a fast efficient phone glued to you at all times.

I used to hop in the car and go into town just with my keys, bank card and a few quid in my pocket.

I dislike it being essential to have my phone with me for everything.

I leave my phone at home as much as possible, and prefer to leave it in a different room from me when I'm at home, and that's getting harder to do.

LastPass is an amazing service - cheap, bulletproof - that collects your passwords and Seamlessly (honestly, seamlessly) integrates them across all devices so that whenever you visit a website with login required, your login info is right there where you need it.
So easy!
One master password to rule them all, and authentication by thumbprint

@Avarua2 Ah! You nearly had me - and then your last sentence would trip me up - authentication by thumbprint. I can’t do this on my iPhone nor at work on a Watson machine reliably. At least 1/5 times they refuse to authenticate my finger print. I suspect I grow wrinkles all too quickly and not just on my face.

technology can be brilliant but sometimes Argh!!!!!!!!!

Agree. I have 3 or 4 parking apps. I DO NOT want to stand in the pissing rain entering my long card number on my phone.
If you don't use the App for a while it resets (for security) so you have to do it all again. Much fun when you're somewhere isolated with no arsing phone signal. Bastards.

I am slowly unsubscribing from EVERYTHING and where I used to give reviews for services, I just delete all the emails now.
I ordered something from Halfords online. I must have received 8 or 9 emails: confirmation, status update, then delivery updates from both Halfords and whichever courier they were using. I don't need an email to tell me that Halfords have instructed DHL to collect my order, I don't need to know DHL have got my order. I want confirmation of my purchase and then notification when it will be delivered. And then I don't really need to let DHL 'how the couriers did'. Ermm, he rang the bell and gave me my parcel. No doubt I will be asked to review the item.

Ordered some flowers for someone. It was all fine. The flowers arrived, I've been told they're nice. I've since had about 8 emails : 5% off, a 'gift' if I recommend them to someone, review their service, did I leave something in my basket.

I have about 10 texts asking me to rate services. Delete. Some I don't even know who they're from.

LEAVE ME ALONE!

The problem is it becomes hard to identify the actual important emails.

@TheOrigRights your card still has a long number on it?

When mobile coverage actually covers everywhere it might work. When neighbouring councils condescend to use the same App it might work. But some of us are trotting around carparks in the rain trying to find signal and as above having to reset everything whilst discovering that cold wet thumb prints might not be recognised, it is a pain.

One company is obviously so inundated with people not being able to navigate their website they send instructions on how to find things. You look at it and wonder did they do any usability studies at all?

LastPass can use other forms of authentication too. It's very easy to use (and I am a dinosaur).

Chrome has an integrated password manager, super useful.
But yeah it's ridiculous.
Different councils near me use the same software provider for a particular service - so I have 2 separate accounts with the same email address but different passwords. Useless. Same for MSE's Energy Club and Credit Club. Somehow I have 2 accounts on the same website and need to register twice.

Also, parking troubles - you know when you're supposed to enter a 3 letter code from a sign in the street. Apparently the code in my street suddenly isn't valid. Ffs, I'm using up the last of my 2 hour parking scratch cards.

YANBU

Chrome has an integrated password manager, super useful.

I'm not giving any more of my information to google. They have too much already. No WAY, they can get to f**k.

YANBU. I feel as if I'm uploading my whole life to Google. EVERYTHING requires signing up to a list, or competing a form, then yes the endless passwords. Talking to useless chatbots is my latest bugbear. & What's it all about anyway? Just big business wanting as much of our personal details as possible, so they can target us to sell us their stuff. Its sickening. Currently I have to use a Timesheets app & its horrendous. I sometimes wonder if the creator made it long-winded and almost inaccessible in order to justify how much s/he was paid for his or her time. I think we are at brain overload stage, we aren't built to take in so much stuff or be wired to a screen. 95% of population must have shit eyesight nowadays

Oh I'm sorry you're all suffering but I'm so happy to see it's not just me!

In order to have parental controls you often have to a) make yourself an account and therefore password and b) make the child an email address in order to have an account. Three passwords. One kid. One gaming device of phone. If you use Apple normally and switch to Microsoft for the kids, that's a new circle of hell. After vowing not to waste money on a Mac for my kids, I ended up giving them mine and buying myself a new one only because I couldn't cope with a second set of fecking notifications and passwords for two kids - that required me to sign into the computer they were on at the time, using, yes, another password!

And what on earth is the point in a password manager when you have two step verification processes anyway, especially when the code is sent to your phone via text? Anything stored online is more vulnerable than not. It'd be better to write the passwords down on a piece of paper! A fraudster doesn't have my phone and if they do then they'll be able to use the password manager anyway!

As for the passwords, you think of a new one because the website is making you change, and have the capital letter and number and symbol. And then on the next site that asks you to change they want no symbol. So now you can't remember which sites you need the symbol for (or number or capital letter).

And hell has a special place for whoever decided that you can't use a password you've ever had before. Firstly, why not! Secondly, this in itself is surely a security risk because that means the company is holding ALL our previous passwords, which could give access to hackers to other sites. Surely it's actually more secure to delete that information?

I've got parental controls on the Switch. In order to do that I had to make my own account. That means another password. I don't game. But I need to remember that password because when I have to authorise a kid buying something, I need to enter it.

Yesterday I was trying to buy something online that required my making an account, then two step authentication process and the captcha "click on all traffic lights" thing that wasn't working, then remember my banking code to authorise the credit card. DS walks in with the switch and asks me to authenticate something. I think this emoji sums it up 🤯

Oh yes @daretodenim - the kids!
I have to ask my son to give me some notice if he needs to say buy some pass or other for a game.

Not just tickets. Litteraly everything you buy requires an account. It pisses me off so much I actually give up. They sée it as good business to enable marketing. I see it the opposite.

Covid lock downs absolutely showed lack of human interaction is a serious health risk but technology is doing just this and we think it is progress.

YYY to this.
I followed the advice not to use the same password for everything. The result was I could never remember a single one. So they're all written down in a little notebook. Shoot me.

Just been nodding my head at those of you who've been making the link between the decline in mental health, and the reduction in human interactions.
And OP, YANBU!!