Things that are meant to be better but are not better

[CrocsNotDocs]

Look, I’m not a Luddite- I usually love technology.

But why oh why have headphones jacks been removed from phones and tablets? I don’t want Bluetooth headphones or earbuds that I have to worry about charging before I go anywhere and that cost a zillion dollars. I want cheap old fashioned headphones that don’t go flat that can be plugged into your device and just work. I don’t want to use the charging port for headphones- I like to charge my device while using it. I want headphone jacks back.

YABU- Everything new is always better
YANBU- some things were not broken and should have been left alone

"Build Back Better": one of Saint Boris's three-word slogans.
What the fuck was that about?

And, as so many replies have said, making us dependent on our phones for so many things. THIS MUST STOP. I am resisting this as fiercely as I can. I will hang on to my cash, debit cards (not on my phone), non-smart meter, and key to start my car which has to be inserted and turned.

Like everyone else, by Googling. But with seemingly less sense checking whether the information is reliable.

Olden days (pre 2019)
Driving in the car : I’m too warm, let’s twist one knob

Now
Driving in the car: I’m too warm, let’s navigate through three screens, accidentally press one button because I went over a bump, navigate again, slide my finger to get the cooler to the right spot.

FUCK OFF

I had a phone - Sony Eriksson(?) that had port covers for the charger, headphone jack and cable to connect to computer to upload/download music and photos

There is just too much choice in general.
Helping my dad choose a bathroom suite. Why are there eleventy billion almost identical sinks and baths and toilets? The marketing blurb banging on about subtle curves and things.

Stupid car keys with no key so when the battery goes you are literally unable to open or drive your car. And now thieves can just reprogramme a key from just outside your car and drive it away! Happened to two friends recently. Who needed to build on the key? It’s been an amazing invention for millennia.

Our car has voice controls as an option for sat nav and radio.
Except it reads phonetically so we've had to work out various names in the phonics system... especially fun when we lived in Germany

App based ordering to table has opened up a lot of social life for neurodivergent people. It hasn’t taken jobs away as the servers still need to serve!
There’s room for both, IMO.

Noted, I will try that, thank you.

If places atmre going to use they have to ensure there is adequate data signal though.

We went bowling at the weekend... you could food and drinks to your table but they had no data signal

The Dartford crossing.

You used to : queue for miles, go to a kiosk, then lob eg 1.50 into a basket or pay by card.

Now: queue for miles then pass 485 signs telling you to remember to pay the charge.

The experience while driving is largely the same - you're stuck in a slow moving queue for miles but I imagine they make more money by people forgetting to pay!

Agree with headphone jacks and touchscreens in cars. And parking apps, and the fact you need a password for virtually everything- even one off experiences.

All of these things are just ways of extracting money from people.

Phone companies don't want you to spend £10 on a cheap pair of headphones, they want you to spend upwards of £30 on their branded earbuds.

Apps for parking, train tickets etc. are a case of third parties inserting themselves between you and the service you want to purchase to take a cut of your money and/or the company's money.

Digitising household goods is a way to speed up built in obsolescence.

TV subscriptions - speaks for itself.

Cashless everything is a way of collecting data that can be sold on.

We can resist this, but sad to say the tide is probably too strong and too far out now and the few of us that are swimming against it will ultimately be stranded on an island of not being able to do anything because we don't have the right apps to complete the basic tasks needed in everyday life.

Was just coming on to say this. So dangerous and bloody annoying. We recently got rid of an electric car we’d had nothing but trouble with. Dozens of different screens for everything.

Alleged ‘safety’ devices that couldn’t be switched off automatically without going through a giant palaver each and every time you switched the car on (90% of my driving is on remote rural roads and the ‘twitch’ function on the steering wheel almost caused accidents countless times due to the car misinterpreting my intentions or reacting incorrectly to road markings). Being basically a gigantic laptop, it was off the road more often than on it because of battery problems. I really hated that car!

Now got an old mini. Dials and buttons and an actual mechanical engine, where one bit can be mended or replaced without the whole sodding thing shutting down and costing a fortune. So happy to go back to an analogue car.

I don't like online ordering in restaurants, but the other day I went somewhere where I thought they had it just right.

Order with a person, then to pay you scan a QR code. No logging in, and you could select the items you paid ate and it added your share of the tip to them. It was SO easy for a meal with friends. I paid for another friend as she was in a hurry and within seconds she had paid me back as we both have a Monzo. Seemed a really good example to me of modern tech making stuff better/easier.

Hang on a what now? No headphone socket? What nonsense is this?

The bridge is a lit quicker than it used to be. The tunnel is variable... but they can't improve that without building an extra one for some extra lanes!

I am refusing to upgrade my iphone entirely due to fact it is the last apple phone with headphone jacks.

I don't know anyone who hasn't lost a bud, misplaced the charger even driven over one in one case...

As much as I think our lives have been enhanced by the advancement in tech, I feel customer care has declined as a result.

I have a little Bluetooth transmitter/receiver for my wired headphones. It is another thing to charge, but I like it, because its so lightweight. I can keep my phone somewhere safe (or plugged in to charge) and move around.
Because it's so light it doesn't fall out of my pockets like my phone.
Agree with your general point though OP. I only got this gadget because I already own nice headphones and didn't want to have to spend loads of money replacing with wireless versions. I don't like replacing things unnecessarily.

I can barely use a touch screen due to dyspraxia and visual impairment.
My late mum couldn't use one at all as her fingers were distorted by arthritis and dypruytens, and no matter how hard she tried, no screen would recognise her touch.

Sky Glass!! Useless crap that's way worse than previous set up.

All the different apps you now need to watch tv that all fast forward and rewind differently to each other but work using 1 remote control.

Parking apps!!
Electric car charging apps!!
Restaurant apps that then have the cheek to charge you for using the app!!
Touchscreen cooker that sets a timer because my t-shirt accidentally brushed it whilst I was cooking something on the hob! Fuck off!!
The touchscreen stove that beeps at me because I put a tray on top of it for a minute so i can dish up dinner!! Stop attention seeking!!

I agree with everything mentioned! And the most annoying thing for me is that we're supposed to believe that we have much more choice now, but it's the total opposite. They phase out things that a lot of people are perfectly happy with.

I hired a car the other day that had a backwards camera and screen instead of a rear view mirror. Bloody awful.

When you flick your eyes from looking through the windscreen to the rear view mirror it's all distance focused, very easy to flick quickly to mirror and back. With a screen your eyes have to adjust to near focus to see the screen and then back to distance for the road ahead. Slower to change between the two and harder for older eyes.

And let's not even think about varifocal wearers who can't focus on near things through the top of their lenses and now have to move their whole head to use the rear view! Madness!

Unfortunately tech is being used against us now. The big question about whatever form of tech used for any purpose is ‘who controls it and why’. It’s being pushed solely to make the rich richer and look good, with no thought for any social consequence whatsoever. Restraints have gone. Democratic thinking has gone. Even the basic idea of asking all consumers what they want has gone.

The public institutions that used to be able to get serious discussion shouted at those in charge have all gone. Even practical considerations of security have gone, there are as a pp says serious vulnerabilities in the internet of all things.

The reduction of decent news, now that the libraries have gone too, and the forcing of tech onto schoolkids particularly get my goat. God knows what the future holds.

Is it even possible to keep it?
We moved digital already. We were upgrading internet and did it together, I was very against it but DH persuaded me that all would go digital by end of this year.
I absolutely hate the fact that as power cut will affect my phone. It’s so not me to rely on one source (WiFi) for everything and not to have a back up. I have a power bank and keep it charged but it doesn’t feel the same.

Appliances with personality disorders.

Touchscreen hob starts freaking out if anything is put anywhere near it. Microwave gets more and more distressed if I don't remove my food then second it tells me it has finished heating. Washing machine has an attitude problem. Ask it nicely to start by pressing the screen and it refuses to acknowledge me. Lightly brush past it on way to the sink though? Oh you can bet that bastard is going for recognise that as a command to change settings...then is has the audacity to loudly announce it has finished , every couple of minutes until I take the clothes out.