To find people who refuse to embrace technology irritating?

[Sophiehoney]

I don't mean people who genuinely struggle

I am irritated with people who absolutely refuse to even try.
I am sure a lot of the time they do it on purpose. They use the whole "I don't do technology" thing as a personality trait, to be quirky and "not like all you young people" when simply being a bit older is not a reason in itself, as Mumsnet proves!!

People at my work are moaning like hell because the system of filling in patients notes at the end of the shift in a book with a pen has been replaced by handheld devices (basically phones) that are more secure and can be completed on the go. They are so simple but some people are refusing to learn so others are filling their notes in for them.

A lady at the doctor's today point blank refused to even try to sign herself in on the machine. It was literally just a case of pressing a button and then filling in a form with her name and DOB using a keyboard. She declared proudly "I'm not doing this, I don't do technology, I don't even have a mobile phone!" And made he poor stressed receptionist with a line of people waiting come out and do it for her.

My mum will pop round a million times a week with "something she needs me to on her iPad" and it's usually just something trivial like reading an email and sending a one line reply that I know she is capable of. I've stated getting my 13 year old to do and she pays him £1 every time so every cloud 🤷

But these people do irritate me when they expect others to pick up their slack by refusing to try.

AIBU?

I think the problem is when you need a different app and there isn’t much phone signal to set it up. If it’s already there and good to go it’s fine

Parking apps often are different ones. I can remember being in a car park in town I rarely visit in dark trying to look with torch on phone what app I needed to have. In pouring rain. Then thing wouldn’t upload to my phone (newish iPhone) It 100% would have been easier to put a few pound coins in.

The main problem is every carpark wants a different app

With all the scans around now and people being tricked out of their money etc I think people who don't go online to do everything are the smart ones . They won't be ripped off will they?

Someone always comes up with a situation which is quite clearly exempt from the subject of the AIBU.

"AIBU to think it's polite to clap at the end of a concert to show your appreciation to the performers?"

Answer: "Well I can't applaud because I lost one of my hands in a freak vegetable-dicing accident - how dare you make the assertion that I'm impolite!"

TBH I quite like parking apps, as I said my post above, I use them all the time. However, I do agree with your point generally.

DH and I were recently on holiday in China. It is virtually a cashless society there so we installed a payment app on our phones and it was absolutely fine.

However one day we went in to a small coffee shop. It was one of a chain I think, but not one of the well known international ones. Anyway, it was pretty quiet, two people serving behind the counter and one customer in front of us being served. The menu had English translation on so we assumed we could simply smile and point at what we wanted. Not so. When we tried a third member of staff was summoned from the back of the shop. She used a translation app on her phone to communicate with us. It transpired you could only order via an app ( which we didn't have) so she placed the order for us and took payment. All the while this was going on the person behind the counter waited, then as soon as our order appeared on their screen they prepared it. I mean, how is that an improvement on just asking in person or, in our case, pointing at the menu.

Except those pads wont accept my signature as I write it to fast and I cant do it any slower.
So technology is all good and well when it works but beyond useless when it doesn't or only works for some.

I'm in two minds. I refuse to use the self check out because I don't like technology taking people's jobs.

And I don't like the self check in screens in hospitals and doctors for similar reasons.

I think society is worse off for all the tech.

I am perfectly capable of using it, I work in tech, but I much prefer a more personable approach.

I feel irritated when certain (staying out of the rat race type) communities will only embrace technology up to a certain point in time. Usually the 1970's.

landlines = ok, mobiles = not ok
acoustic guitars = ok, electric guitars = not ok
clockwork watch = ok, digital watch = not ok
oven = ok, microwave = not ok

It bugs the hell out of me.

Unless she couldn't read.

Large amounts of these technologies place people with disabilities at a disadvantage - obviously not all and some really help but most of these "efficiencies" are not disability friendly.

Computers used to be our servants. Now they rule us, and it’s going to get worse.

You pick up your laptop because you NEED it right now, because of some demand our tech-laden world has thrown at you, and then…

”installing updates… please be patient, this could take a while”.

Also, I dislike the informal tone that error messages now take. “It appears you’re not online. :( And the internet isn’t the same without you.” It makes you long for the blue screen of death, or even “unexpected item in bagging area”.

With disabilities and additional needs, there are winners and losers with technology.

In noisy places l can find it easier to input information into touch screens/ apps than having to battle across background noise to hear and be heard. Hearing aid technology has advanced and is using functions like blue tooth, and sound quality and comfort have improved from old analogue styles.

People with literacy/ visual difficulties can benefit from adjustable text size/ brightness/ background colours and text to speech. AI is becoming useful for proofreading and refining text for people who struggle to organise ideas into a flowing written form. People aren't so impaired if co-ordination results in poor hand writing, or having to read poor quality documents (over-copied/ carbon paper/ other's handwriting)

People with communication difficulties can find technology invaluable for communicating with others and breaking down barriers.

Car parking apps are ripe for some private equity company to buy them all up and merge them.

Of course it's going to be harder when they've never tried before, can't find a car park with a machine to accept cash/card, getting late for an appointment, and then get stressed downloading the app and trying to work out how to use it

What if you don't have a smartphone? I know a couple of people who don't.

Luddite is hardly a 'fancy' word, historically it referred to those who refused to accept advances in the technology of the day, it is an excellent descriptor of the situation being discussed.

I’m 64 and have no problem with technology. Today I was helping my 86 yr old neighbour as she needed a freezer. This lady has her own tablet and mobile phone but isn’t that confident on them - I think she does well considering her age. Anyhow she chose what she wanted and I started to check it out for her. All was well until we got to payment when the bank needed to verify the payment. She doesn’t do online banking so we had to call the bank and she was told there was a 30min wait to speak to someone to verify her purchase! We gave up and I paid on my card in the end and she will reimburse me. I don’t think that enough thought has been given to people like my neighbour that genuinely try but can’t do some things. Why is there no alternative for elderly and independent people?

If work is expecting their staff to use the technology then they should be responsible for providing the necessary training. I remember 20 years ago there was no training provided in schools for equipment being introduced, we were expected to muddle our way through, hoping for the best.

I’ve been battling with DM (now 90, albeit still very sharp) to use a mobile phone for years. Despite being more than capable (and secretly enjoying a scroll on my smartphone to look at pictures, catch up with family social media posts etc!) she point blank refuses as she doesn’t ‘do’ technology. I even bought her one years ago in hopes that she would come round to the idea. It has never even been touched.

I just think it’s selfish to be honest. Life would be so much easier if we could contact her on something other than a bloody landline! Ringing her feels like Russian roulette - if she doesn’t pick up has she a) had a bad accident and can’t get to the phone or b) simply out in the garden or at the shops… 🤦‍♀️

My parents who are in their 70s (mum) and 80s (dad) were always pushing against some tech. ‘We will never have internet in our house.’

I was so happy to hear my dad used ChatGPT the other day!

I don't understand the hate for parking apps. I use one all the time and it's very convenient. Obviously easier than paying cash as you don't need to worry about having the right change. But also, IMO, easier than paying with a card. You can pay without leaving your car, no need to wander to the other side of the car park to find the machine

Unless you have to wonder around the car park and beyond trying to get a signal. It's the biggest complaint I hear.

It’s because there are too many parking apps.

A parking app is all very well if it’s a spot you use regularly. But if you’re visiting somewhere once, and maybe in a hurry, you don’t want to be faffing around downloading an app, using up valuable data (another curse of this tech-laden world: if you run out, you’re screwed, or paying through the nose for bolt-ons). You want to just put coins in a machine like you used to, or preferably not be paying at all. That’s another debate, I know, but paying for parking has become so normalised, that councils and big business know it’s an easy way to fleece people. I’m one of those who will resist by parking further away and walking, if I can do it for free. Small victory if I manage it.

@BerryTwister hopefully someone has told you this already- I haven't read the whole thread yet

You can create a home button on a new iPhone. Just google for the instructions. Is very convenient having a home button!

I am wary of technology becoming over-intrusive. I will not get Alexa or similar; I don’t like machines spontaneously speaking when I don’t expect it, especially if they cannot be silenced, as George Orwell foresaw with telescreens. I foresee Alexa-like devices as being the only way to access the internet at home, which speak government announcements, whether we want to hear them or not. The “emergency alerts” are a step in this direction, as far as I am concerned.

I have some sympathy. I use technology all the time but I don't like it. Recently I feel it's gone a leap forwards to the point of ridiculous. As pp says, downloading an app to park your car. This includes a verification email so into your email account to click on a link, then input payment details, then into the banking app to authorise the payment. Technology in many many instances has made life much more complicated and stressful. Every time something is updated or introduced, it is to increase profit for a large already profitable company at the expense of the user's time.

You won't like me OP. I was filling put an insurance claim a few months back and I had to photograph each receipt, itemise from a drop down menu then a sub menu then sub sub menu etc. The fill in receipt date, amount etc. About an hour into this it struck me that the system 'user friendly!' was similar to a system I used 20 years ago when I worked for an insurance company. They had me doing their job for them. So I put the rest of my receipts into an envelope, wrote a handwritten letter and posted the lot. A week or so later the info was input onto my account. By someone on the payroll. How many 1000s of hours do they save by having customers do admin work themselves? It's not like I got a discount for saving them the work.

Sometimes people refuse to use technology because they are making a point.