Shopping & Style1 min ago
Anyone Else Get Kerfuffled With Modern Day Technology?
45 Answers
As much as I enjoy the benefits of the internet, the rest of it goes over my head. Everything seems to be online whether its banking, shopping or sharing a photo. Driving with an onboard computer is alien to me (my foodbank van has all sorts of bleepers, sounds and screens for this that and the other etc which frankly stresses me...I turn it off). Everything seems to be moving at a pace that I cant keep up with.
Please, someone tell me that they feel the same, I feel like an oddball at times having to ask how this or that works because quite honestly, I cant do with it all.
Maybe its an age thing!
Please, someone tell me that they feel the same, I feel like an oddball at times having to ask how this or that works because quite honestly, I cant do with it all.
Maybe its an age thing!
Answers
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I'm not convinced that reading instruction manuals will provide a guide to operating the most advanced devices, such as computers or phones.
Or even modern ovens, for example.
First, the manuals are often translated from Chinese by very inexpert translators, so barely make sense.
They also use jargon, rather than plain language.
And another factor is that as microcomputers get cheaper and there is consumer demand for things (from ovens to fridges and out to central heating controllers) to be 'smart' and to be connected so that they can be controlled remotely, they get more options.
Quite quickly, the option tree gets too complex for a clear instruction manual, so the manuals simply don't give complete coverage.
I can't, for example, imagine how anyone would write and publish a complete guide to using a modern laptop computer.
So the suggestion that one can read an instruction manual is not the whole story - unless we're dealing with something super-simple, such as an alarm clock. And even some of those are connected and have huge option trees (Time zones / alarms / Summertime adjustments / timers / connecting to online time servers and so on).
I think of myself as a techie, and very rarely use the instruction manual. That's not to say I know how to make everything work, but I can usually make a gadget do what I want it to do.
Most gadgets have some kind of commonality in the user interface: Menu buttons; up and down options; select options and so on.
Maybe part of it is lack of fear that I can damage the gadget by playing with the buttons
Another part is that I've handled a huge variety of gadgets and got them to work
An important part is understanding the symptoms that indicate failing batteries, or broken buttons or that there might be another control that is non-obvious (In which case, Google is my friend)
And the final part of the mix, as my partner would say is that technology knows it has to behave when I walk in the room.
She swears that something doesn't work, and she's done all kinds of things to fix it. When I do the exact same thing, it just works first time.
Of course I don't believe a word of that, but she swears that I give off the pheromones, or some kind of aura that causes the tech to behave. Until I walk out of the room, when it goes wrong again.... (removes tongue from cheek)
Or even modern ovens, for example.
First, the manuals are often translated from Chinese by very inexpert translators, so barely make sense.
They also use jargon, rather than plain language.
And another factor is that as microcomputers get cheaper and there is consumer demand for things (from ovens to fridges and out to central heating controllers) to be 'smart' and to be connected so that they can be controlled remotely, they get more options.
Quite quickly, the option tree gets too complex for a clear instruction manual, so the manuals simply don't give complete coverage.
I can't, for example, imagine how anyone would write and publish a complete guide to using a modern laptop computer.
So the suggestion that one can read an instruction manual is not the whole story - unless we're dealing with something super-simple, such as an alarm clock. And even some of those are connected and have huge option trees (Time zones / alarms / Summertime adjustments / timers / connecting to online time servers and so on).
I think of myself as a techie, and very rarely use the instruction manual. That's not to say I know how to make everything work, but I can usually make a gadget do what I want it to do.
Most gadgets have some kind of commonality in the user interface: Menu buttons; up and down options; select options and so on.
Maybe part of it is lack of fear that I can damage the gadget by playing with the buttons
Another part is that I've handled a huge variety of gadgets and got them to work
An important part is understanding the symptoms that indicate failing batteries, or broken buttons or that there might be another control that is non-obvious (In which case, Google is my friend)
And the final part of the mix, as my partner would say is that technology knows it has to behave when I walk in the room.
She swears that something doesn't work, and she's done all kinds of things to fix it. When I do the exact same thing, it just works first time.
Of course I don't believe a word of that, but she swears that I give off the pheromones, or some kind of aura that causes the tech to behave. Until I walk out of the room, when it goes wrong again.... (removes tongue from cheek)
Technology is presently my biggest life stress.
But apparently being one of the few who can see where tech can be usefully employed, rather than be addicted to change and demand it us everywhere simply because one can, no matter what, I tend not to be put out with using it. Just with stuff such as has occured as I typed this absolutely perfectly, and still had to go correct every other word where it has appeared to be designed to add random changes. And no doubt after proof reading a few times, thus knowing I've changed it all back to perfection again, it'll introduce further changes just as I press the 'answer now' button.
But apparently being one of the few who can see where tech can be usefully employed, rather than be addicted to change and demand it us everywhere simply because one can, no matter what, I tend not to be put out with using it. Just with stuff such as has occured as I typed this absolutely perfectly, and still had to go correct every other word where it has appeared to be designed to add random changes. And no doubt after proof reading a few times, thus knowing I've changed it all back to perfection again, it'll introduce further changes just as I press the 'answer now' button.
I use tech that makes my life easier, so online shopping and looking stuff up great. I don't have super clever kitchen kit though I love cooking and I don't have a smart phone or any clever integrated gadgets to run my home. I usually buy the stuff I do use in its simplest form. I think it's getting the balance right and saying nah can't be @r5ed... with the rest
Rowan @8.24
I'm sure that is what most people do. They use the gadgets to do a limited range of tasks.
The gadget is capable of doing hundreds, or thousands of tasks, and each of us uses a limited sub-set of those tasks.
As a result, the settings are necessarily very complex, even though most of us use only very limited range of the gadget's capabilities.
Our washing machine has hundreds of settings, but we routinely use just three or four.
Our dishwasher has many tens of setting, but we only ever use a single option.
It's the same with most gadgets - we identify the functions that we find useful, and ignore the rest.
As to PP @8.49.
Nope, no Ph.D.
Just a mere engineer, but the first instruction in the engineer's training manual is, "Never read the instruction manual"
Shhh! don't tell anyone I told you, or the Engineer's Circle will excommunicate me...
I'm sure that is what most people do. They use the gadgets to do a limited range of tasks.
The gadget is capable of doing hundreds, or thousands of tasks, and each of us uses a limited sub-set of those tasks.
As a result, the settings are necessarily very complex, even though most of us use only very limited range of the gadget's capabilities.
Our washing machine has hundreds of settings, but we routinely use just three or four.
Our dishwasher has many tens of setting, but we only ever use a single option.
It's the same with most gadgets - we identify the functions that we find useful, and ignore the rest.
As to PP @8.49.
Nope, no Ph.D.
Just a mere engineer, but the first instruction in the engineer's training manual is, "Never read the instruction manual"
Shhh! don't tell anyone I told you, or the Engineer's Circle will excommunicate me...
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