Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#1

Post by lbrito » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 4:45 PM UTC

I'll give just one example. A few weeks ago I took my baby to the doctor for a routine exam, which includes weighing.

Scales are an ancient, pretty straightforward technology. If a skilled craftsman built a scale 300 years ago and it was well maintained over the centuries, I think its reasonable to expect it to still work adequately, and a minimally trained person would be able to operate it.

However, this electronic scale was so complicated and full of gadgetry (including bluetooth) that the hospital staff were unable to weigh my child and we had to go back home and reschedule.

I can think of a million other examples (Juicero...) but I'm more curious to hear of real-life examples like the one I shared.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#2

Post by darkerside » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:07 PM UTC

Car touchscreens are the worst. More complicated, more failure states, and I can't feel the volume button, so I have to take my eyes off the road.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#3

Post by sg47 » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:18 PM UTC

Internet and the smartphone

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#4

Post by leobg » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:21 PM UTC

Voice over IP. All calls, mobile and landline, seem to run on it these days, introducing a latency that makes phone conversations very different from the way they were back when you had a direct wire connection.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#5

Post by erddfre3423 » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

Smartphone is easily the worst, too distracting and addicting. Internet I could still handle when I only had access to it in certain places.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#6

Post by zephraph » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:22 PM UTC

Smartphones have had a significantly negative impact on my overall mental health. There's no denying that some of the features they provide clearly give tremendous value namely maps, messaging, and media (pictures/videos). Outside of that and limited utilities it becomes this broadly unfocused time sink that takes copious amounts of self discipline and boundaries to control. Given as an industry we've become so capable at capturing and holding user's attention there's this constant mental fixation on our phones and the continual dopamine hits they provide.

The minimalist smartphone market is developing but still rather anemic in its offering. I continue to watch companies like humane and blloc to see if they can ultimately produce something that is more compelling. Time will tell, but I feel like this is a market we really need more investment in.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#7

Post by cyberpunk » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:23 PM UTC

Microsoft Teams :D

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#8

Post by electrondood » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:25 PM UTC

Anything that listens to your searches and uses that to tailor Youtube results, future search results, advertisements, etc.

I miss the discoverability of the old internet, and I hate having to do 90% of my searches in Incognito.

inb4 DuckDuckGo, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#9

Post by napolux » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

IMHO Juicero was a scam. Here's my list.

* Too many remote controls. One for TV, one for AppleTv, one for PS5 if I want to see a movie on bluray, one for the Denon AMP, etc... There should be a standard for that. Something with a touchscreen and an API manufacturers should support. * Touchscreens in cars (already mentioned). My Toyota is not even capacitive and it's a car from 2017. More generally... Touchscreens where they're not needed, like ATMs or vending machines: with all this covid fear, they're not hygienic. * Wireless headphones: battery, quality of sound... I fear the day there will be no wired headphones available on consumer market. I don't care about high quality wireless headphones, I don't want to charge my headphones * Messaging apps. I have to keep iMessage, Telegram, Whatsapp & Signal on my phone because I have different contacts using different apps. It was easier in the SMS era

Re: Ask HN: What technologies have made your life worse?

#10

Post by damidekronik » Mon, Jul 25, 2022, 5:26 PM UTC

Chatbots. Cheap excuse to cut customer service or hide it behind a tedious process of convincing the if-else that it can't actually solve your problem.