Why must everything get more and more complicated??

[jp1]

I agree with oldhat. MS Word used to be great. Now it's so non-intuitive that anytime I want to use any feature I have to google to figure out where it is.

And in addition to the various communications methods mentioned I'm now dealing with younger people texting me and expecting near instantaneous response. Ugggh. As if it wasn't crazy enough that now an insurance submission gets turned around in a day or two instead of a couple of weeks, as was the standard when I started in insurance 16 years ago.

[pinkytoe]

I thought about this as I looked for a toaster oven today. What used to be a simple device has turned into something that is way too complicated and expensive IMO.

[NewGig]

Of course, you can find a new toaster like an old one, but you’ll pay dearly for it.

https://buymeonce.com/search?q=Toaster

I guess in some ways this is the ultimate upgrade, make it simple, again.

[Baldilocks]

That is why I love my bicycle. It provides me with simple transportation. And even it is kind of complex, because they had to make it with disk brakes.

[JaneV2.0]

Of course, you can find a new toaster like an old one, but you’ll pay dearly for it.

https://buymeonce.com/search?q=Toaster

I guess in some ways this is the ultimate upgrade, make it simple, again.

I found a nice--apparently unused--one at a thrift store for six dollars (Cuisinart?). It only fits two slices of standard-sized bread, but I rarely use it, so I guess that's OK.

[ToomuchStuff]

I am certainly a luddite. When it comes to word processors, I prefer WORDS, to those blasted icon's at the top of them, that are "features". Take me back to Wordperfect 1.0 please.
I don't want to pay for inconvenience, so I use Libreoffice.

Our property tax system, to pay and get receipts online, now generates more paper, because it was switched from a computer/web based portal, to a phone based portal. (information more spread out and larger text)
For those without a smart phone, and EXTREMELY limited Android/IOS experience, it is NOT intuitive.

Reminds me of my uncle, who complained about either having to spend money to "upgrade equipment", or send it off in taxes. When he taught a class on what he did, this subject came up and he said new equipment/software, was something you spent money on to do things slower and through money away at. When you get the hang and some benefit from it, time to do it again. Applied inefficiency was I believe the term he used.

[pinkytoe]

Think how many things require another thing to work correctly. A thing for your thing.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Yesterday I went to the mall. A rare event in itself, but I needed to pick up a couple of things there, one of which was for another person. In one store I had picked up one of the items I needed, $5.85 or something close to that figure and I was paying with cash. The sales person starting asking my name, my phone number, address etc., and what should have been a 5 minute transaction turned into a thing. Nothing against the woman, she was nice, and nothing against that particular store, it is just a simple cash transaction should not be be complicated. I asked her, why? Why do I need to be in your system? She seemed a bit flustered then said something about if I wanted to make a return. I assume as long as I have the receipt and an undamaged item I surely can make a return without being in their system! Anyway, just an example. Likewise going to the post office and purchasing one stamp should be seconds. Here's my 50 cents, here's your stamp, thank you have a nice day. No, even that is subject to the computer scan and any problems it throws out.

[pcooley]

It's not quite in line with the thread, but my laptop drives me nuts with its messages about everything needing to be updated. It's a MacBook Pro, aluminum and glass - built to last. But... Since it's probably just shy of fifteen years old, the web browsers are no longer supported unless I upgrade the operating system, and the operating system won't update because there's not enough ram or something. Lately, dropbox stopped working. Some backup or other stopped working. One by one all my software is quitting on me. At home, about the only computery thing I do with the computer any more is budget and track expenses, because everything else is broken.

When I write letters, I use a typewriter from the 1930s that was owned by my mother-in-law's mother. I bicycle to work almost every day in nice weather on a 1952 Raleigh Superbe, (and in bad weather I use my "new" bike, a 1978 Schwinn). I sew backpacking gear on a treadle sewing machine I think was made in the 1910s sometime. I have an old thrift store turntable and amplifier that still works fine. Our pots and pans are all twenty to thirty years old. I use a GE percolator every morning that was made at the plant in Rhode Island, or somewhere like that, that is god knows how old. Our rotary phone still works fine, albeit with a pulse to tone convertor, because our phone line started having trouble with pulse dialing. Most of my cameras were made between 1965 and 1975. They work fine for what I want a camera for. And, none of that stuff was really expensive.

Why is it that this 2008 or so MacBook Pro that I paid $1300 for or something like that, refuses to work properly. It's simply bad design - bad from a user standpoint, bad from a cultural standpoint, and bad from an ecological standpoint. The tech industry should really work on durable design.

[Teacher Terry]

On the bright side you can buy a small laptop for 100 at Walmart. I did that a few years ago for travel.