‘What’s a modern convenience that’s made life harder?’ – 17 so-called innovations that can get straight in the bin

It would be nice to think that as technology becomes more sophisticated, it also gets easier to use and more useful. Sadly, this isn’t always the case.

Sometimes, the price of progress can be pointless hurdles. If this sounds familiar, then you’ll likely have plenty to say in response to this question set by BisonNo9004 over on r/AskReddit, who asked:

‘What’s a ‘modern convenience’ that actually made your life harder?’

Here are the top replies which suggest that in terms of practicality, technology may be going backwards…

1.
‘Just let me use the website! I hate having to download a damn app for everything.’
-slitherfang98

2.
‘My tumble dryer has a dozen presets for every kind of clothing (shirts / jeans / sports / silk / etc) but absolutely nothing on the machine or in the manual indicates temperature, which is literally a universal pictograph written on every item to tell you how to dry it.’
-HonoraryCanadian

3.
‘Car park apps. Just fucking let me pay without downloading an app, creating an account, trying to figure out what code this car park you wankers and no I’m not going to let you use my location.’
-basicissueredditor

4.
‘Everything being “smart”.

‘Things have become so smart that they’ve gone full circle and are now just dumb and unusable.’
-brownhornet1000

5.
‘Touch screen devices everywhere. Many people with tremor disorders (like me, with 2) can barely use them or can’t use them at all. (Estimated 10 million people in the US with just Essential Tremor alone!)’
-dooky15

6.
‘Today I had to go to the urgent care.

‘I was the only one there. They could have just taken my ID and insurance and had a practitioner see me.

‘But the only way to claim an appointment- even by walk-in – was by scanning a QR to register.

‘Except that they were on the first floor of a big building, and mobile service wasn’t great.

‘So I went on their Wi-Fi, but their website was down.

‘So they had to print out paper forms that they had done away with, except their Internet was also down.

‘So they had me write my information on the back of some receipt paper, and finally saw me.

‘But they couldn’t bill my insurance, because their system was down.

‘And then they knew they had to send my Rx to a Walgreens, but couldn’t, because their system was down.

‘So they called the closest Walgreens they could find for my RX, but it was actually 30 minutes away, because their system was down.

‘So I asked for a paper RX order and went to the Walgreens next door, who had to contact the Walgreens 30 minutes away to get the RX transferred because the system was down at the urgent care.

‘But they couldn’t verify the RX being transferred because the system was down at the urgent care.’
-DangerSwan33

7.
‘Not being able to physically own a copy of a video game anymore. Even if you have the disc, you still have to download the game. You’re paying for the privilege to play the game, not the actual game itself.’
-OrganicLFMilk

8.
‘Constantly being available to contact.’
-thisremindsmeofbacon

9.
‘Automated bill pay when you have to navigate a labyrinth of pages just to update your f***ing CC# or email.’
-DoppledBramble3725