Everything Is Getting More Technically Complex To Use: From Phones To Even Emails.

image: suaveignition.wordpress.com

It's bewildering, the level of technicality you need to reasonably use any gadget these days.

Three months ago I updated my iPhone to iOS 9 and it suddenly became sluggish and would freeze like the old BlackBerry phones used to. I thought it was a minor thing and googled online for the fix. Many people seemed to have encountered the same problem and it was a big consolation as I was sure the fix would have been posted. Unfortunately, I saw many fixes and they were all complex steps. I had to dig into areas of the phone menu I never knew existed or could even get to later without guidance. I was constantly going into submenus several levels down. And in the end I didn't get a good fix. Just something to make the new situation of my phone more bearable.

Last month, my sister's android phone suddenly won't connect to internet. And she had just loaded up a 2GB internet plan. It was crazy. At a point I felt I was dealing with some complex rocket device. Kept going from one menu to the next and getting lost in the phone. In the end, I got it solved but it was a very draining exercise. Even when phones had those numerous buttons they weren't this complicated to operate.

Not long ago, my iPhone stopped sending out SMS. Being a geeky fellow, I knew that all I needed to was confirm that the SMS center number was accurate. But to get to where the SMS center number setting is was no small trouble. In fact, I couldn't find it and couldn't believe I couldn't find something as common as an SMS setting menu. I swallowed my pride and googled. The results I saw made me boil with anger. You have to press some cryptic codes to set or view the SMS center number. And the stupid iPhones don't even come with a well documented manual. All the manual has is how to power on the phone, insert sim, view the menu, make phone calls and switch on the bluetooth.

Two months ago, my email was hacked. Normally, changing your password and forcing the email to sign out of all current session should fix it. Well, not this one. The hacker was sending email from his own system without accessing my account and making it look like they were sent from me. The only thing he did when he hacked my account was steal my contact lists. So now he blasts them with spam and make it look like he still has access to my account. I searched for solution and found zilch. People with similar situation were advised to just email everyone and tell them to ignore the spam but that they can't stop it has the hacker is only now faking their account. After several embarrassing weeks, I called Google Support and the solution they offered was a very complicated one. You have to be very technical and know how to configure domains and do some scripting to get it done. Luckily, I have some experience along that line. I was just wondering what the case would be if it was someone like my dad who was in such a situation.

Everything is just getting more complex by the day. They market them as simpler and intuitive to use but in reality they are more cryptic and difficult to use.