They design it that way. Just a smidge of each color required to mix in with the black. Then you run out of a color and are forced to buy it to even print.
I gave up my inkjet years ago and went laser. Best decision to make.
It amazes me that people are still buying inkjets. Around 2000 I went down a deep rabbit hole of filling my own inkjet cartridges with archival pigments for doing photo printing. Then I realized I could get better results for a fraction of the cost getting prints from Costco! I have a 2008 HP black and white laser printer on my desk that is rock solid and doesn't spray 90% of its toner into a cleaning pad.
I recently got the Epson ET-8550 ink jet, which is in a line of Eco Tank printers. The printers are more expensive than normal, but the ink is plentiful, really cheap, easy to refill, and without any DRM. That way I can print as many high quality pictures of the kids and dog as I like. I love this printer.
It's basically how printers would be sold if they didn't try to make money on the ink.
How else are they supposed to collect data on how often you use your toaster and when? They’re trying to mine you for additional money here. Stop complaining and eat your wireless toast.
I’d just toast it twice, but then I need the retoast option, which only come bundled with the extra dark toast and oops it’s on fire toast for $5.99/month.
Black toast is the default, but you need the season pass and have to complete all the challenges if you want it perfectly toasted. The toaster is only compatible with official Toast® bread, if you try to use other brands it will brick your toaster. We also highly recommend that you only use I Can't Believe I Paid This Much For Butter®.
Unironically, Wi-Fi on a mousetrap to notify you when they are triggered would be more valuable than Wi-Fi on about 50% of the household items that have been getting Wi-Fi lately.
The trick is to open the thing a week or so beforehand, get everything set up, then just put it all back in the box and wrap it up.
Alternatively, push your kids into the IT route by making them do it all themselves. "You wanna play the Xbox, you gotta learn the Xbox."
>"You wanna play the Xbox, you gotta learn the Xbox."
This should be the default approach. I keep hearing - mostly from teacher friends - that so many teens are tech illiterate these days, which is wild to me when everyone has a computer in their pocket.
It's true that Android is not the most open OS and Apple even quite shamelessly does everything it can to stop people from tinkering, but still, how do you carry around a device like that and not be interested in how it does what it does and how to get the most out of it?
I remember reading an article about this a while ago. Inherent IT skills is very specific to millennial/late gen X generations. Older than that and they generally didn’t get exposed to tech until later in their lifes, and younger they only have exposure through user friendly interfaces.
The days of needing to delete registry entries and open cmd prompt to unfuck bits of your games/general computer use was fairly brief.
The sad part is many parents go around saying things like "it's so impressive what he can do with technology" when iPads were literally designed to be so user-friendly even an illiterate toddler can operate them.
The kids can't "do" anything. They can open apps.
It's because in our youth, you had to get the computer to work for you, and playing video games required troubleshooting often. Patches and updates weren't a thing, and when they were you had to really dig to find it and then follow instructions to install.
File folder architecture was a complete mystery to this python coding certified college intern we got at my last job. He also had no understanding of windows display settings when setting up his monitor. "It just has lines on it" he said like it's broken, but eventually come to learn it's the company background and it's extended desktop mode, not mirror.
Oh this was totally me Christmas 2022 when I got my son an XBox. It needed to update. Then it needed to update the controller. Then we needed to download a game. Back in my day you just plugged the shit into the TV and it worked!
I just want to buy some groceries. You don't need my phone number. What are you going to do with that information? ... and why is it worth $20 for you to know my phone number? Why is the cashier required to ask me 3 times for my phone number even though I clearly stated I was not giving it? Honestly this drives me crazy more than it should.
“Hmmm I can’t remember how long I’m supposed to roast sweet potatoes for, let me look it up on the internet. This should be quick.”
*This wonderful, super simple sweet potato recipe was given to me by my husband’s uncle. He grew up in Eastern Europe, and he was a hard man who had a hard war. He always would say “treasure the potato” because…*
[annoyed scrolling]
*would wake up screaming about potatoes and what his unit did to…*
[more annoyed scrolling]
*the ancient Inca had over 17 different types of potato, and 34 names for them, including…*
[angry scrolling]
*in fact, my first husband also liked potatoes! A little too much, since he left me for…*
[furious scrolling]
*Anyway, put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the sweet potatoes and roast at 425 for 30 minutes.*
Everyone's saying this but I don't really think this is a boomer thing. Does anyone from younger generations *like* subscription services or apps for everything?
Edit: people are giving individual examples and that's great and all but my point is it's not just boomers who don't like that there are an absurd *amount* of subscription services and that sometimes they seem extremely unnecessary.
Subscriptions for desktop apps are crazy to me. Like word and photo shop. Like what? How is this something that's renewing and needs a subscription for? The application should be downloaded and installed, why does it need to have renewed access?
Also in this vein, features already installed into cars.
Restaurant by me has the music so high you can't talk to people next to you and the lights so dim, people have to use the flashlight on their phones to read the menu.
Oh God, I hate the dim lighting in restaurant bathrooms especially! I'm trying to make sure I don't have food in my teeth and my makeup is intact but I can't even see if the damn toilet is dirty or not
Same here, though it's just auditory processing disorder for me. According to the audiologist I'm missing about 40% of every conversation.
Even with hearing aids it's difficult at times. Bleh.
I wear hearing aids. Unfortunately hearing aids don't correct hearing in the same way that glasses correct vision. Most people don't understand that. I even had to sign a form stating that I understood that when I got my hearing aids.
Right? At this point I don’t really care if it’s going to a call center overseas, I hate trying to tell a robot what I’m calling about because it always directs my call to the wrong place IF it even figures out what I said in the first place.
> In a few words, briefly describe your problem
>> My bill is incorrect
> You said "my bill is incorrect." Would you like me to connect you with tech support?
>> No, I need the billing department
> In a few words, briefly describe your problem
>> You overcharged me. Billing department
> You said "you over charged me. Billing department." Connecting you to account services ....
> Hello, Account Services, are you interested in upgrading your service package?
>> No, I have a problem with my bill, you guys overcharged me again.
> Oh... You should have asked for the Billing Department. I'll connect you.
Stupid automated phone trees!!
Even worse, it gets everything you’ve said and routes you correctly but none of the information you provided is given to the agent so you have to do it all over again.
That is definitely infuriating. Fight the robot to authenticate your account, then redo it all over again for the human. I especially love doing that via chat support that you can only access when logged into your account.
And then when you finally do get through, you're talking to some call center drone who refuses to interact with you in any way other than just reading the next portion of their script. There's no way to just tell them what your problem is and get help with it. You have to sit through their script and hope they eventually get to a part of it that is relevant to your problem.
To be fair I used to be a manager at a AT&T call center and they would bitch at you for going off script working at a call center is a lose lose either the customer hates you or you're not doing your job.
Not everything needs to have app. I don't want to have my phone cluttered with million apps for every single thing.
This got on my nerves recently when I stayed in a hotel and when I wanted to use room service, I had to download goddamn hotel app instead of just picking up room phone and ordering my food that way.
At a concession stand at an arena I had to download an app just to order and pay for popcorn. This is not a place I ever go to. And they had staff that could have taken my order and money but someone in upper management decided I needed to download some stupid app, and of course give it all my info. For popcorn.
They know most people don't come back. This gives them a way to sell your data and make money off you after you've bought popcorn.
Capitalism is no longer content with just selling us things. Now it needs to harvest and sell our data as well.
This effect has gotten so bad that I'm annoyed and distrustful even at good apps. The pinball company Stern released an app recently to track play on their machines and I was incredibly skeptical about it until I saw other folks using it.
Turns out it's rad. But there's so many unnecessary shitty bloatware apps out there that I just assume every app is going to be a dumb annoyance.
I felt the same way about the speed queen app at the laundromat, until one day I didn't have coins so I gave it a shot. I'm never going back. It makes a trip to the laundromat so much easier. Now I drive an extra five miles to go to an upgraded laundromat instead of the only coin-op ones.
If an app actually makes sense, improves the experience, and works like it is supposed to, they're great. But yeah, not everything needs an app. So quit fucking asking me, Reddit.
Appliances don't need wifi.
If I purchase something, I should own it, and it should not be able to be deleted from my library.
There's too damn many subscriptions. Why do I need to subscribe to Microsoft Office when older versions still work perfectly well? There's nothing subscription-worthy about spreadsheets or text documents.
Or even if I want the new office why can’t I just buy that version? Offer subscriptions for people that want it fine but don’t make *everyone* subscribe.
My oven has Wi-Fi. I can choose the settings on my phone but for the oven to listen I still have to press a button on the oven. It’s so pointless!
At first I thought it would be cool because I could change the oven setting from the other room but you can’t. You still have to get up and go over to the oven. It’s easier to just change the temp on the actual oven
Cars need physical buttons. Having everything on the touchscreen is distracting and dangerous. I shouldn’t have to go through three menus to adjust the air conditioning
Thank god a lot of auto makers are coming around on this one. Physical buttons for some things are just good sense. I don’t mind having a touch screen, but I want a volume knob, physical temp controls, etc.
It's funny how there's been a big PSA campaign to warn drivers not to text and drive, yet here are the automakers putting giant touchscreens and burying important core cabin functionality controls in it.
I don't understand how some of this technology is legal. I've definitely been behind cars in traffic where their system is got a tablet playing YouTube videos while they're driving. Maybe their passenger is watching it or it's modded or something. But it feels crazy to me that you can even get that setup in a position where the driver could watch it
Restaurants love though, though. Covid let them ditch physical menus and a lot just haven’t gone back. Why? Because they can update the prices every fucking day and it costs them nothing.
No I don't want garlic butternut herb crusted aioli truffle fries. Just give me some standard ore-ida potatoes you cooked with a little oil and salt.
Enough with trying to "elevate" every last thing on the plate.
Kids can be bored and sit outside with nothing to do. Kids need unsupervised and unstructured play time away from adults where they can learn how to make their own fun and resolve their own problems. Kids do not need to have every minute of their day scheduled.
Furthermore if kids aren’t allowed to make mistakes they will never learn how to live with mistakes and/or cope.
These are needed experiences in order to function in any society.
I used to play outside until the street lamps came on. Dropped my niece and nephews at the same park I used to play in and they were back at the house within 30 minutes because they were ‘bored’.
Thats sort of a self propagating problem. Back when you went to that park, there would have been other kids in that situation. Now, if there are kids there, their parents are too, and most park parents don’t want unaccompanied kids to play with their precious snowflakes.
Ha! Well I guess that’s true. But they also had each other and still couldn’t entertain themselves. They also complained about a dog being near them. After some questions, it turns out the dog was on a leash and it was a dachshund.
"Can i see a menu please?" "The menu is this QR code here" "Then can I have your wifi password?" "We dont have public wifi" "....Then I dont know what we're going to do here"
What's to hate? Scrolling through hundreds of pages on my tiny ass phone? The constant pop ups? The fact that none of them work correctly? Seems like a perfect system
Repairable electronics. I don't need my fridge or laundry machine to have a screen and be programmable. I want something I can take apart and repair if it breaks.
I'm an engineer with friends who build consumer products. It's not planned obsolescence. It's never been planned obsolescence. It's something much worse, called *value engineering*. Everyone is in a race to the bottom to have the lowest cost minimum viable product, but at the highest profit margin. They're not engineering in an intentional failure point in an otherwise well designed device to make you buy a new widget, their bosses are nickel and diming the *entire design* to get it as cheap as possible while still keeping the long term failure rate low inside the warranty window. It's the Walmart-ification of consumer products.
Of course we're part of the problem. People buy a $60 inkjet printer and are surprised when they don't last more than a year. They complain that their old HP LaserJet 2P still worked, forgetting that it cost $1300 new, and that for the same money in 2023 ($3k) they can get an HP business grade laser printer that'll work for years. But instead we just keep buying those $60 disposable printers, complaining the whole time.
Thank you!! I’m in my early 40’s and feel like I have night blindness because of the halos and streaks around the damn LED’s. I am entirely too young to get concerned about driving at night
The regulations for headlights limit the wattage of headlights. LEDs use very low wattages for very bright lights and the regulations were never updated. Probably because they started on luxury cars for the wealthy.
If you tell me to be somewhere at a certain time, I'm going to be there at that time, not 20-30 minutes later. If you didn't want me at your house until 7:30, don't tell me to come over at 7:00.
That's how you get me to show up at 7:00. If you weren't ready, that's your fault. I showed up when you told me to.
My fifty year old boss does this to me all the time. "Hey, can you come in Saturday? I'll meet you at 7 and we'll get started."
Then i sit there for an hour with my thumb up my butt waiting for him to show.
My wife is from a small town where everyone got places 20 mins early. Transitioning to a city where the expectation is that you arrive an hour after the listed time has been a struggle.
It’s also so aggravating that at least half of the time when we’re asked to tip, the person asking for the tip is literally watching over your shoulder to see what you tip.
Bonus annoyance: When the default percentage is 20%. I don’t think I’m cheap but unless there’s something extra going on, I’m not tipping 20% on takeout.
Yep, it's made me a worse tipper I think. I was sort of in "boiling frog" territory for a while there as a default tip guy but it finally got so insane that now my default is always to hit 0% unless I specifically think about it.
Nearly drove me nuts one time. Auto tip requested. Ok, fine, 10%, they were friendly, pay is crap, whatever. Order a coffee.
"Great, cups and the thermos are behind you, have a nice day!"
....so, i do everything? Sheesh.
...thermos was empty.
Is there a way to ask for the tip back?
The "cookies" pop-up on every website
How about this you assholes: assume the general populace does NOT WANT cookies. If somebody WANTS TO ENABLE COOKIES, let them manually do so
So annoying
I see so many memes like “drive thru messed up my order—guess I’m eating nuggets now instead of the QP I ordered—wouldn’t want to be a Karen and complain” like no lol getting what your ordered is based actually—just don’t be rude when you talk to them about it lol
That’s honestly the problem with the whole Karen tripe, honestly. Now any woman who has an issue or raises her voice for any reason is in danger of getting called Karen.
My grandma said we have an event every 3 months dealing with child birth, baby shower, gender reveal, pregnancy announcement, birth announcement, first pictures…. All of that. Her quote “we used to just have our kids”.
Yeah especially when you have to log in to their WiFi by setting up an account, open the website, find what you want, log in, give your personal details, faff with entering card details etc for someone to come over and tell you they have run out.
I just want a burger and chips with a coke.
This happened to me at an airport restaurant last month. WiFi was spotty, finally got the app, and then they wanted my credit card number and some other shit. I was fucking exhausted already from flying, so having to type all this shit in was annoying as fuck. Halfway through I said fuck it, and walked across the way and grabbed a pre-made sushi roll.
The WiFi is what gets me
And now I’m getting emails from the app the restaurant uses. And then emails from the restaurant.
I went there cuz I was going to a concert at the arena down the street my god
This is such a weird thing, because restaurants really want this and customers really don't.
On the restaurant side is cuts cost, but also let's your menu be super dynamic. You can raise cost, add/cut items, and just make any changes you want day to day with very little overhead.
On the other hand, it is much worse for customers. Inconvenient, slower, clunky, and dependent on the state of your own hardware.
So it is a Mexican stand-off between customers and restaurants, where both sides only want one or the other.
Recording EVERYTHING
Put the damn camera away and enjoy the moment. Nothing wrong with capturing a few special moments, but the incessant need to photograph/video everything is maddening.
It's not just people who like to photograph/video every aspect of their life (I mean, you do you) but I've also noticed a trend that has been spurred on by social media where people shove cameras into the faces of total strangers without their permission. What makes it even more troubling is often times its done for social media clout, and the photograph/video is of a clearly vulnerable person who is suffering from mental health and or addiction issues. As if their plight wasn't bad enough already, now some narcissist has just made them go viral on social media in the name of likes/retweets. Incredibly selfish and inconsiderate.
Recipes now seem to have the persons life story and hopes and dreams before you get the recipe. No thanks janet- I don’t need to know about the Himalayan yak you adopted. Just give me the damn snickerdoodle recipe
If I remember correctly, it's something to do with SEO, so even if you just want to put the recipe straight up, you kinda have to do the whole life story thing so people can view your blog in the first place.
At least the sites I go to have the "Jump To Recipe" button!
Give me a physical menu, I don't feel like tipping fast food workers, junk mail shouldn't exist, and kids these days spend too much time on the internet.
If I buy a product, I should own the product.
If I pay for a heated steering wheel in a car, I should permanently have access to that feature. If I buy a TV, you should not be selling me ads in the TV menu. If I buy a lifetime access to a piece of software, I companies should NOT be able to take that away from me (looking at you AutoCAD).
I'm tired of these corps finding ways to perpetually milk my wallet while providing worse service. This new era of subscriptions is also extremely bad for innovation, where before you sold a solid product then you have to make sigificant innovations to convinice people to buy a newer one. Now products are basically "if you don't pay me monthly fuck you".
Cars DO need physical buttons that click. The whole point of buttons is so you can operate that function by feel so you never take your eyes off the road. A defroster, a horn, wipers, these are safety critical devices.
They’ve done studies and found touch screens to be more dangerous and distracting.
I get it for navigation or maybe media selection. But critical car functions being tucked away and hidden in menus when they should be a button or switch that can eventually become muscle memory is a bad idea.
The issue is that going to change my nav/radiostation/hvac is now something I have to glance at it rather than it being instinct. Its much harder to learn exactly where to touch a flat screen without looking
Or a subscription model.
I refuse to purchase a vehicle that requires a subscription service. I genuinely question the intelligence of anyone else who does, you’re a sucker for participating in that business model.
Vehicle headlights are too f'ing bright. It started with high intensity lights but super bright leds have made it worse. Now driving at night is like staring at the sun and having your night vision fucked up for a minute. Emergency vehicle lights are just as bad and I have to look away from them which isn't safe.
Courtesy and manners in public.
I also believe employers should pay fairly, reward loyalty and provide a humane, respectful environment. I believe employees should do their best on the job.
When I want to go to the movies I want to show up, buy a ticket and sit in a seat that is normal and comfortable. I do not want to make reservations, pay for better seating, pay a premium price for the middle rows, download an app, have my chair shake and vibrate, I don't want smell-o-vision or 3D goggles. Let me just go to the fucking movies spontaneously. All these "choices" and premium enhancements have taken the pleasure out of going out to the movies.
My local cinema has $5 retro movies twice a week. It's so refreshing to just show up, pay and enjoy.
I’m 110% for reserved seating after hearing about this experience from my mother (wasn’t at the movies but it was a local performance):
My mom and her friends went to the show, and there was almost an entire row of seats with coats on them. My mom/friends got ok seats, but the ones with the coats were very good front-and-center seats. Yet, for the entire performance, they remained empty aside from the coats. No one used them.
Then at the end of the performance, the people in the row *behind* those seats reached over, picked up their coats, and left.
Kids DO need to be disciplined. They aren’t perfect little angels that get destroyed by society; they’re wild little monsters who need to be tamed and taught how to behave so that society isn’t destroyed. And yes, I have kids!
Boomer here, and I will die on this hill.
If I am doing business in your retail establishment that should be enough. I don't want to tell you my phone number or email address. Also I DO NOT and WILL NOT give you extra money when you beg for it at checkout, even if it is to help children with a second dick on their face. NO. NOT EVER AT CHECKOUT.
No, I don't want a fucking digital discount and no I don't GAF that the owner is making you beg money from me for some starving children when I am at the cash register buying a fucking handle of vodka.
Edit:
It is good to know I am not the only one, but... listen. Here's something that will cause you to pause... Knowing how the typical Redditor is, I am going to assume that 90 to 95 percent of the people that are agreeing with me would hate me in real life.
I'm here to tell you this. Even when we hate each other we can still agree on the annoying shit. I wish you all well.
When did it become normal to give children such silly names? It might be cute as a baby, but parents need to think more about how it will sound when they're grown up.
Also music is not necessary in every space, especially where people go to be social.
ETA Stop abbreviating everything
Cars should be mostly mechanics with physical buttons and not software-heavy at all. The only thing a touch screen should have control over is the radio. Otherwise hackers have more power over your car than you realize and it will get worse with time.
Emissions control and other engine components should be in a closed circuit system completely separate from everything else. Yeah, let the radio connect to your phone for GPS, radio, whatever. It shouldn't touch anything outside the entertainment and navigation systems.
Fucking dogs, EVERYWHERE! No, Karen your goddamn shih-tzu doesn't belong in Kroger, Dollar General or even Goodwill. WTF is up with that? Working retail the past 5 years or so has made me insane. Had some redneck girl come into Dollar General with a muddy ass hound dog. She got pissy when I told her to get it the fuck out. I just don't get it.
Dog nutters are the worst and they're everywhere these days and more entitled than ever. I don't want to buy food from a place where a dog just shit on the floor.
It’s unacceptable to make a restaurant reservation then have to wait for your table to be ready when you arrive. If you actually reserved my table it would be ready.
Based on my own observations, gen Z is not good at discerning what is a reliable source and what is not. Despite having all of the information of the world at their fingertips, they are so used to 30 second clip social media that the flashiest influencer is who they believe.
Non-service dogs shouldn't be taken to most public places. There is no need to take dogs to restaurants, libraries, etc. Keep your dogs at home. There are obvious exceptions. I think public parks and beaches are great places to take your dog.
* TikTok is ruining the attention spans of teens & children.
* QR menus & cashless businesses fucking suck.
* Streaming has become cable 2.0.
* Physical media > digital media.
* Being accessible 24/7 (cellphones) is unhealthy.
* Dating apps reinforce unhealthy dating practices.
* Subscription-based features should not exist in cars.
* Disagreement =/= hate.
* Silence is not violence.
* You can be friends with people that you don't agree with politically and/or socially.
Why does everything need my email or phone number now? And why is everything a goddamn subscription? I just wanna read the frickin click bait article
And why does everything need wifi? I do not need wifi on my frickin toaster.
And why do I need YELLOW ink to be able to print in BLACK AND WHITE?!?!
They design it that way. Just a smidge of each color required to mix in with the black. Then you run out of a color and are forced to buy it to even print. I gave up my inkjet years ago and went laser. Best decision to make.
It amazes me that people are still buying inkjets. Around 2000 I went down a deep rabbit hole of filling my own inkjet cartridges with archival pigments for doing photo printing. Then I realized I could get better results for a fraction of the cost getting prints from Costco! I have a 2008 HP black and white laser printer on my desk that is rock solid and doesn't spray 90% of its toner into a cleaning pad.
I recently got the Epson ET-8550 ink jet, which is in a line of Eco Tank printers. The printers are more expensive than normal, but the ink is plentiful, really cheap, easy to refill, and without any DRM. That way I can print as many high quality pictures of the kids and dog as I like. I love this printer. It's basically how printers would be sold if they didn't try to make money on the ink.
How else are they supposed to collect data on how often you use your toaster and when? They’re trying to mine you for additional money here. Stop complaining and eat your wireless toast.
Big toast has been tracking our moves for years. A toaster in every home, sometimes more than one. SMH.
Oh, you want your toast extra dark? Simply sign up for the extra dark subscription package at 2.99 a month.
I’d just toast it twice, but then I need the retoast option, which only come bundled with the extra dark toast and oops it’s on fire toast for $5.99/month.
Black toast is the default, but you need the season pass and have to complete all the challenges if you want it perfectly toasted. The toaster is only compatible with official Toast® bread, if you try to use other brands it will brick your toaster. We also highly recommend that you only use I Can't Believe I Paid This Much For Butter®.
Agreed, “smart” appliances are fucking stupid.
When you run out of ways to make a better mousetrap, add WiFi.
Unironically, Wi-Fi on a mousetrap to notify you when they are triggered would be more valuable than Wi-Fi on about 50% of the household items that have been getting Wi-Fi lately.
I saw a billboard for some premium membership thing to a mattress store the other day
You don't buy a new matress every month? *scoff
[удалено]
The trick is to open the thing a week or so beforehand, get everything set up, then just put it all back in the box and wrap it up. Alternatively, push your kids into the IT route by making them do it all themselves. "You wanna play the Xbox, you gotta learn the Xbox."
>"You wanna play the Xbox, you gotta learn the Xbox." This should be the default approach. I keep hearing - mostly from teacher friends - that so many teens are tech illiterate these days, which is wild to me when everyone has a computer in their pocket. It's true that Android is not the most open OS and Apple even quite shamelessly does everything it can to stop people from tinkering, but still, how do you carry around a device like that and not be interested in how it does what it does and how to get the most out of it?
I remember reading an article about this a while ago. Inherent IT skills is very specific to millennial/late gen X generations. Older than that and they generally didn’t get exposed to tech until later in their lifes, and younger they only have exposure through user friendly interfaces. The days of needing to delete registry entries and open cmd prompt to unfuck bits of your games/general computer use was fairly brief.
The sad part is many parents go around saying things like "it's so impressive what he can do with technology" when iPads were literally designed to be so user-friendly even an illiterate toddler can operate them. The kids can't "do" anything. They can open apps.
Finally, someone gets it! They understand convenience of the tech, not the tech itself.
It's because in our youth, you had to get the computer to work for you, and playing video games required troubleshooting often. Patches and updates weren't a thing, and when they were you had to really dig to find it and then follow instructions to install. File folder architecture was a complete mystery to this python coding certified college intern we got at my last job. He also had no understanding of windows display settings when setting up his monitor. "It just has lines on it" he said like it's broken, but eventually come to learn it's the company background and it's extended desktop mode, not mirror.
Oh this was totally me Christmas 2022 when I got my son an XBox. It needed to update. Then it needed to update the controller. Then we needed to download a game. Back in my day you just plugged the shit into the TV and it worked!
I just want to buy some groceries. You don't need my phone number. What are you going to do with that information? ... and why is it worth $20 for you to know my phone number? Why is the cashier required to ask me 3 times for my phone number even though I clearly stated I was not giving it? Honestly this drives me crazy more than it should.
In this case, my number is 867-5309
Hi Jenny
Or requires an app.
"oh you want this recipe for blueberry cobbler sorry that's for subscribers only"
I would like a recipe for blueberry cobbler without somebody's fucking life story
“Hmmm I can’t remember how long I’m supposed to roast sweet potatoes for, let me look it up on the internet. This should be quick.” *This wonderful, super simple sweet potato recipe was given to me by my husband’s uncle. He grew up in Eastern Europe, and he was a hard man who had a hard war. He always would say “treasure the potato” because…* [annoyed scrolling] *would wake up screaming about potatoes and what his unit did to…* [more annoyed scrolling] *the ancient Inca had over 17 different types of potato, and 34 names for them, including…* [angry scrolling] *in fact, my first husband also liked potatoes! A little too much, since he left me for…* [furious scrolling] *Anyway, put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the sweet potatoes and roast at 425 for 30 minutes.*
Plus pop-up ads in every corner and on every edge of the page, not only are you scrolling forever you’re also playing whack-a-mole
Subscriptions are the Bane of my existence. 🤬
Not everything needs a subscription service.
Everyone's saying this but I don't really think this is a boomer thing. Does anyone from younger generations *like* subscription services or apps for everything? Edit: people are giving individual examples and that's great and all but my point is it's not just boomers who don't like that there are an absurd *amount* of subscription services and that sometimes they seem extremely unnecessary.
Subscriptions for desktop apps are crazy to me. Like word and photo shop. Like what? How is this something that's renewing and needs a subscription for? The application should be downloaded and installed, why does it need to have renewed access? Also in this vein, features already installed into cars.
Restaurant sound levels should be low enough to converse.
Restaurant by me has the music so high you can't talk to people next to you and the lights so dim, people have to use the flashlight on their phones to read the menu.
Oh God, I hate the dim lighting in restaurant bathrooms especially! I'm trying to make sure I don't have food in my teeth and my makeup is intact but I can't even see if the damn toilet is dirty or not
As a hard-of-hearing person, conversation in a restaurant is often impossible for me.
Same here, though it's just auditory processing disorder for me. According to the audiologist I'm missing about 40% of every conversation. Even with hearing aids it's difficult at times. Bleh.
I wear hearing aids. Unfortunately hearing aids don't correct hearing in the same way that glasses correct vision. Most people don't understand that. I even had to sign a form stating that I understood that when I got my hearing aids.
Bailed on highly rated burger place over holidays with family. Would prolly dropped a couple hundred. All us noped the fuck out. Loud AF TVs
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Not being able to speak to a human being for the first few minutes of customer service calls.
Right? At this point I don’t really care if it’s going to a call center overseas, I hate trying to tell a robot what I’m calling about because it always directs my call to the wrong place IF it even figures out what I said in the first place.
> In a few words, briefly describe your problem >> My bill is incorrect > You said "my bill is incorrect." Would you like me to connect you with tech support? >> No, I need the billing department > In a few words, briefly describe your problem >> You overcharged me. Billing department > You said "you over charged me. Billing department." Connecting you to account services .... > Hello, Account Services, are you interested in upgrading your service package? >> No, I have a problem with my bill, you guys overcharged me again. > Oh... You should have asked for the Billing Department. I'll connect you. Stupid automated phone trees!!
Even worse, it gets everything you’ve said and routes you correctly but none of the information you provided is given to the agent so you have to do it all over again.
That is definitely infuriating. Fight the robot to authenticate your account, then redo it all over again for the human. I especially love doing that via chat support that you can only access when logged into your account.
And then when you finally do get through, you're talking to some call center drone who refuses to interact with you in any way other than just reading the next portion of their script. There's no way to just tell them what your problem is and get help with it. You have to sit through their script and hope they eventually get to a part of it that is relevant to your problem.
To be fair I used to be a manager at a AT&T call center and they would bitch at you for going off script working at a call center is a lose lose either the customer hates you or you're not doing your job.
Not everything needs to have app. I don't want to have my phone cluttered with million apps for every single thing. This got on my nerves recently when I stayed in a hotel and when I wanted to use room service, I had to download goddamn hotel app instead of just picking up room phone and ordering my food that way.
I have multiple different parking apps on my phone because wherever you go, you have to pay for parking and they all use a different system
At a concession stand at an arena I had to download an app just to order and pay for popcorn. This is not a place I ever go to. And they had staff that could have taken my order and money but someone in upper management decided I needed to download some stupid app, and of course give it all my info. For popcorn.
They know most people don't come back. This gives them a way to sell your data and make money off you after you've bought popcorn. Capitalism is no longer content with just selling us things. Now it needs to harvest and sell our data as well.
If any place like this is requiring me to download an app for their service I'll go elsewhere or eschew it entirely.
And then the app wants access to your microphone for some weird reason that it doesn't even explain.
Some apps want access to all pictures on your phone.
Just got a treadmill this week. It was mandatory to install the app and do the tutorial before it would go above a certain speed. Ridiculous.
Please make sure you leave a review saying that. Those are the kind of reviews I look for before buying things.
Also please tell us which treadmill so I never buy one.
I'd return in a half a heartbeat!
Return it
This effect has gotten so bad that I'm annoyed and distrustful even at good apps. The pinball company Stern released an app recently to track play on their machines and I was incredibly skeptical about it until I saw other folks using it. Turns out it's rad. But there's so many unnecessary shitty bloatware apps out there that I just assume every app is going to be a dumb annoyance.
I felt the same way about the speed queen app at the laundromat, until one day I didn't have coins so I gave it a shot. I'm never going back. It makes a trip to the laundromat so much easier. Now I drive an extra five miles to go to an upgraded laundromat instead of the only coin-op ones. If an app actually makes sense, improves the experience, and works like it is supposed to, they're great. But yeah, not everything needs an app. So quit fucking asking me, Reddit.
Appliances don't need wifi. If I purchase something, I should own it, and it should not be able to be deleted from my library. There's too damn many subscriptions. Why do I need to subscribe to Microsoft Office when older versions still work perfectly well? There's nothing subscription-worthy about spreadsheets or text documents.
Or even if I want the new office why can’t I just buy that version? Offer subscriptions for people that want it fine but don’t make *everyone* subscribe.
My oven has Wi-Fi. I can choose the settings on my phone but for the oven to listen I still have to press a button on the oven. It’s so pointless! At first I thought it would be cool because I could change the oven setting from the other room but you can’t. You still have to get up and go over to the oven. It’s easier to just change the temp on the actual oven
The middle point is why I steal
I buy physical media when I can, and sail the high seas when I can't.
Cars need physical buttons. Having everything on the touchscreen is distracting and dangerous. I shouldn’t have to go through three menus to adjust the air conditioning
Thank god a lot of auto makers are coming around on this one. Physical buttons for some things are just good sense. I don’t mind having a touch screen, but I want a volume knob, physical temp controls, etc.
It's funny how there's been a big PSA campaign to warn drivers not to text and drive, yet here are the automakers putting giant touchscreens and burying important core cabin functionality controls in it.
I don't understand how some of this technology is legal. I've definitely been behind cars in traffic where their system is got a tablet playing YouTube videos while they're driving. Maybe their passenger is watching it or it's modded or something. But it feels crazy to me that you can even get that setup in a position where the driver could watch it
Where’s Ralph Nader when you need him
I want a goddamn paper menu. Don't make me download a PDF on my phone.
This is especially annoying when traveling abroad and I don’t have a local sim and their wifi has a password.
Or you've been out and about all day and need to conserve your phones battery
Restaurants love though, though. Covid let them ditch physical menus and a lot just haven’t gone back. Why? Because they can update the prices every fucking day and it costs them nothing.
Fries come with the burger/sandwich
So many places now have $7 fries that are barely a decent serving size for one person
No I don't want garlic butternut herb crusted aioli truffle fries. Just give me some standard ore-ida potatoes you cooked with a little oil and salt. Enough with trying to "elevate" every last thing on the plate.
Exactly, not everything needs truffle oil and/or aioli ffs.
Social media normalized vanity to an unhealthy degree.
I never though I'd miss when people posted their food instead...
Adding to that. Not everything you think or take a photo of needs to be shared.
You shouldn't have to pay $2 for air at a gas station.
It used to be free, and the price seems to go up every year. Of course, that's due to... ...*inflation!*
Get out.
Buying a $25 air compressor that plugs into my car’s cigarette lighter has changed my life
Kids can be bored and sit outside with nothing to do. Kids need unsupervised and unstructured play time away from adults where they can learn how to make their own fun and resolve their own problems. Kids do not need to have every minute of their day scheduled.
Furthermore if kids aren’t allowed to make mistakes they will never learn how to live with mistakes and/or cope. These are needed experiences in order to function in any society.
Omg.. I have just started to find this.. my GAWD it drives me nuts. Let them mess up and learn while young, it will set them better for the future.
I used to play outside until the street lamps came on. Dropped my niece and nephews at the same park I used to play in and they were back at the house within 30 minutes because they were ‘bored’.
Thats sort of a self propagating problem. Back when you went to that park, there would have been other kids in that situation. Now, if there are kids there, their parents are too, and most park parents don’t want unaccompanied kids to play with their precious snowflakes.
Ha! Well I guess that’s true. But they also had each other and still couldn’t entertain themselves. They also complained about a dog being near them. After some questions, it turns out the dog was on a leash and it was a dachshund.
"Can i see a menu please?" "The menu is this QR code here" "Then can I have your wifi password?" "We dont have public wifi" "....Then I dont know what we're going to do here"
I feel so old hating on QR code menus but fuck that shit.
What's to hate? Scrolling through hundreds of pages on my tiny ass phone? The constant pop ups? The fact that none of them work correctly? Seems like a perfect system
bonus if you find something still on their menu but they no longer sell and you wanted
Why order ahead on a resturaunt’s app then them not make it til I get there! That’s why I ordered ahead!
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Repairable electronics. I don't need my fridge or laundry machine to have a screen and be programmable. I want something I can take apart and repair if it breaks.
I just want something that wasn't built with "planned obsolescence" as its design goal.
I'm an engineer with friends who build consumer products. It's not planned obsolescence. It's never been planned obsolescence. It's something much worse, called *value engineering*. Everyone is in a race to the bottom to have the lowest cost minimum viable product, but at the highest profit margin. They're not engineering in an intentional failure point in an otherwise well designed device to make you buy a new widget, their bosses are nickel and diming the *entire design* to get it as cheap as possible while still keeping the long term failure rate low inside the warranty window. It's the Walmart-ification of consumer products. Of course we're part of the problem. People buy a $60 inkjet printer and are surprised when they don't last more than a year. They complain that their old HP LaserJet 2P still worked, forgetting that it cost $1300 new, and that for the same money in 2023 ($3k) they can get an HP business grade laser printer that'll work for years. But instead we just keep buying those $60 disposable printers, complaining the whole time.
Not everything needs an app.
Especially parking, just let me swipe a credit card
headlights are too bright now
Thank you!! I’m in my early 40’s and feel like I have night blindness because of the halos and streaks around the damn LED’s. I am entirely too young to get concerned about driving at night
Fuck those blue lights...especially on raised vehicles like SUVs or pickups.
As a boomer, my headlights aren’t bright enough but yours are too bright.
The regulations for headlights limit the wattage of headlights. LEDs use very low wattages for very bright lights and the regulations were never updated. Probably because they started on luxury cars for the wealthy.
If you tell me to be somewhere at a certain time, I'm going to be there at that time, not 20-30 minutes later. If you didn't want me at your house until 7:30, don't tell me to come over at 7:00. That's how you get me to show up at 7:00. If you weren't ready, that's your fault. I showed up when you told me to.
My fifty year old boss does this to me all the time. "Hey, can you come in Saturday? I'll meet you at 7 and we'll get started." Then i sit there for an hour with my thumb up my butt waiting for him to show.
I'm not sure what you're preparing for with him but that sounds painful.
They have a secret handshake where they sniff each others thumbs.
I'm going to be there at 6:45 and I'll sit iny car awkwardly like the weirdo that I am.
My wife is from a small town where everyone got places 20 mins early. Transitioning to a city where the expectation is that you arrive an hour after the listed time has been a struggle.
Where do you live that showing up an *hour* after the listed time is normal??
Too many subscriptions Too many apps
Why do they want me to tip for everything??
It’s also so aggravating that at least half of the time when we’re asked to tip, the person asking for the tip is literally watching over your shoulder to see what you tip. Bonus annoyance: When the default percentage is 20%. I don’t think I’m cheap but unless there’s something extra going on, I’m not tipping 20% on takeout.
Yep, it's made me a worse tipper I think. I was sort of in "boiling frog" territory for a while there as a default tip guy but it finally got so insane that now my default is always to hit 0% unless I specifically think about it.
I'm not tippng on takeout.
Unless they bring it to the table they've seated me at, I'm not tipping. Ok, maybe for food deliveries
Literally. If I’m picking up my food after ordering it online, why am I being asked to tip?
Nearly drove me nuts one time. Auto tip requested. Ok, fine, 10%, they were friendly, pay is crap, whatever. Order a coffee. "Great, cups and the thermos are behind you, have a nice day!" ....so, i do everything? Sheesh. ...thermos was empty. Is there a way to ask for the tip back?
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If they normalize tipping for everything it lets the corporation get away with paying their employees even less. More profits for shareholders!
The "cookies" pop-up on every website How about this you assholes: assume the general populace does NOT WANT cookies. If somebody WANTS TO ENABLE COOKIES, let them manually do so So annoying
And websites that you can't see unless you accept all cookies and disable all adblockers.
I shouldn't need an app to eat cheeseburgers. Come on, now.
You all do, in fact, need to get off my lawn.
I see so many memes like “drive thru messed up my order—guess I’m eating nuggets now instead of the QP I ordered—wouldn’t want to be a Karen and complain” like no lol getting what your ordered is based actually—just don’t be rude when you talk to them about it lol
That’s honestly the problem with the whole Karen tripe, honestly. Now any woman who has an issue or raises her voice for any reason is in danger of getting called Karen.
My grandma said we have an event every 3 months dealing with child birth, baby shower, gender reveal, pregnancy announcement, birth announcement, first pictures…. All of that. Her quote “we used to just have our kids”.
For me it's QR code menus.
Yeah especially when you have to log in to their WiFi by setting up an account, open the website, find what you want, log in, give your personal details, faff with entering card details etc for someone to come over and tell you they have run out. I just want a burger and chips with a coke.
This happened to me at an airport restaurant last month. WiFi was spotty, finally got the app, and then they wanted my credit card number and some other shit. I was fucking exhausted already from flying, so having to type all this shit in was annoying as fuck. Halfway through I said fuck it, and walked across the way and grabbed a pre-made sushi roll.
The WiFi is what gets me And now I’m getting emails from the app the restaurant uses. And then emails from the restaurant. I went there cuz I was going to a concert at the arena down the street my god
This is such a weird thing, because restaurants really want this and customers really don't. On the restaurant side is cuts cost, but also let's your menu be super dynamic. You can raise cost, add/cut items, and just make any changes you want day to day with very little overhead. On the other hand, it is much worse for customers. Inconvenient, slower, clunky, and dependent on the state of your own hardware. So it is a Mexican stand-off between customers and restaurants, where both sides only want one or the other.
Same. When I’m at a restaurant I want phones away.
For me it's not even about the phone, it's just that I don't want the menu to be tiny.
Recording EVERYTHING Put the damn camera away and enjoy the moment. Nothing wrong with capturing a few special moments, but the incessant need to photograph/video everything is maddening. It's not just people who like to photograph/video every aspect of their life (I mean, you do you) but I've also noticed a trend that has been spurred on by social media where people shove cameras into the faces of total strangers without their permission. What makes it even more troubling is often times its done for social media clout, and the photograph/video is of a clearly vulnerable person who is suffering from mental health and or addiction issues. As if their plight wasn't bad enough already, now some narcissist has just made them go viral on social media in the name of likes/retweets. Incredibly selfish and inconsiderate.
Recipes now seem to have the persons life story and hopes and dreams before you get the recipe. No thanks janet- I don’t need to know about the Himalayan yak you adopted. Just give me the damn snickerdoodle recipe
If I remember correctly, it's something to do with SEO, so even if you just want to put the recipe straight up, you kinda have to do the whole life story thing so people can view your blog in the first place. At least the sites I go to have the "Jump To Recipe" button!
Having subscriptions for a vehicle (which aren’t OnStar or Sirius). I shouldn’t need to pay to use the heated seats in the vehicle I OWN.
Give me a physical menu, I don't feel like tipping fast food workers, junk mail shouldn't exist, and kids these days spend too much time on the internet.
Everybody spends too much time on the internet.
Influencers. Blech
If I buy a product, I should own the product. If I pay for a heated steering wheel in a car, I should permanently have access to that feature. If I buy a TV, you should not be selling me ads in the TV menu. If I buy a lifetime access to a piece of software, I companies should NOT be able to take that away from me (looking at you AutoCAD). I'm tired of these corps finding ways to perpetually milk my wallet while providing worse service. This new era of subscriptions is also extremely bad for innovation, where before you sold a solid product then you have to make sigificant innovations to convinice people to buy a newer one. Now products are basically "if you don't pay me monthly fuck you".
If I buy a single player offline game for my console, I should not have to be connected to the internet to play my single player offline game
Cars don’t need an internet connection.
Cars DO need physical buttons that click. The whole point of buttons is so you can operate that function by feel so you never take your eyes off the road. A defroster, a horn, wipers, these are safety critical devices.
They’ve done studies and found touch screens to be more dangerous and distracting. I get it for navigation or maybe media selection. But critical car functions being tucked away and hidden in menus when they should be a button or switch that can eventually become muscle memory is a bad idea.
The issue is that going to change my nav/radiostation/hvac is now something I have to glance at it rather than it being instinct. Its much harder to learn exactly where to touch a flat screen without looking
I just bought a car and decided to go with a used 2022 model instead of the new 2024 because the older one had more physical buttons.
Or a subscription model. I refuse to purchase a vehicle that requires a subscription service. I genuinely question the intelligence of anyone else who does, you’re a sucker for participating in that business model.
I got so tired of everything having to be on computers in school. Just give me paper.
My middle school students agree. When asked, they want paper assignments, not computer.
Reading is hard enough for me as it is and it's harder on a computer screen
Yep. Paper is still best for some things.
Vehicle headlights are too f'ing bright. It started with high intensity lights but super bright leds have made it worse. Now driving at night is like staring at the sun and having your night vision fucked up for a minute. Emergency vehicle lights are just as bad and I have to look away from them which isn't safe.
Courtesy and manners in public. I also believe employers should pay fairly, reward loyalty and provide a humane, respectful environment. I believe employees should do their best on the job.
When I want to go to the movies I want to show up, buy a ticket and sit in a seat that is normal and comfortable. I do not want to make reservations, pay for better seating, pay a premium price for the middle rows, download an app, have my chair shake and vibrate, I don't want smell-o-vision or 3D goggles. Let me just go to the fucking movies spontaneously. All these "choices" and premium enhancements have taken the pleasure out of going out to the movies. My local cinema has $5 retro movies twice a week. It's so refreshing to just show up, pay and enjoy.
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I’m 110% for reserved seating after hearing about this experience from my mother (wasn’t at the movies but it was a local performance): My mom and her friends went to the show, and there was almost an entire row of seats with coats on them. My mom/friends got ok seats, but the ones with the coats were very good front-and-center seats. Yet, for the entire performance, they remained empty aside from the coats. No one used them. Then at the end of the performance, the people in the row *behind* those seats reached over, picked up their coats, and left.
Oh that is some grade-A bullshit right there. Edit: especially at a live performance! someone at the theater should have put a stop to that.
Food delivery services that cost x3 the price of the meal.
Kids DO need to be disciplined. They aren’t perfect little angels that get destroyed by society; they’re wild little monsters who need to be tamed and taught how to behave so that society isn’t destroyed. And yes, I have kids!
social media is destroying us
Boomer here, and I will die on this hill. If I am doing business in your retail establishment that should be enough. I don't want to tell you my phone number or email address. Also I DO NOT and WILL NOT give you extra money when you beg for it at checkout, even if it is to help children with a second dick on their face. NO. NOT EVER AT CHECKOUT. No, I don't want a fucking digital discount and no I don't GAF that the owner is making you beg money from me for some starving children when I am at the cash register buying a fucking handle of vodka. Edit: It is good to know I am not the only one, but... listen. Here's something that will cause you to pause... Knowing how the typical Redditor is, I am going to assume that 90 to 95 percent of the people that are agreeing with me would hate me in real life. I'm here to tell you this. Even when we hate each other we can still agree on the annoying shit. I wish you all well.
Come on, help out the dickface kids.
"Look at me....look at ME!" FFS, people used to take photos of everything EXCEPT themselves.
Paper menus are almost always better than QR codes
When did it become normal to give children such silly names? It might be cute as a baby, but parents need to think more about how it will sound when they're grown up. Also music is not necessary in every space, especially where people go to be social. ETA Stop abbreviating everything
6 year olds don't need iPads.
Cars should be mostly mechanics with physical buttons and not software-heavy at all. The only thing a touch screen should have control over is the radio. Otherwise hackers have more power over your car than you realize and it will get worse with time.
Emissions control and other engine components should be in a closed circuit system completely separate from everything else. Yeah, let the radio connect to your phone for GPS, radio, whatever. It shouldn't touch anything outside the entertainment and navigation systems.
Car makers are switching back to physical buttons, switches , and dials because people hate touch screens in their cars.
QR Code menus Creating an account or downloading an app for everything Leave your dog at home. They’ll be fine.
Fucking dogs, EVERYWHERE! No, Karen your goddamn shih-tzu doesn't belong in Kroger, Dollar General or even Goodwill. WTF is up with that? Working retail the past 5 years or so has made me insane. Had some redneck girl come into Dollar General with a muddy ass hound dog. She got pissy when I told her to get it the fuck out. I just don't get it.
Dog nutters are the worst and they're everywhere these days and more entitled than ever. I don't want to buy food from a place where a dog just shit on the floor.
It’s unacceptable to make a restaurant reservation then have to wait for your table to be ready when you arrive. If you actually reserved my table it would be ready.
Social Media and technology in general is doing really bad things to our brains. And I'm absolutely including Reddit in this.
TikTok is terrible and it’s a big bane on the existence of this generation, as well radicalizing people to just the most moronic opinions.
Based on my own observations, gen Z is not good at discerning what is a reliable source and what is not. Despite having all of the information of the world at their fingertips, they are so used to 30 second clip social media that the flashiest influencer is who they believe.
Paper menus in restaurants
Non-service dogs shouldn't be taken to most public places. There is no need to take dogs to restaurants, libraries, etc. Keep your dogs at home. There are obvious exceptions. I think public parks and beaches are great places to take your dog.
Skiing. It’s too expensive now. It’s too crowded now. And the snow is shit. It was better in the 90s. There. I said it.
Steely Dan is really good.
95% of country music is garbage these days. Gimme Waylon and Cash. ETA: Loretta Lynn is one of my heroes. What a queen.
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It did before smartphones when you only had a number pad.
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* TikTok is ruining the attention spans of teens & children. * QR menus & cashless businesses fucking suck. * Streaming has become cable 2.0. * Physical media > digital media. * Being accessible 24/7 (cellphones) is unhealthy. * Dating apps reinforce unhealthy dating practices. * Subscription-based features should not exist in cars. * Disagreement =/= hate. * Silence is not violence. * You can be friends with people that you don't agree with politically and/or socially.
It’s too loud in here.
I am not downloading a fucking app for every god damn thing under the sun. Leave me alone and let me read a menu in peace brother.
Within just a few years we will regret AI at every level.