Has your love of technology changed?

movingtables

movingtables

movingtables

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Growing up I've probably had "almost" every gadget you could lay your hands on.
I got the internet in 1996 and i was so excited how the world was changing..

but..

These days i just can't get excited for new stuff and i am a bit disillusioned by some new stuff.
Do i really need to ask Alexa to switch the lights on? i mean I'd prefer to just switch it on/off via my hand.
Why do people feel the need to buy a video door bell so they can watch their street in their dinner hour at work.
i seen the other day an advert on tv showing someone opening/starting their car with their mobile phone.
that scared the crap out of me :D
I also hate mobile phones, i find them intrusive and antisocial but do accept they have useful features.
people glued to their mobile phones CONSTANTLY checking their credit score? give me a break, if you have to check every minute then your credit is pants, get over it and live within your means.

maybe these few examples aren't very compelling and others find them useful/safe and that's fine.

I'm 46 and maybe I'm just getting to an age where I'm, well getting old lol.
do some of the older members feel the same or do they just embrace all new tech ?
 
I think a lot of it is about having and knowing something that's niche and a bit like a well kept secret - the web in the mid 90's was still out of reach of most people and they didn't care about it.

It's a bit like knowing a band or having a niche hobby - once everyone has jumped on the bandwagon it takes the edge away from it.

I still like tech just not the mainstream stuff.
 
technology was once new and exciting gadgets, now it's just stuff for the sake of it even if it doesn't really offer a benefit.

it almost became a status symbol to have stuff so you can show off
 
Edinho said:
I think a lot of it is about having and knowing something that's niche and a bit like a well kept secret - the web in the mid 90's was still out of reach of most people and they didn't care about it.

It's a bit like knowing a band or having a niche hobby - once everyone has jumped on the bandwagon it takes the edge away from it.

I still like tech just not the mainstream stuff.
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that's a very interesting point and i can relate to the internet part, it was like superpower not many had :)
 
arknor said:
technology was once new and exciting gadgets, now it's just stuff for the sake of it even if it doesn't really offer a benefit.

it almost became a status symbol to have stuff
Click to expand...
another good point, new stuff doesn't seem as useful but more for the "sake" of it ££££££££££££££
 
I can see where you're coming from.

The problem is these days there isn't much 'new' technology coming out. It's just more of the same. Bigger ram, bigger gpu's, bigger cpu's.

There seems to be a general lack of creativity in society these days. Every once in a while something totally new will come along. But it doesnt seem to happen that often, not like it used to do.
 
movingtables said:
:D
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:D

To be fair though, beyond smart devices and maybe VR, I don't think anything as game changing as what you lads witnessed has happened in the consumer world. Things have got incrementally better.

I'd say where it is felt big time though is in business. A lot of 'busy work' roles just don't exist anymore, and automation is absolutely nuts off the scale.

And of course as you get older... you specialise and close doors... and so do your friends. Ultimately you lose the diversity of tech nutters in the group sending you links to the latest tat every 5 minutes.
 
Take this for an example...

I am going to be moving house at some point. Now, the geek in me is probably going to network each room with cat5. Normal people would think 'why are you going to do that? Pointless with wi-fi'.

But then normal people think wi-fi is great and don't realise it is crap.
 
movingtables said:
[..]
I'm 46 and maybe I'm just getting to an age where I'm, well getting old lol. [..]
Click to expand...

It might be that or it might be that you're assessing specific tech on its merits and deciding that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages and/or that its benefits are trivial and thus uninteresting. Yay, I can buy a kettle that texts me to tell me it's boiled. Whoopie! Just what I needed!

Or a bit of both.

Tech when you were younger wasn't intrusive. That alone makes a big difference. When I was a boy, if I somehow got a 2020 mobile phone it would have been utter awesomeness. A real life Star Trek communicator! But better! It's a computer too! A computer you can slip into a pocket that's more powerful than a building-sized supercomputer! WOW! That would have been better than riding a real Tyrannosaurus Rex! But the 2020 reality is that it's a bugging device more powerful and sophisticated than anything George Orwell dreamed up for his dystopias, it's used by organisations to manipulate you and it's very intrusive. Drawbacks.

Then there's the "evolution not revolution" thing. You can buy the nth generation phone. Which does the same as the n-1th generation phone but a bit faster. And the n-1th generation phone was already more than fast enough for anything you used it for anyway. Not interesting. The last "wow" computer part I bought was an Orchid Righteous 3D Voodoo graphics card in the mid 90s. That was radically different than anything I'd seen before. That was a game-changer. Since then, it's been the same but faster. The increase in performance has been huge since then, but it's been repeated relatively small evolutions, not revolutions.
 
movingtables said:
Growing up I've probably had "almost" every gadget you could lay your hands on.
I got the internet in 1996 and i was so excited how the world was changing..

but..

These days i just can't get excited for new stuff and i am a bit disillusioned by some new stuff.
Do i really need to ask Alexa to switch the lights on? i mean I'd prefer to just switch it on/off via my hand.
Why do people feel the need to buy a video door bell so they can watch their street in their dinner hour at work.
i seen the other day an advert on tv showing someone opening/starting their car with their mobile phone.
that scared the crap out of me :D
I also hate mobile phones, i find them intrusive and antisocial but do accept they have useful features.
people glued to their mobile phones CONSTANTLY checking their credit score? give me a break, if you have to check every minute then your credit is pants, get over it and live within your means.

maybe these few examples aren't very compelling and others find them useful/safe and that's fine.

I'm 46 and maybe I'm just getting to an age where I'm, well getting old lol.
do some of the older members feel the same or do they just embrace all new tech ?
Click to expand...
You sound a bit like me. I hate phones. I'm completely unexcited by phones (I find the GPS maps feature useful because I have no innate sense of direction :p). I would never have Alexa or whatever Google's thingamy is called.

Technology was cool in the 80s and 90s. When it was niche and geeky to even have a computer. When new ground was being struck every year.

Now we're mostly just iterating. And technology is mainstream. And (sadly) "mainstream technology" just means new iPhones and doing jazz hands to turn your lights on. It's not cool, it's not geeky, it's endlessly marketed on TV and it's deeply unexciting. "Oh look, the new iPhone has 12 cameras and an app to flush the loo. That's great, really."
 
I got some smart plugs and put one on the living room lamp. Went down stairs at 6pm ish, realised it was getting dark so needed to switch the lamp on for the evening. Then I remembered I left my phone upstairs as I was planning on going back up, damn. Then I realised how much easier it would be if I could just switch it on by hand there and then. :o
 
I’ll be honest, these days I get more excited about a shopping trip at screw fix than I do OCUK (and not because Screw fix has the good stuff in stock).
 
Yes.

Like many people here I was an absolute geek when I was a kid. When I was 12 years old I borrowed a ZX81 from someone (can't remember who/why now). I loved it so much that I got a VIC 20 for Christmas. That dictated the rest of my life with a love of technology and even a career in IT. I would spend 6 hours every day playing games or learning a new programming language. I loved it so much. I rarely got outside and spent every spare minute on the VIC/C64/Amiga/PC/Whatever

Fast forward to today and I'm not only bore of it and hate working in IT but for quite some time I've seen how bad it is making the future. I now prefer to get outside. I love walking, seeing things. I love driving. I love meeting up with friends. I love my motorbike.
 
Edinho said:
Take this for an example...

I am going to be moving house at some point. Now, the geek in me is probably going to network each room with cat5. Normal people would think 'why are you going to do that? Pointless with wi-fi'.

But then normal people think wi-fi is great and don't realise it is crap.
Click to expand...

Most people who didn't use the Internet in the golden age think Wi-Fi is the Internet and the Internet is Wi-Fi.
 
movingtables said:
Growing up I've probably had "almost" every gadget you could lay your hands on.
I got the internet in 1996 and i was so excited how the world was changing..

but..

These days i just can't get excited for new stuff and i am a bit disillusioned by some new stuff.
Do i really need to ask Alexa to switch the lights on? i mean I'd prefer to just switch it on/off via my hand.
Why do people feel the need to buy a video door bell so they can watch their street in their dinner hour at work.
i seen the other day an advert on tv showing someone opening/starting their car with their mobile phone.
that scared the crap out of me :D
I also hate mobile phones, i find them intrusive and antisocial but do accept they have useful features.
people glued to their mobile phones CONSTANTLY checking their credit score? give me a break, if you have to check every minute then your credit is pants, get over it and live within your means.

maybe these few examples aren't very compelling and others find them useful/safe and that's fine.

I'm 46 and maybe I'm just getting to an age where I'm, well getting old lol.
do some of the older members feel the same or do they just embrace all new tech ?
Click to expand...

Ubiquitous computing isn't for everyone. If you don't want to use Alexa or similar devices that's fine. However, have you considered that this technology has other benefits for example those with disability or the old of age who otherwise wouldn't be able to use (as an example) a thermostat to heat their home. This sort of tech allows people who have lost some of their freedom or who may need to rely on carers to regain some of that accessibility for themselves. Whether it's via a mobile phone or voice activation.

Cars can be programmed to turn themselves on at set times in a number of ways and have lots of benefits for doing so, but often people only think of reasons that may (or may not) apply in a small number of ways.

Video door bells have so many benefits that I could write an essay on it. But most importantly if offers security, especially for women and the vulnerable who live alone.

I get what you're saying with mobile phones, and a lot would agree that society has changed because of them. But you can't ignore the real benefits of them either especially when their connected to other devices.

You seem a little bit disillusioned with technology tbh, but it can be a great thing.
 
Hades said:
Yes.

Like many people here I was an absolute geek when I was a kid. When I was 12 years old I borrowed a ZX81 from someone (can't remember who/why now). I loved it so much that I got a VIC 20 for Christmas. That dictated the rest of my life with a love of technology and even a career in IT. I would spend 6 hours every day playing games or learning a new programming language. I loved it so much. I rarely got outside and spent every spare minute on the VIC/C64/Amiga/PC/Whatever

Fast forward to today and I'm not only bore of it and hate working in IT but for quite some time I've seen how bad it is making the future. I now prefer to get outside. I love walking, seeing things. I love driving. I love meeting up with friends. I love my motorbike.
Click to expand...
Same/similar. I get more enjoyment from the garden and watching things grow, then I can possibly get from either work or play with computers.

Sometimes I think I quite fancy living off-grid in a mountain somewhere :p
 
OP, like others said, you are old. I say that as a 42 y/o ******* too :p

A few things I got in 2020 that made me excited to own, or at least the anticipation was there:

2020 Mar - Streamdeck
2020 Apr - Yeti microphone
2020 Apr - Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
2020 May - Samsung Galaxy Watch
2020 May - Archer VR2800 router. Ok now that exciting but still
2020 Jul - Synology DS218 NAS
2020 Jul - Shark DuoClean IF200UK vacuum cleaner
2020 Aug - Casio XW-G1 synth
2020 Sep - Nintendo Switch
2020 Nov - ViewSonic VP2768 monitor

The Nintendo Switch was by far my best purchase in the number of hours I have put into it, and it has been a lockdown saviour.
 
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