Is technology getting a bit boring? (Interesting new tech thread)

lovelyhead

lovelyhead

lovelyhead

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Have we hit the law of diminishing returns in the tech world? Technology these days is basically just iterative improvements on previous products and nothing really gets me hyped any more.

I started playing video games with a Super Nintendo and Super Mario World. We went from 2D to rudimentary 3D with titles like Starfox and then jaw dropping 3d (at the time) with Mario 64. Then with each successive generation of Console we got large improvements in graphics until about the 360 / PS3 generation. The same was true on PC. Remember being amazed at seeing Doom for the first time? Then we had Half Life, Half Life 2, Crysis etc.

In the music world we had Walkman's, then Mini Disc's and then Ipod's. We had Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos.

Mobile Phones started off as bricks then we had classic Nokia's that everyone could afford, Blackberries, then Iphones.

The most recent exciting technology for me was VR. That was mega exciting going from Palmer Lucky and John Carmack's ducked taped together VR headset to the DK1, DK2, Vive etc. That was about 10 years ago now.

All the above tech has reached a point where we are at iterative improvements and it is just a bit boring.

Do you think we will ever see another period of time where we get exciting technology again?
 
Yes tech is getting boring, I agree. Whilst it's possible that someone invents something great, I think there's less chance of me caring about it, defo losing interest as I get older and I think the world was better before the internet, soon we'll all be dead and the population won't even know what life pre-internet was like.
 
It’s probably also partly to do with age. When I was younger all the new things were ‘amazing’. There’s still a lot of new things coming out that people regard as amazing but I just see as the next iteration.

It’s the same with music, I was really into headphones and DACs and amps, now I just don’t care as long as it sounds alright.

Same with games, always wanted to play, now I get the urge maybe once a fortnight and it holds my interest for 30 minutes at most.
 
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No, I just think that as you get older and take on other responsibilities and commitments, your interest in technology fades.

As a kid and young adult, I had all the time in the world to sit and tinker with technology, however rudimentary and crappy it was, it was still interesting.
 
A mixture of age and technology advances in fit and starts and in areas that might not be of interest to you.

I have zero interest in cars but look how they have changed in 10 years. Amazing really.

Consumer electronics are stagnent for sure. But there's always something if you look hard enough.

I own a 2080 gfx card I stopped caring.
 
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What technology are the kids getting excited about today (assuming everyone here is at least 30 years old)?

Are they really getting excited about a new iteration of the iPhone?
 
You are getting old so the passion of things start to dwindle. Same thing has happened to me. the next technology leaps are AI and robotics. I can imagine in 20 years we will have C3P0s walking around the house doing housework like ironing, dusting etc, and acting as a security guard in the home. Also self driving cars will start becoming more mainstream in 20 years time (regardless if they are electric or still petrol). They have hit the limit of mobile phones now, which took them 20 years as phone technology hasn't really added extra usable benefits since the iPhone 6 or 7

shorter term in the next 5 years, theres not much out there to be honest other than witness the evolution of the above. I dont think VR will ever take off
 
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Speaking solely about phones. I useed to upgrade every 2 years without fail for the next generation iPhone. Then once the Apple Upgrade plan was a thing I went 7+ > X > XS Max >> 11 Pro Max.

Then one year I just couldn't be bothered to upgrade. Then I thought about it, in my mind cameras have been good enough on phones since the 7+. All I use my phone for is Reddit, Whatsapp, Chrome, Apple Music and CarPlay.

I've got a 14 Pro now but I'm just not the target market for yearly upgrades. Once I got out of the habit I realised it's a fools game
 
Junglist said:
Speaking solely about phones. I useed to upgrade every 2 years without fail for the next generation iPhone. Then once the Apple Upgrade plan was a thing I went 7+ > X > XS Max >> 11 Pro Max.

Then one year I just couldn't be bothered to upgrade. Then I thought about it, in my mind cameras have been good enough on phones since the 7+. All I use my phone for is Reddit, Whatsapp, Chrome, Apple Music and CarPlay.

I've got a 14 Pro now but I'm just not the target market for yearly upgrades. Once I got out of the habit I realised it's a fools game
Click to expand...

Mobile phones were the first type of tech I lost interest in. They are all just glass rectangles that basically all do the same thing. I have a Google Pixel 3 and I will keep it until it breaks and then buy another cheap £100 phone. I find mobile phones as exciting as a fridge or washing machine.
 
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I think there are elements of caring less as I get older but also the iterations are just not exciting.
Phones tend to be better cameras or CPU, most people probably don't care. Not like the massive leaps in the early days.
Graphics on games are meh, huge potential but rarely realised. Nothing like the generational leaps from 16-32 bit era and beyond.
 
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bit off topic,

one of the toughest things about getting old is to find a new hobby, mine definitely used to be technology in the early 00s and 90s when I was late teens early 20s. When I was younger there were all sorts of scenes around that you can be part of. Might be kitting up cars putting expensive sound systems in, or tacky body kits, might be joining a clan for your favourite online game, spending money on your PC, might be the rave scene in random fields, being a gym nut, goths, emos etc. i am pretty sure that even kids these days dont have "scenes" available to them as they are simply not popular anymore apart from the social media content creation garbage.

so the bottom line is......... try and find a new hobby if you are finding yourself bored :)
 
lovelyhead said:
Mobile phones were the first type of tech I lost interest in. They are all just glass rectangles that basically all do the same thing. I have a Google Pixel 3 and I will keep it until it breaks and then buy another cheap £100 phone. I find mobile phones as exciting as a fridge or washing machine.
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With the invention of smart phones there was a different companies going different ways. Exciting new features every generation. Now there's an accepted way a smart phone should be/work most of the useful features have been added to the devices and it's just a case of iterative upgrades now. Yes there's an amazing new feature no-one has thought every now and again but within a year everyone else would have that as well.
 
As others have said, it's probably partly down to age. I used to be really in to following everything and now I just don't care. Even when I've got the time to sit and read up on things like that, I still can't be bothered because I just don't care :)

That said, I think it is also down to things just being less interesting. With PC hardware for example we used to get real substantial gains every 1-2 years. Now, generally speaking, we're seeing minimal single digit percentage performance uplifts year on year. Things used to be fun with overclocking too and getting massive clock speed and performance gains, but those days are more or less over too.

Phones are another example. For quite some time it's also been minimal improvements year on year and nothing to get excited about. Generally speaking I think we're at the point that even the low end of stuff does the job for most people and while that's not anything exciting, I think it is also pretty impressive.
 
Ocarina of Time set the graphical bar higher than Mario 64, this is ipso facto :cool:

I only upgrade my phone if the camera is a significant upgrade over the model I currently have, otherwise I see no point since the rest of the hardware ihas been excellent with long battery life since the Galaxy S10e. Currently have the S23 Ultra and cannot imagine how the S24 Ultra can better the cam,camera other than iterative improvements like maybe being able to switch lenses when recording at 60fps 4k as opposed to being fixed on whatever lens is chosen before clicking record, or lower light sensitivity being massively better than the already excellent S23 main camera.

I do professional photography and my DSLR is also 7 years old (5D Mark 4), I have yet to go mirrorless whether R6 mkII or R5, even though the sensor dynamic range in low light and high ISO is literal night vision in full colour. I just can't justify the cost gain bump and battery drain vs a DSLR with the sort of cost and battery compromises being made.

The only things I tend to upgrade and benefit from immediately in terms of tech are PC related stuff, SSDs get faster, monitors get newer OLED tech that is just outright better than LCD, GPUs are massively faster (well, only if you buy top end....) for both gaming and productivity.
 
FishThrower said:
bit off topic,

one of the toughest things about getting old is to find a new hobby, mine definitely used to be technology in the early 00s and 90s when I was late teens early 20s. When I was younger there were all sorts of scenes around that you can be part of. Might be kitting up cars putting expensive sound systems in, or tacky body kits, might be joining a clan for your favourite online game, spending money on your PC, might be the rave scene in random fields, being a gym nut, goths, emos etc. i am pretty sure that even kids these days dont have "scenes" available to them as they are simply not popular anymore apart from the social media content creation garbage.

so the bottom line is......... try and find a new hobby if you are finding yourself bored :)
Click to expand...

Completely disagree with this. Young people are using social media to consume content on their hobby not always replace it. I imagine you used to take to forums to discuss your car modifying. Now the young use Instagram etc. instead to view/ talk about it.
 
the only tech that realliy interests me currently is vr. especially meta's attempts to take it more mainstream. outside of that, phones are all the same now, no wow factor. gpus etc are all over priced, not that it matters as pc games are much the same graphically today as they were a few years back, apart from the odd outlier,
 
not for me, its just getting interesting now.

Flashlights LED`s getting incredibly bright
4K projectors getting more affordable and using laser instead of bulbs
TV picture quality improving
internet getting faster
hard drives getting HUGE and faster
phones getting better
cameras getting better
game consoles have moved on so much
 
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