New Things and Thoughts going Round and Round

I guess you don't get nagged in texts agree re auto prediction comes up with weird words

TheCatWoman said:

Back to phones a minute, who ever decided predictive text was a good idea?

I get what you mean - I often have text conversations with my wife partly in English and partly in Portuguese and the auto correct can create some howlers.

You can switch it off in the settings thankfully.

I'm glad you liked my compliment. You seem to have this gift for believing that humans and tech operate on a rational basis, when in reality they often don't. All these devices might be intuitive if you've been using them from their begining, but if you've skipped a generation or 6 then they're incomprehensible, scarily so. When a piece of technology can basically lose half your lifetime of contacts, mess up so much other stuff, like linking in with your boradband provider and not allowing others to use thier devices and stuff like that it's scary. This happened to me, someone else in the house tried to link thier phone to their email account and as a result I lost access to mine and my Mums, it took three weeks to sort it all out, everytime I logged onto my computer I got the other persons home screen and access to all thier stuff and none of mine. This may have been a human error, but it was one that had serious effects and was hard to sort out.

What about when it's not a phone or computer, but a washing machine or telly, or a cooker, microwave or something? These get more complicated too, they don't use apps, but they seem to have enough programes to suit a space ship rather than the average home.

We don't have a go to person in the family for stuff like that, or at least I don't, my step-son can do all sorts of things with tech, and I can ask him basic questions, but on the rare occasions when he visits I don't get any time with him to go over stuff like this with him.

Back to phones a minute, who ever decided predictive text was a good idea? I was asked to type a message on someones phone and it was on predictive text and decided to change everything to random gobbledygook. I gave the phone back and told them to sort it or I'd frisbee it.

I also have lists of things to do, not only in electronic form but in my head, which I have to memorise and recall internally, and find myself in a loop starting again when I make a mistake. It's very frustrating and leads to not actually doing any of the things on the list.

I am with you with new things. The worst thing now is that lots of things don't come with written instructions. We have a smart TV but I don't know what to do when it needs re tuning. I dread my phone needing replacing as it takes time to understand it.

I was watching the Breakfast programme today and someone commented about making notes rather than phone and how it helps mental well-being. I live by notes and have to go over things in my head until I can write them down. I have a notebook by my seat at home. I use paper notes at work too. I find it very pleasing to see accomplished things crossed off the list.

TheCatWoman said:

should I scrap it and get a new one because they tech has changed

It is very different with mobile phones as they are battery based and intentionally near impossible to change yourself or expensive to get someone to do it for you.

In essence they are designed to be changed every 3 years max for your typical user, more often if you have more money than sense.

I'm not arguing that this is a bad idea because it clearly is. I am arguing that it is what we are facing by the intentions of the manufacturers so am being a realist in suggesting that an active approach to replacing it before it becomes unusable is smart.

TheCatWoman said:

Oh Iain you're such an innocent rationalist!

You say the sweetest things

Even I ask a specialist when I'm out of my depth to make sure I get the best guides for setting things up. After 4 decades of doing it it still feels the most effective method, even if I'm the "expert" my family and friends turn to.

TheCatWoman said:

How do you chose an appliance with just enough life span that when it packs up you won't need to start from scratch again?

You choose one that allows you to make a backup which can be restored to a differend device. Apple are good at this with the iPhone / iPad and I think Samsung are OK with it too - based on my hands on experience. I'm not sure about other manufacturers.

Starting from scratch is actually quite a good idea though since it lets you get rid of apps you no longer use, all sorts of clutter that is obsolete and reminds you you can customise the phone by checking the current best practice guides for security etc.

It all comes down to the manufacturers making money out of us at the end of day and there is little interest in saving the customer money so I don't think it will ever catch on.

I bought a new phone months ago, it's still in the box. I don't like change, although I do need to change over to it soon, because my current one is beginning to fail. So I understand. 

I have a mental checklist of things that I aim to complete in a day. It's 'haunted' me for over 30 years. It's like a mantra.    The more anxious I get, the more it goes over and over in my head. I also have a notebook with other items that are not on my mental list. 

People have no idea. As if masking wasn't enough. X

Oh Iain you're such an innocent rationalist! You seem to think that reading up on something makes it OK, that the instructions work and are meaningful even if they exist which more often than not these days they don't. You assume that such research is easy and readily available and most importantly accurate. More often that not it's confusing, deliberately obfuscating and won't answer the simple questions you need answering because its all to busy telling you how all singing and all dancing it is.

Why is wanting something simple a waste of time? Why do I need a washing machine with 30 program options when I will only use 5 of them? How many people actually use all the programs? Why do manufacturers always assume we want complicated? Why do manufacturers assume they know more about what we want than we do?. This is just an example by the way.

How do you chose an appliance with just enough life span that when it packs up you won't need to start from scratch again? My telly is about 10 years old and is still working fine, should I scrap it and get a new one because they tech has changed, what about the environmental impact of constantly having to update your devices, let alone the cost?

your thoughts are so true I used to love my afternoons when I would watch sport have the odd bet have little sleeps etc.We will both get too that stage again.Thanks so much for your words

I totally share your anxieties about tech, to the point where I use as little of it as possible, I don't know why they have to keep "improving" things as it more often makes them more complicated and unusable, with more features that you won't use. I keep a pen and paper notebook with all my phone numbers, addresses and pass words so as I don't have to rely on tech to keep on top of it all. I prefer a map to a satnav, I'd prefer a simple washing machine rather than one with a dozen programs that I never use. Why can't a door bell just be a door bell, why does it have to be smart? 

I worry about all this smart stuff, smart fridges that link up with your supermarket app and automatically works out what need to go on your shopping list and orders it for you, what happens if you buy something to try and don't like it, how do you tell your fridge to stop ordering it? hat would happen if your fridge got hacked, would you end up with loads of stuff you'd never use snd didn't like, would you be able to send all back and get a refund? Would your fridge and the supermarket fridges get together and conspire against the humans?

I used to make a lot of lists, now I save them for things like xmas and moving house.

The freedom of not having anything on a to-do list is unimaginable, the time to be bored, to look ahead and for there to be nothing looming on the horizon. To have the luxury of deciding what I want to do rather than what I have to do and wondering if I will have time and energy to do anything I want to do at the end of it.

It helped when I realised that many of the things on my have to do list, were actually things put there by others, either through manipulation, persausion or because they're to young or old to do them, gave me the ability to not feel so bad about not doing things. Why should I Wear myself out so as they can be lazy?

Cat Loving Man said:

.I will then keep saying it silently to myself till I can write it down.I have to have a to do list.if it looks a bit messy

I use the notes feature on my phone to write this stuff down when I remember it and whenever I stop (lunchtime for example) then I tidy the lists up and will email them to myself for a backup and add them to my calendar if they need to be scheduled or OneNote if they need to be done as a checklist.

Cat Loving Man said:

My goal is to have nothing on my to do list

It really helps to get past this - it creates lots of unnecessary stress. It will alway be an evolving list (some items last longer than one day anyway) so use a proper task manager which has priority options, categories and deadlines and learn to use this to manage your time.

I get it that your OCD wants things done but it is much more practical to do all the things you have time for - so much more achievable and by checking that you have done all you can for that day, it should give a sense of achievement.

Once you learn to use this is takes so much anxiety off your plate.

Cat Loving Man said:

When ever for instance I change my mobile I get so anxious about will it work will everything move across

My advice is to learn how to plan this - research the new phone / sky box etc and understand how to do the things you want. Maybe even make your own little guide.

Plan the time for the migration with plenty of leaway, set the date and just do it.

Longing for old tech that is dying is a waste of your time when you could already have learned how to do it the new way and have a device with a decent lifespan to use.

The unknown makes us uncomfortable. Fight-or-flight is top of the scale. We tend to panic, as a result.

However, we can learn skills to cope. The fear shall never leave. But utilising it, in a positive way, can yield positive results.