Struggling with Modern technology

It's not an autism thing, although I'm autistic and am terrible with tech, so bad I once crashed a digital egg timer! I can't manage smart phones, QR codes, or anything like that. I think some of us are digital aliens, there seems to be a prevalent idea that if you're autistic then you must be good with tech, a bit like the idea that is you're dyslexic then you must be brilliant at maths.

You're by no means alone in not being able to do tech stuff, during covid my civil servant son was redeployed to helping people claim fulough payments and loans, he came across lots of quite sucessful businessmen who couldn't do an email and had no idea of where to find the information required to apply for payments. Most of them had secretaries that did all this stuff for them and with no access to thier secretaries they were totally stuck. My son spent hours talking people through the basics of thier computers.

I get fed up of the increasing digitalisation of society, it's getting to the point where a smart phone and the ability to use one is a vital life skill. Nobody helps to pay for the massive increase in costs of this to individuals, I don't care if I can get all the equipment second hand and PAYG sim cards, it's still money I don't have, that's not benefitting me, it's for the benefit of other's mostly so as companies can employ fewer staff and increase profit, or for the use of government departments for obfuscation and catching you out and doing you out of things the law say's you're entitled too.

My hairdresser has to pay for her sons dinner money via an app that needs you to have online banking, if you don't know how to do it then a teacher will show you! My answer to that would be unprintable containing as many f's and b's and maybe a few c's as it would, I mean how patronising and excluding is that? Whats worse is that many areas round here have very bad connectivity, due to things like forests and mountains.

My message to you is RESIST, refuse to play the tech game, it might cause a bit of aggravation, but all these companies do have non digital ways of doing thing as I found out earlier with Amazon. People will tell you resistance is futile but it's so not.

It's not an autism thing, although I'm autistic and am terrible with tech, so bad I once crashed a digital egg timer! I can't manage smart phones, QR codes, or anything like that. I think some of us are digital aliens, there seems to be a prevalent idea that if you're autistic then you must be good with tech, a bit like the idea that is you're dyslexic then you must be brilliant at maths.

You're by no means alone in not being able to do tech stuff, during covid my civil servant son was redeployed to helping people claim fulough payments and loans, he came across lots of quite sucessful businessmen who couldn't do an email and had no idea of where to find the information required to apply for payments. Most of them had secretaries that did all this stuff for them and with no access to thier secretaries they were totally stuck. My son spent hours talking people through the basics of thier computers.

I get fed up of the increasing digitalisation of society, it's getting to the point where a smart phone and the ability to use one is a vital life skill. Nobody helps to pay for the massive increase in costs of this to individuals, I don't care if I can get all the equipment second hand and PAYG sim cards, it's still money I don't have, that's not benefitting me, it's for the benefit of other's mostly so as companies can employ fewer staff and increase profit, or for the use of government departments for obfuscation and catching you out and doing you out of things the law say's you're entitled too.

My hairdresser has to pay for her sons dinner money via an app that needs you to have online banking, if you don't know how to do it then a teacher will show you! My answer to that would be unprintable containing as many f's and b's and maybe a few c's as it would, I mean how patronising and excluding is that? Whats worse is that many areas round here have very bad connectivity, due to things like forests and mountains.

My message to you is RESIST, refuse to play the tech game, it might cause a bit of aggravation, but all these companies do have non digital ways of doing thing as I found out earlier with Amazon. People will tell you resistance is futile but it's so not.

I don't like the lack of choice. I turn the data off my smartphone a lot of the time to get away from it. I find tech stressful, I find online shopping stressful, don't get me started on social media... When I went back into education I was forced into getting a laptop and a new phone because everything is online. This came as a shock to an 80s kid who grew up with pen and paper. I was told (in a light hearted way) that I'm not very sustainable as I print everything out because I find it easier to read - struggle switching between tabs - but I had to laugh because the people who told me that get a new phone every year and I had my previous one for eight years. The production and waste of smartphones far outstrips a few pieces of paper! No one sees it though, to them the phone is the best thing in the world.