Losing my mind | TheaterFire

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

Younger people don't notice it because they don't remember how simple everything was before. I used to pick up the phone and call Domino's. Someone actually at the store close to my house picked up the phone and I said, "I want a large pepperoni, here's my address." The driver knocked on my door 29 minutes later and handed me a pie, and I handed them a 20 dollar bill. They gave me change. Now I gotta download an app, sign up, make a password, find out I already have an account, click forgot password, go to my email, click the link, think of a new password, type it in twice, get told it's not secure, think of a new password, type that in twice, then go back to the login screen and type in my email and password again, then decide if I want to look at store coupons or national coupons, apply a coupon (which isn't really a coupon, it's just the fucking price), click that I want a regular human amount of regular sauce instead of a bucket of some bullshit made up sauce, click that I want to add pepperoni, make sure I picked the right coupon, click that I don't want extra cheese (they don't really put extra cheese on even if you pay for it), click that I don't want bread sticks, click that I don't want some disgusting dessert that looks like some diarrhea'd on a bundt cake and sprinkled it with cocaine, uncheck the box so I don't get spam from them, click order, find out my debit card is expired, find my current card in my wallet, put the card number, expiration and CVV in, hit order, and close the app. Then I reopen the app five minutes later because I'm a hungry fat kid and it's taken me 45 minutes to order a damn pizza, sign in again so I can see the pizza tracker which I know damn well is bullshit and my pie will get here when the fucking Dasher Domino's farmed my delivery out to gets around to it. Yeah dude, everything is BULLSHIT now.

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kiwioriginal@reddit

I usually give up half way through that palaver. It's so confusing to know what youve ordered and it always seems to cost double what's expected at check out. I generally end up cooking whatever I can find in the house, hangry, frustrated, and cursing that I could've started 45 min earlier and be eating by now!

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bytvity2@reddit

In half that amount of time I could have a tombstone pizza hot and toasty out of my own oven. I’m very thoroughly over major chain pizza shop pies. There are one or two independent shops near me I don’t mind ordering from, but — here’s the kicker — you HAVE to call those shops in person to order. No apps no problems. Great pizza. All that other shit can take a flying leap.

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bakedveldtland@reddit

Back in the day, I hated calling people on the phone so much I usually would just starve instead. These days, even though i (mostly) have my social anxiety under control, I love the option of ordering my food online. I still stumble over my words when I'm talking to someone about what food I want for dinner, even though I can give a presentation in a room full of 100 people lol. I do agree the process is dumb though!

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

I get it, I have social anxiety, too. Ordering food isn't an issue for me, but giving a presentation, or even just socializing with a group as small as ten people would set mine off hard. I guess different things trigger it for different people. I HATE texting or instant messaging, because I learned I subconsciously read people's tone, facial expression and body language much more closely than most people. I'm constantly scanning for social cues to make sure I'm not saying something dumb or embarrassing, and without that information to correct in real time, I feel lost.

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bakedveldtland@reddit

I feel that, I also much prefer having conversations in person for the same reason. It’s so easy for me to read a text the wrong way, it can make me so anxious. So obnoxious.

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Cardinal_Quest@reddit

You forgot to mention the step when your NEW password "doesn't match," and you have to close out the browser completely, open it back up and keep doing that for some unknown number of minutes until the system, in it's infinite "this will be better than paper" usefulness, catches up.

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Cloud_Disconnected@reddit

My favorite is typing in your password, getting "username and password do not match," clicking "forgot password," making a new password, and getting "new password cannot be the same as the old password."

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KanedaSyndrome@reddit

Ehm just call my pizza place, put in an order and I pick it up 10 mins later and pay them, same as always

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crownofpeperomia@reddit

I do the same, small town Canada. If it requires me to call a call centre or download an app to order, guess I'm eating something else.

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manawydan-fab-llyr@reddit

And it's a local place, not a chain, I bet. Win-win.

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KanedaSyndrome@reddit

yep, we don't really do pizza chains in Denmark

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kdegraaf@reddit

>some disgusting dessert that looks like someone diarrhea'd on a bundt cake and sprinkled it with cocaine For the record, those are pretty good. But yeah, the rest is spot-on.

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silverforest5@reddit

I just cackled at this because I relate so hard

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peritonlogon@reddit

I got a bread machine at Aldi's for $50. It has a pizza dough setting, I bought s pizza pan, I watched some YouTube videos. Now, in about an hour, where 30 minutes of that is just waiting on the machine, I have fresh baked pizza where I know what all of the ingredients are and always comes out exactly how I want it unless I'm experimenting with the dough recipe. Where the apps don't provide, something else usually does.

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Remarkable_Cookie626@reddit

You forgot the part where you got distracted by a text message or notification and forgot to actually place your order. Now it’s 8pm and you are hangry and remember you forgot to click “submit” so you go back to the app and log back in and… you know the cycle.

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Byteninja@reddit

Not even a distraction, I didn’t realize Friday that I had to place the order after confirming the order on the website.. Didn’t notice for thirty damn minutes.

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manawydan-fab-llyr@reddit

Fortunately, never had the bad experience of forgetting, but the bank through which I have my mortgage does this. Click Submit, then click Process on a new page. So, I've gotten into the habit of double checking everything I do onlline, especially bill paying.

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vespanewbie@reddit

About to say this. Happens all the time where I realize I didn't hit submit order.

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Taanistat@reddit

Or...you call Tony's "fuck you, it's pizza and nothing else" down the street, talk to an actual person, order a large pepperoni pie with extra cheese and have some pimple faced kid or random old fuck deliver your honest to god pizza in 29 minutes. Oh...and when you ordered extra cheese, it's swimming in cheese. Hand the driver a 20 plus a 5 for tip, shut the door, and go on with your life. Fuck chain stores...all of them, forever.

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Aangespoeld@reddit

you forgot the part where you find out you didn't register yourself before but someone else used your email address for his of her registration and you can't take it back because the unknown phone number in the two factor authentication.

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MicrosoftSucks@reddit

I work in tech and the quality of people being hired to work on sites has sharply declined in the past 10 years. Everyone wants to use the newest frameworks and will refuse to use anything that hasn't been created in the past 2 years because it's not "cool". They also have no idea about UX. It's all tech focused and not user focused. I feel like a boomer when I insist things need to be done a certain way (...like tab navigation working) and I over get overruled. So no you're not crazy, the quality of the web is crumbling.

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OverZealousCreations@reddit

This is a huge part of why I got out after over 20 years in software. We built an amazing product, full-featured and well-respected. I could maintain it and add to it pretty well. It definitely needed refactoring, but most of the time I was the only person managing a 1m+ line codebase. But the constant push was to throw it all away and rebuild it in the latest-and-greatest. Instead of focusing on deeply understanding frameworks, everyone wants something new-and-shiny, mostly because they haven't learned how to use what they already have. I constantly got asked how I could build things so quickly, and the real reason was always, "because I learned how the tools actually worked."

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nhaines@reddit

I'm sitting here at breakfast and was musing about how much I miss DOS single-tasking interfaces and early 90s Unix multitasking text interfaces. I'm not going to pretend multitasking and windows and being able to run 2-3 programs wasn't better, but there was a simplicity in sitting down at your computer and deciding what you wanted your computer to do for the next hour, then running that task. When I finish my next two translation projects, I'm not sure what's to stop me from just using a text console for a week while I write.

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MicrosoftSucks@reddit

Our county website for paying property taxes just got updated. Sure the old site was old looking but the new site is a nightmare of auto-scroll, giant headers, animating accordions, etc. Like, I just want to pay my fucking property taxes, you don't need to take me on the scenic route just to get there.

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bytvity2@reddit

Idk why I’m suddenly thinking of geocities websites from back in the day. Are there any tiny animated gifs littering the sidebars for no reason?

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Coraline1599@reddit

I’d also add where I work leadership does not listen more and more they have become far less open to anything but their own ideas. They come up with a bad idea. We politely point out potential problems. They insist to do it their way, we lack vision, we don’t understand. We implement it the exact way they say it must be done. No one likes it, it has worsened the experience. Leadership, instead of taking any ownership will call everyone stupid and lazy and bully us into continuing to try to make reality conform to what they think it should be while also complaining “why is this such a mess? No one does anything right!” We can’t say “you did this. These are all the rules and features and things you said had to be exactly like this.” No, we have to say “yeah, this is so crazy bad, who did this? It is a mystery!” I would switch jobs, but this is my fourth job like this.

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bytvity2@reddit

This is so common in corporate settings generally. Leadership comes up with a new process/product/whatever, the most user-facing teams point out very real issues and how they will create problems both immediately and in the future, leadership insists on rolling out the new thing, problems occur exactly as foretold, leadership browbeats user-facing teams and ties KPIs to the success of the new thing, everyone hates life and/or gets fired, users suffer. 🎶it’s the circle of life🎶

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bluemitersaw@reddit

Thank you for fighting for keyboard/tab navigation!

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MicrosoftSucks@reddit

Haha you're welcome, it's an uphill battle for sure. It's INSANE to me that people disable functionality that literally ships with the damn browser. I will die on the tab navigation hill every time.

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bluemitersaw@reddit

wait. So it's default functionality that they go out of their way to disable??? *mind blown* Keep up the good fight soldier!!! ps. Just saw your username. I 110% believe everything you are saying.

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migs647@reddit

For those wanting to use the latest frameworks… I call it “engineering crack”. No focus on stability and maintainability. Like you said most people don’t think about UX anymore. No thoughts about performance or optimization. Now with that being said, there are some out there who do… and we just need to keep mentoring.

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ringobob@reddit

I work tech in an internal IT department on an internal web app. We're much further behind the times on the newest frameworks, much more focused on proper function because our users are literally right down the hall.

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bluduck2@reddit

I am not in the tech industry, but when the news said that the tech companies were flattening and firing all their middle managers, my reaction from my own unrelated industry was that sounds like a horrible idea. I just imagine the senior leaders spouting off big picture goals and then a bunch of junior people running around not really understanding how to apply it to their work or the real world steps it's going to take to accomplish those big picture goals.

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TappyMauvendaise@reddit

I can relate. I have to do multiple two-step logins using multiple devices to login to my. F——ing work computer. I’m a first grade teacher! I don’t work for the CIA.

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idle_isomorph@reddit

Same! And I have a separate set for my email (Microsoft, but we use Google suite for classroom stuff) and then another set for the attendance and student info platform, and then another set for our union email. 4 different sets of usernames and passwords. At least only the email wants multi-factor verification. And the systems used to make you change your password every 3 months, and it couldn't resemble your old one. Remembering them was such a pain that everyone had notes on their phones or sticky notes on their computers. Thus negating the security. Mercifully they removed that bit last year. Still have 4 sets of sign-ins to keep track of, though. It's ridiculous.

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silverforest5@reddit

I had to get a “password book” for this and all the logins I have to use for work…it’s like an address book.

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UnicornOnTheJayneCob@reddit

Just get Keeper or another equivalent password management application. It is one login to the app, and it stores all of your other passwords/logins for all other devices and applications. Usually, they allow you to use multiple different emails/domains for your logins, too, so you should only need to use one instance of your chosen password storage app for everything. And it should work on all the devices you use, personal and professional, theoretically. You can even get ones that function offline/store your data for non-internet enabled devices.

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bytvity2@reddit

I understand this comment is meant to be helpful, so please don’t take the following personally, but: this is exactly the kind of thing that OP is complaining about (which I agree with). I don’t want to have to log into an app so I can log into all my other apps. How long until there’s an information breach and everyone is recommended to download a security app to log into the app that we use to log into all the other apps? When does it end?

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silverforest5@reddit

Meh I’m not always on the same devices, nor do I always have my phone with me. Also, I like the ability to have it on paper…coded in a way I’m the only one who knows what it means.

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idle_isomorph@reddit

My boyfriend works in cybersecurity and it makes his heartrate spike and his eyeball twitch when I talk about my password notes!

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silverforest5@reddit

My password book is “coded.” So if some random person picked it up, they would have no idea what it meant. Example: I needed a password while out and had my husband send me a picture of the page. He was confused “A letter and a space and then another letter and a line with #…?? What does that mean? Does that mean a # goes here? How long is the number?” And I’m like…”could be 2 digits, could be 7. Only I know. Same with whatever words or letters go in the other spaces.”

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StrategyOdd7170@reddit

I feel the same exact way. I’m barely keeping up with technology it’s freaking me out😩

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BridgeBeautiful5478@reddit

So you have AT&T too?

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xpo081@reddit

Remember when the first incoming minute was free? Is that ever coming back? LOL jk

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hammyburgler@reddit

It’s not you (I don’t think). I just cancelled HBO in order to get a bundle package and it took me 2 hours to sign in to everything correctly.

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warderbob@reddit

You're not alone. I've felt this way for a few years now. I've chosen to just (mostly) go back to living life pre internet. Aside from work, and a couple streaming shows. 99% of tech anymore is utterly pointless.

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orielbean@reddit

I don’t know that we were the first generation to suffer from this (probably the Jones gen honestly) but the intense weaponization of advertising psychology applied directly to little kids and their miserable parents is basically why we are where we are right now. Recall the beloved cartoons of our childhood - almost all of them to a tee are just toy advertisements with no source lore/material that existed before the toy company commissioned the shows, the jingles, the ads and then deployed it on our families 7 days a week. Moms pushing each other out of the way for Cabbage Patch dolls. Kids screaming for the new Super Nintendo even as the first one is sitting there working just fine. That FOMO energy of desire turned white hot until the high wears off and then where is the next fix coming from? Video games have done the worst of this crap. With launching half a game then selling the ending as DLC, loot box gambling for children, candy crush selling you one more spin, Path of Exile endgame forcing you to gamble endgame currency to boost a map in order to get not loot but just more gambling currency, Star Citizen selling ships for real money yet an unfinished or really even fully playable game that hasn’t actually launched yet. So, tap out. They hate you anyways. They just want your money, your attention, and the rest is your problem.

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belunos@reddit

This is meant for you specifically OP, not for Reddit, who likes to argue every goddamn pedantic point to death. So, the IQ scale.. are you aware it's meant to average 100? There's a reason for that. When we were kids, there was almost nothing digital. Today however, there's a TON of shit that kids are learning that we never had access to, which in turns, ends up making them smarter. Raising the average IQ, so they've had to sort of 'dummy' it down a little bit. You're not dumber, kids today are smarter. Not wise mind you, that comes with age, but they're more able to navigate the current world. I grew up working in technology, so I'm keeping up, but barely. If I worked in the post office, for instance, I'd be just as lost as everyone else our age.

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chonny@reddit

For me, it's all a sign to not participate in whatever this version of society is, and live simply. There are too many distractions, everything's been enshittefied, and we're on our own. Outside of the Internet there are books to be read, trails to be run, bodies of water to be swum, friends to see, plants to water, and food to be made. If I pretend that I'm an alien cosplaying as a human, everything seems so new and weird. If I pretend that I'm a medieval peasant somehow transported through time, I can be grateful for all the advanced made since then. You don't have to participate in this perverse capitalist hellscape. You're not going to find happiness there. The princess is in another castle.

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DrenAss@reddit

I feel this way too. I deleted all my social media except reddit which I use as a way to learn more about my hobbies and connect with Xennials bc this sub is awesome. But I deleted Amazon and only follow hobby people and anticonsumption accounts on YouTube. Hardly see any ads or influencers so I never want to buy anything, don't feel bad about myself, not depressed or jealous. Instead, I see my friends a lot and do fun stuff with my kids. I trail run and ride my bike. I've been jokingly treating my job as a simulation so that I'm not stressed about it and don't feel like I have to burn myself out. I tell my husband at 5pm "I passed the simulation today" lol I'm saving money, not so anxious, building relationships, even lost some lbs 😅 highly recommend

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bekarene1@reddit

I'm legit going to start calling my job a simulation, this is brilliant 😂

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DrenAss@reddit

I'm fully remote so it's easy 🤣

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Self-Translator@reddit

> Outside of the Internet there are books to be read, trails to be run, bodies of water to be swum, friends to see, plants to water, and food to be made. Agree so much. I've nudged my life constantly towards this ethos. Work involves people, hobbies are all outside, never had social media, refocussed priorities on friends and connection, cook at home almost all the time and if we eat out it has to be something I can't do better, developed off grid plans for the future... all of this guff can go away. I never asked for it.

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PMichaelB89@reddit

Yep, enshittification is the correct term. My phone just updated to a new UI and half my preferences were either re-set or the option simply wasn't available anymore. But more broadly it just seems like every update to any software on every device makes things worse or more complicated or just less appealing. You're left to wonder who, exactly, asked for any of it

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Spamberguesa@reddit

It's just bloatware designed to make your device slower and shittier so you're forced to buy a new one. It's telling that nothing allows you to turn off updates anymore. If that doesn't work, they just "upgrade" the system and refuse to support the older version. I'm not sure wtf I'm going to do when Microsoft stops supporting Windows 10. I'm not replacing a machine that works perfectly well, but is too old to be designed for Windows 11 (not to mention that I haven't heard a single good thing about Windows 11).

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PMichaelB89@reddit

I've had the little Windows 11 update notification on machine for a while now and I'm holding off until there is literally no other option.

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Alarming-Wonder5015@reddit (OP)

This is the conclusion it is leading me to as well. It’s like I got ensnared in how useful it used to be and now it’s going to take some work to untangle from it but I think it’s necessary, especially for my sanity.

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No-Hospital559@reddit

The Internet companies made things cheap and useful at first, letting a user base get solidified. Then they start charging more, removing services and making things more confusing. It's a system to remove money from our wallets and no you aren't going crazy.

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edgej25@reddit

Yep. There’s a fun name for this too, enshittification: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/as-internet-enshittification-marches-on-here-are-some-of-the-worst-offenders/

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Diligent_Bath_9283@reddit

D.A.R.E warned me about this method in 5th grade.

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No-Hospital559@reddit

I think all the guys running these tech companies were in the same D.A.R.E. classes and this business model sunk in.

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Diligent_Bath_9283@reddit

Funny thing, the only drug dealers I know that do this sell legal drugs in the local pharmacy.

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SailersMouth14@reddit

Will you be my neighbor? You be my people!

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_meestir_@reddit

So funny you used that term simple. That’s exactly how I’ve been crafting my life for the last 15 years when I quit my corporate job. Let me tell you, simplifying my life was the best decision I ever made.

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JupiterSkyFalls@reddit

This may get lost in the comments, and that's ok. But sometimes, I like to go outside to the garden after a nice rainfall the day before, when the earth is saturated and happy. I dig into the damp, loamy soil, and make a shallow "grave". I lay down and cover myself in the freshly turned dirt, and pretend I'm a carrot.

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brandalfthegreen@reddit

Enshittification is real people!!!

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Apprehensive_Hat8986@reddit

The absent comma is adding a delightful amount of colour to this comment.

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brandalfthegreen@reddit

😆

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Mill5222@reddit

Thank you for this comment.

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just_a_tech@reddit

This is where I've landed to. I'd rather go hike with my dog.

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Not_HavingAGoodTime@reddit

This is the best response!

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Anjapayge@reddit

Remember when you didn’t need your cell phone to log into sites? I forgot my cell phone at home. We grew up with no cell phones. One day isn’t going to kill me. But nope! I can’t use any of the websites at work or clock in because of MFA even though I am at the office on their network. I had to drive all the way home to get my phone.

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Spamberguesa@reddit

Everything has a damn QR code now. My mom has a flip phone, and she had to use my phone to finish setting up her TV because there was no way to do it without a QR code.

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ArtaxWasRight@reddit

Enshittification. It’s not you. Jeez, Cory Doctorow is goddamn sage.

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Uuuuuii@reddit

It’s becoming Kafka-esque.

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Self-Translator@reddit

Kafka would have a blast riffing on this world now

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TrustAffectionate966@reddit

Byzantine, like the movie Brazil. https://preview.redd.it/7pucuzg96h1f1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9cf189f851a6c2245f0c2eb6044f79529b7fe6c0 ☠️

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One-Earth9294@reddit

Man I JUST had that password issue with the bank that has my car loan. I just set that shit up maybe 3 months ago and I try to log in again and NEWP. That shit is maddening.

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Cardinal_Quest@reddit

I refuse to participate in voice interactions with a phone tree. I mute my mic and press whatever gets me a human. No, Sarah, you are not a human so you don't get a name and you are 100% not helpful because your prompts don't match my need and you are confused by my voice input so cut the crap and connect me to the brainless gen A devoid of a personality. Worked until I had to call the IRS. Usually works

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sassypants450@reddit

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification

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fairlyaveragetrader@reddit

No, you're absolutely right, society is not getting more efficient in many ways it's actually getting worse I feel the same way about cars, do we really need touch screen tablets and a thousand sensors along with all these electronic gadgets that are just going to break down the road? Just going back to 2012, not even early stuff but maybe around 2012, you had these extremely reliable basic cars that were super functional, easy to repair, very straightforward. Simplicity is amazing

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daddywookie@reddit

I’m still rocking my 2014 car. Sat nav, Bluetooth and LED lights but mechanical dials and switches for almost everything. It’s in the very narrow sweet spot before tech took over everything.

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fairlyaveragetrader@reddit

It totally was, I'm glad I'm not the only one that felt like somewhere around there was the high point in car history where you had extremely reliable designs with a reasonable amount of tech Not the first time in automotive History we have went backwards either. In the very early days we can look at the late 60s as a high point, pretty much the entire 1970s, the cars were worse than what was made in the late sixties

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Cynidaria@reddit

It turns out that touchscreens instead of physical buttons also make cars more dangerous to drive. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-03-28/editorial-bring-buttons-and-dials-back-to-new-cars-not-everything-should-be-on-a-touchscreen

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SevDexil@reddit

This reminds me of my mom’s car where when driving you can’t change to a different Bluetooth device or connect one for “safety reasons”. However, it allows you to navigate all the way to the actual place where you change it (which is overly complicated to get to) and then denies you access unless you pull over and put the vehicle in park even though you’re already there.. Meanwhile on my aftermarket stereo in my car from 2011 it takes two seconds and can be done safely at a red light.

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On_my_last_spoon@reddit

You’re not crazy and you’re not experiencing dementia. Technology companies are purposefully making things more difficult while simultaneously requiring us to be more dependent. It’s a documented phenomenon.

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Alarming-Wonder5015@reddit (OP)

It makes me wanna shove this giant phone down a ceos throat.

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blawblablaw@reddit

It’s called enshittification, and no, it is not just you: https://www.organizedmoney.fm/p/the-enshitification-of-big-tech-a

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iheartruiner@reddit

🫣😭 This is the most boomer thread I’ve read here. I’m not sorry, y’all, but please. It’s really not as difficult as you’re making it. There’s a lot of things that *have* gotten enshittified but this is all willfully ignorant on your parts. Shit changes, we’ve got to keep up. We aren’t old.

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Fiction-for-fun2@reddit

[Enshittification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)

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ElmerTheAmish@reddit

Late to the party, but you're talking about Sludge! Freakonomics did a 3-part series about Sludge on their podcast earlier this year. It was a good listen, and a quick spoiler: the navigation for membership changes is additional complication on purpose.

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PersianCatLover419@reddit

No you are not going crazy. A lot of times companies will tag on extra charges or try to enroll you in something "free" for a month or two that you get charged for. A lot of customer service is outsourced to foreign countries or on websites it is AI chat bots.

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Saul_Go0dmann@reddit

Enshitification of the internet, this was all by design.

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bekarene1@reddit

It's not you. It's not us. I know HOW to use all the damn apps and websites, I was born in 1983 and the internet literally grew up with me. It's that the internet is objectively worse and less useful than it used to be. I googled a simple question a couple days ago and the Google AI gave me two hilariously wrong responses. It's not us. I'm just trying to do everything the slow, low-tech, hard way these days and stay out of the Matrix as much as possible.

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funatical@reddit

Everything you described is intentional. So is the bombardment that leads to our “lack” of memory. Everyone I know my age complains about this. The reality is we are overwhelmed, exhausted, and exploited just to the breaking point. They just haven’t broken us yet knowing there are historically consequences for doing so. As long as we stay confused and productive they benefit. Simplify, sacrifice, and STOP pushing yourselves to exhaustion. If we can’t do this collectively our children will inherit a better world than we did.

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DrewBaron80@reddit

I recently decided to go back to school for a 2nd master's degree. Navigating the website to register, sign up for classes, etc. drove me crazy. Now I have a university email I need to use, but my computer always tries to sign me in with my work email. On top of the university email there's another website I have to go for information. Then my classes each have their own website...

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nubbinsstar@reddit

If you by chance happen to be a woman, it could be peri-menopause. Sneaks up like a bitch. Brain fog can make you feel crazy ( mine was terrible).

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listeningintent@reddit

OP, try this test and see if you find the finding of, signing up for, and/or purchasing of, various goods and services just as complicated. If, like me, you find that these transactions are easy to navigate and it's just the undoing, unsubscribing, returning transactions that are complicated and confusing, chances are that's deliberate. Also, consider whether you seem to forget conversations, things you meant to do, or important information more often and to the point that it causes you (or others) problems. That might be an indication to get some testing done.

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codenameZora@reddit

This is a great answer. I really like this test. Also, if you are female, it could be perimenopause, which can include symptoms like brain fog and memory issues.

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Clevergirlphysicist@reddit

It’s not you. Things are objectively getting worse and far more complicated than necessary.

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Eradicator_1729@reddit

Look up “enshittification”

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chickenchowmeinkampf@reddit

From a software industry insider, it’s gotten worse. Updates prioritize features without regard to where they plug into. Things are rarely upgraded unless the initiative is funded, for which fewer and fewer initiatives are. So-called AI is a pretext for not caring about delivering a service at all. Respected people are leaving the field and leaving it to those who have no experience.

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IlllIlllIlllIlIlI@reddit

Relatable. I recently started driving a new car. (For context: My old car still has a compact disc player and an auxiliary audio jack.) Before heading out today, I got so frustrated at how overly complicated it is to connect my phone to the car for music—what the hell happened to simply popping in a CD, or just plugging in an iPod? Now I have to: turn on bluetooth Turn on Wi-Fi Turn on cellular data Enable location services open the bluetooth devices list & tap car multimedia Doesn’t connect properly so I have to open the setting page from the car’s touch screen … and so on.

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OneandOnlyBobTom@reddit

It’s called a dark pattern. They are everywhere and have always been.

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daddywookie@reddit

I’m becoming trained on dark patterns to the point where I ignore the big shiny button and look immediately for the smallest text on the screen. My pet hate now is having to read the marketing checkbox to see if it is check to enable or check to refuse.

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Lucasa29@reddit

I hate when it's worded in such a way that I don't know if I was yes or no. And I'm a native English speaker.

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Winwookiee@reddit

That's a pretty common trend, unfortunately. I've lost track of how many memberships I've canceled and ran into an issue of taking forever to click through a dozen pages just to finally get to "cancel membership". I'm entirely convinced its a tactic to either delay you from canceling until you forget, or contact their support who could try to persuade you one last time to stay.

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Lucasa29@reddit

Yes, this is done on purpose. Governments have caught on and passed laws to combat this. I think Germany has a law and I found the SEC did something recently too: https://www.npr.org/2024/10/16/nx-s1-5154814/click-to-cancel-subscriptions-memberships-ftc-rule

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Wolf_Parade@reddit

It absolutely is which is why it has proliferated across industries. Gyms were the pioneers now look at us. The other day I cancelled something that had a 45 day "notice period" in the contract I had to pay the entirety of in order to cancel so in order to stop using the service which I planned to do immediately I had to buy service I would never use. There was absolutely nothing to disentangle than them no longer charging my card it was simply a penalty to leave so that people would say fuck it and stay instead, and if not they got one last bite at the apple. Immediately after paying their extortion I mean fee they offered me 6 months at 50% to stay. Fuck all of these rat bastards.

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thoughtfractals85@reddit

I feel this so much. I have a teen and am caring for my grandparents as well, and I'm the tech guru in the house. They love it when it works, but any little hiccup or glitch or one inconvenient extra click, and it's the end of the world. Ever tried to troubleshoot a smart TV and multiple streaming services with an 85 year old man yelling at you about how cable used to just work? Yes, grandpa, I know it's all gone to shit. Let me concentrate so you can continue being brainwashed by Fox. I spent an hour in a customer service chat the other day because my mother's bed wouldn't connect to the internet. Her. Bed. Omg. Every time I have to call my grandparent's pharmacy I just end up screaming "Speak to someone!" Into the phone until the stupid robot voice lady let's me talk to a (I think) human. I use the same 2 variations of a password for everything. If I have to use something else, I don't need the service. I miss the 90s and feel old.

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AlekHidell1122@reddit

**everything is disposable. they don’t want you to figure anything out. they want you to give up and buy or another one, or keep paying, or stop asking, etc…**

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Lokii11@reddit

I've found my people.

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manawydan-fab-llyr@reddit

You beat me to it. My post was going to be along the lines of. "Look at these curmudgeony boomers, confused by technology. I'm home. :)"

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lordskulldragon@reddit

Why would you downgrade your phone thinking it's an upgrade? Isn't that why we were taught how to research things back in the 90s? To make informed decisions? Or are you one of those types that has to have the latest number model for their phone? As far as websites, I have no issues with them. Being a web developer for over 25 years I understand how they are built and all it takes is a little navigation to get where I want to.

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TooTiredToWhatever@reddit

We are losing our minds together then. Add Dr. appointments and hospital billing to the list, as well as getting a permit or any kind of government paperwork done.

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Cynidaria@reddit

I recently had dinner with a friend and we had both had the experience of not receiving time sensitive information from doctors offices until a year later when sent some new paperwork which asked you to acknowledge that you were refusing treatment. Why go to get a scan or a biopsy if no one is going to let you know when there’s a problem? In both our cases (different doctors, different practices) the answer was: “well the information was available on your portal!” BTW every doctor has a different portal and they each change which service they use every 18 months or so.😵‍💫

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DumpsterFolk@reddit

Another thing I struggle with is doing stuff on my phone and being wary of touching buttons/links because I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’m used to navigating sites on a computer where I can mouse over a link or open it in a new tab. I still have a laptop at home that I use daily. I’m always amazed that people can do everything on their phone, and that young people will use social media apps where you have to just blindly touch shit. Who fkn knows if you’re about to ping everyone in your contacts list with a selfie of up your nose.

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MinnieCastavets@reddit

I learned something very young, as a type 1 diabetic. It became clear that medical professionals had no clue about type 1 diabetes, and that one of the most dangerous places for us by far is inpatient in a hospital for non-diabetes-related reasons. The doctors and nurses do not know even the basics of caring for this disease. They will deny us insulin, fail to give insulin for meals, refuse to listen to us. How is this relevant? Well. Because what it helped me realize young is that the people who are supposed to do things, even very important things, usually have no idea far they’re doing and are very bad at their jobs. That goes for designing phones. It goes for building things. It goes for fixing things. It goes for cops, judges, and attorneys. It goes for maintaining bridges and sewers. You name it, at least 80% of the people are fucking idiots who don’t know what they’re doing at all. So is it you? Maybe to some extent. I have no reason to believe you know what you’re doing either. But likely it’s a combination of them AND you. Web developers suck. App developers suck. CEO’s suck. Most people suck and do bad work. That’s how it goes.

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Dark-Empath-@reddit

One thing I’ve been conscious of is the decreasing reliability of tech. Sure we have things now that we we could only dream of 20-30 years ago, but none of it works as well. If I wanted to listen to music then I put on a tape or CD. Sure, the CD might be scratched but that was only if I hadn’t been careful. I wanted to watch a film, I stuck in the VHS. Worst problem was someone hadn’t rewound the tape. Play a computer game? I stuck in the tape or floppy disc. Now I need a subscription to listen to music, if the wifi is down I can do barely anything, website is down then no games, I don’t have the right hardware to do x, y, z. Even the systems at work seem to be down more often than they are up. We have the ability to do more than ever in theory, but increasingly less in practice. We need to slow down on innovation and put some more effort into reliable. Otherwise we will end up living in a world of endless junk that barely works

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LeafyCandy@reddit

The hard drive I stored my music on died, and I have iTunes on my computer, and none of the customer service tech people have a clue what a desktop is or that I can’t tap my screen. Fifteen years of purchases gone. Luckily, I have the rest on CD, but still. It’d be great if digital were as reliable as analog is.

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LeafyCandy@reddit

Idk, but all I know is that whenever my phone updates, it takes me about three days to figure out how to use it again and do my best to make it as similar to the way I had it before the update. Then I enjoy it until I see that damn update icon in the upper corner again. I don’t feel bad about it, though, because even my kids have trouble getting their phones back to normal after an update. My first task, though, is to always check what new apps have been added. Strangely, whenever Verizon doles out a security update, it always seems to include Royal Kingdom.

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badannbad@reddit

The cancellation issue should be fixed by now in the US. The FTC made a click to cancel rule that requires companies to make it obvious and easy to cancel a membership.

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One-Earth9294@reddit

I got a Samsung S8 back in maybe 2018 and that thing was perfect. It had google play music on it that worked just fine and it was so easy to set up and use. Then one day Google play got shit-canned in favor of 'YT Music which they FORCED users to switch to... and it fucking badgers you to sign up for YT premium like 3 times a day. Then I got a new phone, an S24 and it's worse in every respect. Everything is less convenient. Even trying to reset the power is a convoluted 'press 2 buttons at the same time' thing. Meanwhile people with 2 digit IQs are getting hard as a rock about the government they voted in that went after any and all consumer protection agencies and laws like a fucking slasher villain. As if somehow Elizabeth Warren was the root of their problems. I'm pretty sick of this timeline in so many ways.

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Alarming-Wonder5015@reddit (OP)

Right? The phones used to be more intuitive. This evening I was logging into an account, I’ve got two one is mine one is my husbands, I changed selected my email and it should have put in the coinciding password right? Nope it defaulted back to the other email, it’s never done that before. The operating systems peaked and now they’ve gone to shit and the extreme drop in functionality really is mind boggling to me, so I do tend to blame it on user error but I can’t possibly be screwing it up that bad when nothing else in my day to day life is suffering.

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gluino@reddit

Have you checked for sleep apnea? Lots of people our generation now sleep with CPAP and swear by it. I've never before. Does your partner report loud snoring? My family says I have some snoring, not much, doesn't bother them at all usually. But a logging fingertip SpO2 meter says that I do have a mild case of sleep apnea.

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Alarming-Wonder5015@reddit (OP)

No, I don’t snore unless super exhausted and even then it isn’t very loud.

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depletedundef1952@reddit

I don't think you're yelling at the clouds, stupid, nor have early dementia. I'm 33, and I had to navigate through two different web pages, and call a phone number just to cancel a subscription. It's getting ridiculous out here.

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zoeystardust@reddit

When we were kids it was still more profitable for a product or service to operate well for the consumer. Now products and services working well is less profitable for the company making and distributing them

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gluino@reddit

I use and recommend Bitwarden (free password manager). It doesn't always handle every web / apo gracefully, but you can always fall back to copy paste.

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Consistent-Camp5359@reddit

I used Rocket Cash to cancel some things. Is there a trial period on your new phone?

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Due_Contribution250@reddit

its meant to be that way. they make cancelling so complicated to deter you from doing it while signing up is super easy and automatic.

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MaestroLogical@reddit

I've started using the phrase "The smarter things get the dumber they are" to describe all the various hurdles we now have to leap through to do the simplest task.

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AstralPoet@reddit

Thank you! The past year has felt particularly bad with this. Causing me extreme mental fatigue.

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Synthea1979@reddit

For me, it's a combination of my tolerance for bullshit plummeting into the negative with the fact the systems are deliberately being made more complicated to ensure people keep spending money to try to find the least complicated system.

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Imnotonthelist@reddit

I think things are definitely unnecessarily complicated too often, and my patience is in the shitter so that’s a bad combo lol

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