Do you think electronics are getting way too complicated to use?

I have this super complicated thermostat. You can change and monitor anything. But if I want to change anything, I have to get the users' manual out. It dawned on me that without users' manuals I probably couldn't operate a lot of my stuff. Like setting the wake up time on my alarm clock, is it press "alarm" and then "reset"- or the other way around?
Do you think electronics is getting way too complicated to use?
 

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I think one of the biggest contributors to how our electronics work these days has to do with who is producing them.

Most are coming from far eastern countries and are produced by people who think differently from western societies.

The worst examples are when just a few buttons are used and it depends on memorizing different sequences using the same buttons.

Setting clocks is a nightmare because every device is different instead of one agreed upon procedure.

Menus on my computer and my TV are getting less intuitive and assume that you're keeping up with constant changes which shortcut what you used to do.
 
Yes too complicated. But with a bit more thought, many things could be made easier to use by design and labels lending themselves to what one logically would do without any kind of manual.

On my flip phone, you have to remember to push the top button to get the bottom option. Once I mastered this silliness, I could actually use the phone.

Our new dishwasher is well designed, as is our new washing machine, so some companies are getting this.
 
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Yes too complicated. But with a bit more thought, many things could be made easier to use by design and labels lending themselves to what one logically do without any kind of manual.

On my flip phone, you have to remember to push the top button to get the bottom option. Once I mastered this silliness, I could actually use the phone.

Our new dishwasher is well designed, as is our new washing machine, so some companies are getting this.
A friend who is a retired pilot and comp savvy unlike myself once told me that more and more things are designed by those who lack all common sense and what should / can be easy is not .Perhaps AI will make it easy .

But I myself HIGHLY doubt that , lol .

My hobby is planted fish tanks and love the new bright intense led lights but some of the newest types are absurd as need to be programmed via your phone .

Call me crazy but a simple on/off switch is best and thankfully you can still get those types ,
 
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I agree that many electronics are overly complicated, but you still have choices. I just stayed at an Airbnb that had a 'nest' thermostat and no instructions (I have never seen one other than on ads). I had to keep adjusting it.
But at home, I have a very basic programmable thermostat that is easy to use and not tied to a smart phone. We also bought the simplest washer and dryer that we could find.
So many devices can be tied to a smart phone, making them move complicated. But also, if it's a 'smart device', it's hackable. So we will never have a 'smart device' in the house.
 
I agree that many electronics are overly complicated, but you still have choices. I just stayed at an Airbnb that had a 'nest' thermostat and no instructions (I have never seen one other than on ads). I had to keep adjusting it.
But at home, I have a very basic programmable thermostat that is easy to use and not tied to a smart phone. We also bought the simplest washer and dryer that we could find.
So many devices can be tied to a smart phone, making them move complicated. But also, if it's a 'smart device', it's hackable. So we will never have a 'smart device' in the house.
I have a Nest thermostat here at my house which I control using my phone....especially handy when I'm out and about, and can turn the heating on..or the lights before I get home so the house is warm by the time I get back
 
I agree that many electronics are overly complicated, but you still have choices. I just stayed at an Airbnb that had a 'nest' thermostat and no instructions (I have never seen one other than on ads). I had to keep adjusting it.
But at home, I have a very basic programmable thermostat that is easy to use and not tied to a smart phone. We also bought the simplest washer and dryer that we could find.
So many devices can be tied to a smart phone, making them move complicated. But also, if it's a 'smart device', it's hackable. So we will never have a 'smart device' in the house.
'' We also bought the simplest washer and dryer that we could find.''

Now you are talking and I have fixed them left and right as basic , easy.
 
Nah, but it keeps this OG Tech Guy (me) busy helping others for a fee. Free. I do read manuals and there is so much help available on the internet via Google, YouTube, etc. Getting old(er) is difficult enough and change can be hard. But then Einstein once said,
"I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots". It is what it is.
 
OP title is:
Do you think electronics are getting way too complicated to use?

title should be:
Do you think electronics for impatient, lazy, and or reading unskilled consumers is getting too complicated to use?
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Indeed yes, many consumers have not got the reading comprehension skills to follow user manual instructions and many others are too lazy to even bother even if they can. This is nothing new and began decades ago with the first media news about it when many consumers refused to bother reading simple VCR instructions.

But some equipment and consumer electronic products are already too complex to easily set up and understand if just using manufacturer documentation. My Sony a6700 camera is a prime example. Thus instead of having engineers create thorough documentation, they instead let third parties create how to books with various YouTube websites providing visual instructions, and user communities answering technical questions.

There have always been people capable and willing to read more involved instructions and those are people that were successful in a lot of technical jobs during my working decades. Some people have difficulty reading the simplest written instructions and only learn by being visually shown what to do and then repeatedly physically performing whatever.

Such is usually not because of some innate learning disability but rather because they never developed that skill during school years that reflects a poor facet of how children are being taught in schools and how many are just pushed through grades regardless of accomplishments. And when they get into college, many immediately fail unless they manage to work within a groups of like others completing daily assignments. Foreign Asian students and H1B workers that don't speak English well, are often very good at helping their peers succeed so.

Likewise if non-readers get a job that requires independently reading information, they are stuck and don't last long unless someone bothers to train them. In many technical jobs, management simply won't put such people in higher paying jobs. Reading and comprehension skills are key reasons I was so successful in Silicon Valley.

Another issue is many highly intelligent technically trained people are rather poor at explaining technical things to others, much less creating clear understandable written instructions for others. That was why I was often tasked with proof reading technical documents of engineers and writing testing instructions and documents for lower level technicians. Thus even when some try to read instructions, especially now for foreign manufactured products by smaller companies, user documentation is flawed. Thus the rise of Internet sites with user groups that correct those instructions.

Over decades I also often wore a hat of interviewing others for technical electronic hardware testing jobs that required minimal 2 year bachelor of science degrees. Many such applicants has abysmal skills, not even being able to apply simple ohm's and voltage laws. Not because they were never schooled in such subjects but rather had not retained information over months of classes without apparently being adequately tested at course ends where schools for business reasons are more concerned with just getting their students a piece of paper.
 
OP title is:
Do you think electronics are getting way too complicated to use?

title should be:
Do you think electronics for impatient, lazy, and or reading unskilled consumers is getting too complicated to use?
-----------------

Indeed yes, many consumers have not got the reading comprehension skills to follow user manual instructions and many others are too lazy to even bother even if they can. This is nothing new and began decades ago with the first media news about it when many consumers refused to bother reading simple VCR instructions.

But some equipment and consumer electronic products are already too complex to easily set up and understand if just using manufacturer documentation. My Sony a6700 camera is a prime example. Thus instead of having engineers create thorough documentation, they instead let third parties create how to books with various YouTube websites providing visual instructions, and user communities answering technical questions.

There have always been people capable and willing to read more involved instructions and those are people that were successful in a lot of technical jobs during my working decades. Some people have difficulty reading the simplest written instructions and only learn by being visually shown what to do and then repeatedly physically performing whatever.

Such is usually not because of some innate learning disability but rather because they never developed that skill during school years that reflects a poor facet of how children are being taught in schools and how many are just pushed through grades regardless of accomplishments. And when they get into college, many immediately fail unless they manage to work within a groups of like others completing daily assignments. Foreign Asian students and H1B workers that don't speak English well, are often very good at helping their peers succeed so.

Likewise if non-readers get a job that requires independently reading information, they are stuck and don't last long unless someone bothers to train them. In many technical jobs, management simply won't put such people in higher paying jobs. Reading and comprehension skills are key reasons I was so successful in Silicon Valley.

Another issue is many highly intelligent technically trained people are rather poor at explaining technical things to others, much less creating clear understandable written instructions for others. That was why I was often tasked with proof reading technical documents of engineers and writing testing instructions and documents for lower level technicians. Thus even when some try to read instructions, especially now for foreign manufactured products by smaller companies, user documentation is flawed. Thus the rise of Internet sites with user groups that correct those instructions.

Over decades I also often wore a hat of interviewing others for technical electronic hardware testing jobs that required minimal 2 year bachelor of science degrees. Many such applicants has abysmal skills, not even being able to apply simple ohm's and voltage laws. Not because they were never schooled in such subjects but rather had not retained information over months of classes without apparently being adequately tested at course ends where schools for business reasons are more concerned with just getting their students a piece of paper.
And some people, as in the example of the thermostat in the OP, would like to just use a new thermostat without having to spend an hour reading a manual, then getting the manual out repeatedly for a refresher course each time the season changes, regardless of their reading and comprehension skills.
 
I’m usually ok if I follow the directions or consult a YouTube video.

Some things I use so seldom that it’s always a bit of a frustration to remember the steps but the things I do frequently are fine.

I also believe that most of us learn better from others than from a manual.

I don’t have much interest in technology and do agree that some of it tends to be more complicated than the problems that it’s intended to solve.

I always feel ten feet tall when I do have some small success and that is worth quite a bit to my self esteem. 😉🤭😂
 
'' We also bought the simplest washer and dryer that we could find.''

Now you are talking and I have fixed them left and right as basic , easy.
A few years ago, we bought one of those energy efficient washers. Huge mistake! It was programmed to only allow a certain amount of water, and as a result clothing came out not clean. I had to watch a you tube abut how to trick the sensor into thinking that there was more clothing in the washer than it was, by adding heavy items.

So when we moved into our current home, the owner had left behind a regular washer with an agitator. I was overjoyed, and immediately sold the other one.
 
Ya know, I am not "impatient, lazy and or reading unskilled". And I'm comfortable with most of the new gadgets, but we (SO and I) both absolutely hate our new "Smart" TV. Our HOA provides cable as a part of the monthly fees, so that's what we want to use to watch TV. I just spent an hour or so online trying to get it to default to HDMI as the input source, from 3 different online "help" sites. Not a one worked as directed.

In the mean time, I know how to redirect it to cable every time we turn it on, but my lovely SO is at a total loss. And to suggest that folks who struggle with a new technology are either "impatient, lazy, and or reading unskilled" is the height of ignorance and arrogance.
 


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