I am and always have been a lover of technology. I was the only person I know who had a PC at home for many years, as I graduated from the useless Amstrad’s, well unless you wanted to play games or write a letter, onwards. I’ve always been self-taught and found things like programming actually really easy and useful in my work. I could remember screeds of code with ease and as for numbers, well part of my job, was statistics. So why is it, I am finding this new world of technology, suddenly so confusing? I am coming to the conclusion, that new technology, is actually some sort of torture weapon, more than something that is meant to actually help me.

For example, let’s take Microsoft windows, something most of us are familiar with. From my history, you would think that I would have embraced every new version of Windows, that Microsoft has thrust upon me, that joy ended somewhere back at around Windows 7. Every version since then, I have spent a couple of days, breaking the mystery of how to make it work and look as much like it’s predecessors as possible. I haven’t embraced touch screens, or multi screens that you can make dance around your desktop, or any of the so-called improvements, like Cortana, I’ve simply disabled them all. I’m not sure if it is my age, or if it has something to do with my health, but I quite simply strive to keep things just as they are. So why update at all? I hear some asking, simply for two reasons, security, and the fact that if you don’t, half the websites you use, will slowly stop working as you old platform becomes obsolete. No, you don’t have to buy a new PC every three or four years, keep it updated and a good one will last for years and years.

Unfortunately, the world is now so interconnected by technology, you have little choice but to go with it. Try these days to buy a straight forwards TV, one that just allows you to watch programs, without it being so called “smart”. It’s not “smart” it’s just trying to be a PC, I already have one of them. I quite simply don’t understand why anyone would need their fridge to monitor how much milk they have left or for their central heating to be connected to their phone. As far as I can see, these things aren’t time-saving or “smart”, they are just new ways of either being lazy or gimmicks, to sell them to tech-heads. What all these companies fail to understand, is not all of us are 21, and not all of us, have the concentration to even read the first page of instructions, far less the entire thousand-page manual. There are a huge number of us out here, who don’t want to employ a 14-year-old, to decipher our homes, we want to be able to do so ourselves.

My pet hate, though, is passwords. I’m quite sure they are most people’s pet hates too. I used to have a programme that created and collected most of them for me. Not only that, it also reminded me to change them every few months which it did at a single click from me. It wasn’t cheap, but I felt it was worth it, as it worked wonderfully, that was until I had to do one of those updates, and lost it. Now I use a mix of chrome and a booklet that I write them all in, but there are always a few I forget. I have thought of building a programme all of my own, but I have forgotten how to programme in such detail.

In the past 10 years, every year that passed brought some sort of new gismo that is now every day and they themselves have been “improved” several times over. I fear to look at even the next five, as I can only see it becoming more and more confusing by the day. Admittedly, I’m lucky, where things are just too complex for my befuddled brain to deal with, I hand it over to Adam, just as I did with the setting of a password for the keysafe the other week. Unfortunately, if it involves technology, he’s normally lost, as that was always my domain. The day will come when I can no longer deal with the latest version of TV, or our home network and so on, what happens then, I don’t have a clue. Have I become an “old fogy”, or is it just the fact my brain is being eaten by my MS. I fear it’s the second as in reality, I am still of working age which means my brain should be fine, but I’m so lost and confused by it all, I couldn’t do the job I once did, at all. I don’t have the slightest doubt, that that situation too, is only going to get worse.

Oddly the rate of technology change is one of the very few reasons that I am actually glad to be housebound. I don’t think I could deal with a world of contactless payment, payment in advance cards, and buses and businesses, that won’t accept cash. Keeping track over that array of payments methods must make it almost impossible to keep track of what you have spent and where. I know that just looking at my bank statement these days is confusing enough, with companies using one name to trade and another to take payment from your account. Luckily, I don’t normally use companies I haven’t already used in the past, but when I do, the choices of how to pay never seems to end. Credit card, AmEx, bank card, bank transfer or PayPal, not to mention those the overseas companies add into the mix, they seem to go on forever.

For me, and millions of other people out there, ill or aging, for who technology is no longer something that makes our lives easier, this new world is a daunting place. Worse still, you don’t have to be a genius to know, it’s only going to get worse. When will those companies out there for once think of those not able to keep up and provide us, with simplified versions that we can actually use. If you want something simple these days, you have to go cheap. They usually look terrible and don’t last, just because we want simple, doesn’t mean we don’t want stylish and value for money. Slowly the number of those who’s age means that modern life makes no sense is growing, I’m not too proud to be considered as part of that count, but still manufacturers and businesses insist on ignoring us. Even my confused mind can see that make no financial sense, as isn’t our money just as good as the rest? How long will it take before someone wakes up and realises this? How long before we are treated as part of the world, and technology becomes what it really should be, inclusive for all.

Please read my blog from 2 years ago today – 02/10/2014 – It’s day to day

I’m feeling nauseous again today, it wasn’t helped when I tried out the new way of making my porridge in a hope to ensuring that it had absorbed all the water it could before eating it. Unfortunately, the result was a soggy mush that I know is how many see porridge, but to me was totally unpalatable and reminded me of the stuff they used to serve in hospital. I struggled through two-thirds, every mouthful…..