# Help me improve my attitude towards technology - such as website changes **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 1, 2022, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930 "2022-08-01T18:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/21 "2022-08-02T15:55:06Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think what we’ve seen in the past 5-10 years is a sort of UI design unification between mobile devices and desktop applications. Oh yeah, totally. Desktop UI used to be very rich, responsive, and (mostly) obvious. Then the market decided that the profit was in having a pocket-sized swipey rectangular device, and figured out how to make that… acceptable. Then they decided it’s too expensive to maintain two different experiences, so they made the desktop look and behave like the pocket device, even though it’s capable of much more. > [@](#): > > Eventually this stuff will settle out and interfaces will stabilize and remain unchanged for the most part, like they do for most consumer products. People were saying this 30 years ago. It’s sort of like fusion power. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/22 "2022-08-02T16:03:55Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > People were saying this 30 years ago. It’s sort of like fusion power. It more or less had, at least on desktops, until mobile devices came around. I mean, I’m sure there was a point when audio recorders didn’t have the standard arrangement of buttons (rewind, play, pause, fast forward) with the associated iconography, but that eventually settled out and has been adapted for video recordings, DVRs, video players on PCs, etc… Something similar will _eventually_ happen for user interfaces I suspect, up until the point when there’s some sort of new input mechanism beyond touchscreens and mice/keyboards. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/23 "2022-08-02T16:54:27Z")
REALLY good responses, guys. Thanks. I ESPECIALLY like **“You will ALWAYS be disappointed, but never surprised!”** Re: using them on the phone - well, if that’s the case, I might as well see if the Unabomber’s cabin is vacant. There is NOTHING I enjoy doing on my phone, other than making phone calls and texting. I just dislike the small interface and touch screen. So if that’s what it takes, I’ll happily just become more and more irrelevant and out of touch. (This weekend we were at a wedding and the asked us to silence our phones. As I was trying to remember how to do that, I remembered the little toggle switch on the side. When I toggled it, the screen said “Silent mode turned OFF.” So I realized I had had my phone on silent since the LAST wedding we attended, 2 months ago! Oh well - whether or not I missed any calls over that time, not a single person left me a VM!) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/24 "2022-08-02T16:59:41Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Re: using them on the phone - well, if that’s the case, I might as well see if the Unabomber’s cabin is vacant. There is NOTHING I enjoy doing on my phone, other than making phone calls and texting. I just dislike the small interface and touch screen. So if that’s what it takes, I’ll happily just become more and more irrelevant and out of touch. I agree completely that my phone makes a crappy PC. Too small & fiddly. But I also admit that’s the way the world is moving, whether I like it or not. As to @bump’s contention that change will slow down: Hardly. The new hotness is voice command. Don’t type it, ask it. Which has the potential to be much less difficult for those of us with old fingers and old eyes. Yaay! But will of course erupt all sorts of new problems when Siri / Alexa / Google totally misunderstands and transfers all my money to the Slobovostani Mafia when I actually was ordering a cheeseburger at a McD’s. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/25 "2022-08-02T17:13:12Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > There is NOTHING I enjoy doing on my phone, other than making phone calls and texting. I pretty much agree with you there, except I would have left off “texting.” I usually have “Messages for web” open as one tab on my browser, and if I’m at my computer I’d rather read and type text messages there than on my phone. The vast majority of things that can be done either on a phone or on a computer, I would rather do on my computer. Oh, and I’ve never _enjoyed_ making phone calls, period. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/26 "2022-08-02T17:20:25Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I have no idea why they needed to update everything every few years > [@AHunter3](#): > > They just won’t leave their damn web portal alone It’s the Way of the Web. Someone (top executives, IT staff etc.) thinks that if websites aren’t frequently updated, they’ll look “old” and unexciting, and the company/agency will appear to be fuddy-duds. Functionality and user satisfaction are unimportant when compared to the Bright And Shiny factor. Eventually people get used to/resigned to the changes, which are seldom for the better.\* Usually that’s right around the time the site is updated again. \*the Dope being an exception in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2022, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930/27 "2022-08-02T17:44:14Z")
This is more of a tech solution than an attitude adjustment, but I’ve found that even with recent updates I’m never the first person to have this problem, and somewhere on the internet someone might have explained the solution. Google has gotten really good at finding that somewhere, so I always try that if I can’t find the damn thing on my own after a brief scan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-improve-my-attitude-towards-technology-such-as-website-changes/968930.md?page=1)