Modern 'convienences' that are make life worse.

Most new car stuff: power windows seem to stop working more than manual roll up ones. Car alarm problems, keyless cars that be driven off by anyone if you’re standing too close.

Relying on phones as alarm clocks. Seems that the kind of person who rolls in at 4 AM, is also the kind of person who can’t be relied on to keep his phone charged.

I’m with you on this. Airbags, O2 sensors, Check Engine lights, ECU’s and a myriad of shit the average person couldn’t fix on the side of the road with a basic tool kit.

Don’t get me started on the fucking cell phone! Goddamn people can’t even act right anymore because of these fucking things.

All of our labor saving devices are making us too sedentary which affects our health.

PCs and smartphones put us into ergonomically unsound positions which could cause a lot of health problems down the road. So could MP3 players, they may damage peoples hearing. I predict a lot of hearing impaired people with muscle and spine issues in 20 years.

Sorry, but I can’t agree. I worked on cars from the 70s thru today and they have increased in quality and reliability several orders of magnitude. I’ve never had any of the above systems fail on a car made in the last 20 years…

Dish washers If you don’t clean the dishes 100% before putting them they don’t come out cleaner than they went in.

Never had power window problems. Never had my car stolen by someone standing too close (this is a real problem?).

Sounds more like user error.

Smart phones have made my life way better. I love having a powerful, internet connected computer in my pocket.

Yes. Cars are so much better nowadays. Now, when there are problems, they’re harder to fix, but I’ll take the trade.

Now, dishwashers…yeah, they suck.

But so far it’s a big thumbs up for modern conveniences.

FTR, my header is supposed to say, “Modern convenience usage that make life worse (than their technological predecessor)”…this is meant to be really a nitpick thing. Like people on cellphones being more difficult to understand than those on landlines…though signal quality has improved a lot in recent years.

It’s not a blanket condemnation of a single piece of equipment. (Though I would still much rather drive a 77 Maverick with standard transmission, than a 2014 Prius. I don’t need frigging Windstar or map technology or touchscreen to turn on the AC)

As for cellphones…those things have probably made police work a 100 times easier. And I mean in forensic use as well as communication.

I love using my cell phone as an alarm clock when I’m on travel. No more looking at the clock radio and trying to figure out how to change the alarm time and not change the clock time. No more trying to set the station just so, to make sure it’s still set in the morning, and not just off to one side where it will be quiet. Just set the time on my phone, which I know how to do.

Also, the dishwasher we got about five years ago does a great job on our dishes, and is very quiet.

What I don’t like are those large riding lawnmowers all the lawn services have now, that leave tire tracks on all the lawns. That’s right… Get Off My Lawn!

If you quit paying them I’m sure they’ll get off your lawn within a week. :smack:

You’re suggesting that a car thief could get into my car while I was standing close enough for the car to connect to my key fob and I wouldn’t notice them doing it? Even if that was possible, I know on my car, and probably most others, it can tell if the key is inside or outside the car. I can’t lock the doors with the fob inside the car and if I leave the car running and get out of the car it beeps at me and, I think, will cut the engine if someone puts it in gear. I assume it won’t start with the fob outside of the car even if it’s really close.

I’ve had one window motor die of the [counts] 24 car window motors I’ve owned. I’m not sure how that compares to regular ones.

I think it’s still probably true that cell phones have bad voice quality versus landlines. They are better in almost every other way, though. I use my cell phone as my primary alarm clock, although I do have a backup alarm clock / radio.

Modern televisions are better in most ways, but there’s a really annoying delay when changing the channel. It’s only a half-second or so - just enough to be irritating. I don’t remember that ever happening with an older television with a dial.

I don’t know if this counts, but the “convenience” of a “loyalty card” at various stores. Yes, I’m sure some of them might really save you 2 cents now and again, but the practical upshot is that it’s impossible to buy anything at a retail store without having to go through the ritual: “Do you have an S-Mart Loyalty Card?” “No.” “You can sign up and save up to 3 shekels on produce every other full moon.” “No, thank you.” I know they have to ask. They know I don’t care. We are both momentarily annoyed for no good reason.

Interesting. I mention that because I had seen a case on the news. I’ll have to test it next time my wife stops for gas.

I remember how unreliable power windows were back in the 1960s and 1970s. Things have radically improved since then. I haven’t had a problem with power windows in decades.

And someone might be able to get into your keyless car if you’re standing nearby, but they aren’t going to be able to take it very far, if they’re even able to start it up.

As Yookeroo said, cars are much better these days. You may not be able to fix them yourself, and the repairs may cost more, but OTOH nothing goes wrong for years, so I’m good with the tradeoff. 50 years ago, if you weren’t a competent mechanic and wanted your car to be reliable, you traded it in every 3 years. Now they’re still reliable after a decade or more. (I’m coming up on 15 years with my 2000 Accord. :))

Dishwashers: have improved over time, and even 50 years ago, they beat washing stuff by hand.

Cell phone quality: yeah, the sound isn’t as good as with a landline handset. But OTOH, you can take it everywhere, and even the non-smartphone cell phones can do a hell of a lot more than just do phone calls.

How’s the sound quality on stuff like Skype, btw? I expect that’s what’s going to make the landline obsolete even for those of us who like long phone calls.

If your dishwasher isn’t getting dishes clean, you either have a crappy dishwasher or you’re not using good detergent. I jam my dishwasher full of non-rinsed plates and baked on food pans every day (it has a built in garbage disposal, so these don’t clog it) and they come out sparkly and dry. Every once in a while due to my horrendous loading I’ll have to put a spoon or something back for another run-through.

I’d like to nominate automatic locking on cars. My car locks itself after I get out and walk away, which means that when I go to get something out of my car later, I have to remember to bring the keys. Drives me batty. This feature cannot be turned off. Also the fabulous seatbelt chime. Yes, there is something that weighs more than 10lbs in the passenger seat. No, the groceries do not need to be belted in, thanks. (That one I was able to disable, thankfully. But really, does ANYONE want this feature?)

I like most of the car stuff mentioned. You can’t adjust an ECU like you can a carb with a screwdriver, but who needs to unless you’re building a hotrod? If you are building a hotrod, you’ve probably got a laptop and the correct stuff to tune it. Also, if I get a check engine light, I can check it with my smart phone through Blue Tooth.

+1 to Renee I routinely jam my dishwasher full of crusty dishes and they come out perfectly clean.

+2, Renee nailed it. Not since the seventies has it been necessary to rinse dishes before putting into a dishwasher.

Mine wasn’t new when we bought this house 13yrs ago, it’s an 18" wide model, and it has run like a workhorse for all that time.

Only recently did it begin to under deliver. I simply moved up to the best quality detergent and the problem solved itself.

There is no worse “convenience” than texting.

It’s a ridiculously backwards technology, with all the innovations in mass communication, why the fuck do I want to type out and read a whole conversation on a miniature keyboard!? It’s like passing notes back and forth in elementary school.

I use a voice over LTE network at work and it is so much more safer, convenient and efficient, especially when using Bluetooth with a head set or in the car.

Blackberries and cellphones are a clear case of “worsening by improvement” if you are a working a professional-type job. Now, you are never unreachable for work! Meaning, you are always potentially available to work … :smack:

Relying on phones as navigation devices.

I had to (internally) laugh at a bunch of people from Rackspace, who were scheduled to take a tour of the SA Food Bank (my wife and I leading the tour) one morning. They were supposed to arrive at 10am, but they kept straggling in because their phones gave them shitty, surface-street, directions.

From their offices, they had to take 5 left turns and 1 right turn to get from their parking lot to the SAFB parking lot (L onto Walzem, L onto I-35, L onto I-10, R onto TX 151, L onto Old Callaghan rd, L in the parking lot) with 95% of this driving on relatively empty interstates. Instead of looking at a paper map (or even looking at a map of the city on Google), they all got in their cars, typed in the directions into their iPhones, and were taken on a cross-city journey of surface streets, one-way roads, and multiple traffic lights, turning a quick 15 minute journey into a 45 minute exercise in frustration.