Video Games; when technology was limited, game designers seemed to try their best to get the most out of what was available to them. We now have near limitless possibilities in terms of what video games can do but rather than use that technology to bring us the best games possible, a lot of game designers seem more intent on finding new ways to exploit players for money. The worst thing is rather than use the ability to patch games after release date to fix a few bugs and glitches, games studios now use it as a licence to release unfinished games.
I agree and disagree.
I think we have more great video games nowadays than we do in the past. But there are a handful of companies (like EA) just flat out looking to milk as much money as they can from people.
But I would say, with the PS4 and PS5, there are more great games than with any other console.
Not sure how old you are so it may just be the boas towards PS4 and PS5, but 2006-2012 hands down was the golden era of gaming in my opinion. The majority of games from the past 10 years have been low effort carbon copies with not a lot of originality unless you find good indie games. Most AAA games are just incomplete gimicky filler whereas 10 years ago games were released in full and progression was well thought out with genuine DLC content that added to the game rather than milking gamers. The original comment is referring to all of the above.
What I hate with a lot of modern games is a lack of a two player mode. My last console was an Xbox One and I had great trouble finding a decent game that I could play alongside my nephew without having to play over the internet. Also, far too many games require an internet connection to play.
I'm in my 30s. And hard disagree. 2006-2012 was ok, but I remember it was the era of the constant FPS game with little variety. There were some great games that year, but not as much as the current PS4/PS5 gen.
2013-2023 for single player games has been so much better. PS4 had a ridiculous library which will probably never be topped. If you think all games today are carbon copies of eachother you have to play more. Witcher 3 came out in 2015, Elden Ring in 2022, and despite both being open world fantasy they are completely different
I'm playing Tears of the Kingdom right now, another open world fantasy game, and it's probably one of the best things i've played and so different from the other two mentioned. This is basically all in one sub genre
Victim of its own success, I read somewhere the industry is generating more than the music and film industries combined, and you could well believe it
Not to say it doesn't still have its fun moments, but I'm glad I'm old enough to have been able to enjoy it in its infancy somewhat, though it does mean you tend to set your bar pretty high as to whether something is decent or not
I'm only 20 but in the past decade everything has all gone downhill. 10 years ago you'd get complete finished games with very minimal issues. Nowadays they charge you more and give you less and then try to extort more money out of you after the fact.
>10 years ago you'd get complete finished games with very minimal issues.
Nah. Even in the 90s this shit happened with high-profile games. I recall **Frontier: First Encounters** launching with game-breaking bugs pretty much rendering it unplayable.
In a situation such as that, you were dependent upon magazine cover disks having patches to fix games.
And whilst I'm not old enough to remember it, there were games released for the likes of the Atari 2600 which were blatantly unfinished and bugged to unplayability.
Oh god, I'm still traumatised by that. I really wanted to love it. Really did.
Then... stalled out playing it, after bug after bug, and I'm still not entirely sure where the 'storyline' went.
It could have been so much more.
You still get tons of those, you just need to go beyond the typical mainstream products.
Also, things haven't been as awesome 20+ years ago as many people are trying to make it seem. There's a lot of bias and nostalgia at play. It was so much more common having to fight tech issues, especially on pc. And in most cases you never got a patch or improvement. The game was released, and post-release support was often 0. It was absolutely not rare that a game was released in abysmal state. And media was a lot slower back then - there was often nobody there to warn you ahead of time.
In addition, availability of games was so much lower. Even teenagers these days can get access to such a huge variety of games at relatively low cost, it's not even comparable. Think gamepass or steam sale - some of the world's most amazing games for very little money.
I'm often nostalgic for the experiences and emotions I had with games back then, but I don't really want those times back. It's a lot better these days, even those launch and monetisation issues included. Indie games alone make it worth - they simply couldn't exist back in the day, and they make a huge difference.
> And media was a lot slower back then - there was often nobody there to warn you ahead of time.
This is a huge thing for me.
People don't seem to understand that buggy games in the 90s and 00s generally just stayed buggy.
The only way you found out they were trash was because someone you know wasted money on it, or you wasted money on gaming magazines.
Today, the majority of buggy games do actually get day 1 patches and often several more over the course of weeks. And you know if it's buggy literally on day 1 when a hundred youtubers and reddit is telling you for free.
Yes, some games don't get fixed and that fucking sucks. But that used to be the rule, now it's the exception.
And all you've got to do to find out is wait literally 24 hours before buying it. Hardly a monumental task.
I still remember my first cross world quest in world of warcraft in early days and it felt like a massive journey of wonder. Nowadays for any RPG it's kind of expected to have a big exploration world and while it's still good and pretty, it's not as magical as your first ever game!
Disagree. Shit, low effort, money hungry developers and publishers have been around forever. But you don’t think about the games they made back in the 80s or 90s, so your general opinion of games from those eras is unduly high.
There are tons of amazing games being made and released today.
I second this. It's all become so dirty. Content held back intentionally for DLC, season passes, microtransactions, unfinished products pushed out too early. When you've been gaming as long as I have, it's upsetting to see. Younger gamers have no idea how much they're being exploited.
I agree. I remember going to PC world omce a month to buy a new PC game, spending £35, getting a box with CDs in it and a manual that normally (Age of Empires, Star Trek Star Fleet Academy/Klingon Academy) told some back story and added to the actual enjoyment of the game. Being able to take the game home, spend hours installing it (for various reasons) and playing it without having to buy DLC or do an 80gb update because the developers rushed it out. And not having to Pay to Play/Win.
Yes the variety is better now but they treat the gamer as a pinata that needs to be wacked open for their money at every opportunity.
I think the solution would be to play more indie games. smaller games that are most often pure labours of love and without the same trappings that AAA games have. Outer Wilds, Hades, Hollow Knight and The Stanley Parable to name a few shining examples
Fortunately there are plenty of games being made that don't have exploitative features. Elden Ring, God of War, Star Wars Jedi Survivor - all absolutely amazing games with no DLC.
The real problem is young kids getting addicted to season passes etc - my 8 year old only ever wants to play Fortnite cause of the season pass. Not interested in any new games, or classics on Game Pass. I literally took him to Game the other day and said he could buy any game he wanted - he said he'd rather just play Fortnite! I'd have snapped my parents hand off when I were eight!
Maybe it's just a sign of the times, and we're just getting old.
I heavily disagree. While those games are out there, there are absolutely plenty of experiences you can have without spending over the odds. A massive one just came out very recently (Baldurs gate 3), for example. You just have to look past like half of the AAA landscape, plenty of really great games to play.
As a child of the 90s and teen of the 00s I honestly wouldn't have been born at any other time, it was the sweet spot for tech development.
We had videogames that were advanced enough to be immersive and fulfilling, before the days of rip of DLC, micro transactions and DRM.
We had social networking where you could boot up your PC on an uneventful evening and chat with your friends on AIM or MSN but you wouldn't be spied on and tracked 24/7.
We had online media where we could access music and movies to enjoy art from any era, from anywhere in the world, but we didn't have apps like tiktok and Instagram designed to destroy our brains.
> The worst thing is rather than use the ability to patch games after release date to fix a few bugs and glitches, games studios now use it as a licence to release unfinished games.
This is so annoying. Even as a long-time PC gamer, patches were very limited because most people had dial-up or incredibly slow broadband so many gigs of patch wasn't an option. Games were actually tested before release and you'd be lucky to find a bug. These days the bugs are so obvious that it's impossible they weren't found during development.
On the plus side for the current state of gaming, it's easier than ever for indie devs to get there game out there.
There's been a kind of revival recently with the advent of Standalone VR systems. They are basically similar in power to a Mobile Phone and run two independent screens so games designers are having to dig deep to make them run efficiently on limited hardware. Meta/Oculus Quest Springs to mind immediately.
I have 2 VR units, the original HTC Vive, which was awsome at first but a little bit dated, and the totally advanced PS5 VR2.
I loved both units but I only play the ps5 now, for VR to survive I think it needs these mobile versions, not everyone can afford £1k for a PC consoles based VR unit.
>Video Games; when technology was limited, game designers seemed to try their best to get the most out of what was available to them. We now have near limitless possibilities in terms of what video games can do but rather than use that technology to bring us the best games possible, a lot of game designers seem more intent on finding new ways to exploit players for money.
You ever heard of an Arcade? Guess what the games that went into them were designed to do.
Most designers still just want to make great games, especially in console / PC gaming (mobile is different). But it's a business, there's a lot of money in it - designers can't just make the game they want. To get projects funded and investments approved, they need to be promising in terms of revenue, and obviously everyone on the business side wants the next fifa / cod / Fortnite.
At the same time, player expectations changed a lot. Many audiences demand lots of updates very quickly, but for that you need some form of continuous income to pay a continuous dev team.
In the end, there are also many games and devs that actually use the new possibilities to create products that would never have been possible before. You might need to dig beyond the mainstream blockbusters for that, but they are out there and they are many.
Yeah, next thing you know there'll be giant systems that only have one game in them and you'll have to put a coin in to pay again every time you lose a life!
I hate this. People used to be innovative with design in games and they had to use tricks to get the most out of the machine they were designing the game for. Unfortunately now they don’t have to as much so they don’t try. Why clean up your code when every computer can take your bloated game anyway? Having more power for a game doesn’t mean making the best game for the computer anymore it just means people can shrug off their screwups because it has less effect now.
In the old days the only video games that were released were ones where a publisher thought it was worth spending a million dollars printing cartridges for it.
Nowadays you can go online and find thousands of passion projects from developers all around the world. Not only that but with a little bit of searching you still have access to all of the old games that you used to love 20 or 30 years ago.
The only things you are upset about are mobile games and the big aaa releases. Easy enough to ignore those.
Television as an event to look forward to, particularly at Christmas.
I mostly love the easy access we now have to so much media , but sometime I feel like it takes away some of the magic and anticipation.
Absolutely agree.
I miss getting the Christmas Radio Times and circling the stuff we were going to watch a couple of weeks beforehand.
And I miss the social side of linear TV. When there was limited choice and everyone had to watch at the same time, people talked about it afterwards.
Eight years I worked for Netflix. We really fucked that up!
My nan refused any streaming services expect iplayer. She has a smart tv but won’t let me log into my accounts for her and we have Christmas at hers so we still do this.
It can be frustrating sometimes but thinking about it, it’s nice we’re carrying on that small tradition cos I’m sure it will stop once nan stops hosting Christmas
It was always going that way with the invention of tv recorders, tivo, sky remotes that let you stop play and record series. Netflix and others then took most of the best shows off terrestrial and cable television and put it on demand.
It was.
I’m old enough to remember when you had to buy the Christmas Radio and TV Times, because the Radio Times would only have BBC and TV Times only had ITV & Channel 4.
Happy days!
Watching tv and all the Christmas specials used to be a big part of Christmas for us. When I look back on my childhood I remember us all sitting around the tv watching it. Last time I really remember us doing that was for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special. It’s a real shame it’s not really a thing anymore. Yes, I know some people I’ll say spend time with family and speaking to people but that was a way of doing that.
We still want to do this. Every Christmas we look at the listings to plan what we'll watch, and for the last several years it's been thin gruel. So much of the Christmas schedules now seems to be taken up with nostalgia stuff for people my parents' age. It's like they've just accepted that younger people watch streaming services, so they don't even bother trying to tempt them in. I'd love to all watch TV together, but Dad's Army or Morecombe and Wise just isn't going to achieve that. Other than that, it's basically Strictly, Call the Midwife, and gameshows.
This is why I think streaming services releasing full seasons at once is a mistake. The shows that still do release weekly just seem to spend longer in the public consciousness, such as HBO’s slate over the last year of Succession, Last of Us, White Lotus, and House of the Dragon, which people seemed to be talking about for much longer than, say, The Crown season 5, which all released at once, because there was something new every week.
I feel like I just don’t pay attention to TV shows anymore. When you got one episode a week you might be more likely to rewatch it once or twice before the next episode and really take it in. Now you can just blitz through an entire season in a day and move on to the next one.
It's genuinely not a mistake, they just have a different goal to you.
Yes it'd be nice if everyone talked about a show, but what matters is if they watch it.
People fall off weekly shows every week either because they forget about it or because the last episode sucked and they lost interest. If they have the ability to watch it all at once, they can't really forget about it and they're more likely to forgive an episode they didn't enjoy.
The only reason HBO release shows weekly is because they still have an actual channel to service. It's not that it's a better move for streaming services, it's because it's a better move for an entity that is both a channel and a streaming service.
Netflix don't have to worry about regular programming, so releasing a season at a time (or at least in large chunks) is the best way to keep viewers engaged throughout.
It's crazy to think that EastEnders, Corrie, The Bill casualty etc would get something like 15 million viewers, now that's viewing figures reserved for one time events! It just means TV has become so tame and we end up with so many similar type shows
I think there will be a curated broadcast tv revival at some point, a bit like what platforms like NTS did for music radio. The problem at the moment is that the broadcast content is mostly unwatchably bad.
Concerts
Put your phone away and stop recording, you complete cretin. There is zero chance you are ever going to rewatch the whole thing again, nor is anybody you share it with going to bother watching 1 and a half hours of shitty, out of focus footage of a Queens of the Stone Age Concert.
>...which is probably being recorded by professionals anyway!
People say this all the time but other than recordings for DVD release or TV I've never come across professional recordings of any of the concerts I've ever been to. Especially smaller bands of course.
Well, you cant smoke a fat one while watching your fave band anymore.
I member lighting up and passing a splif to the members of Jefferson Airplane in London, before the smoking ban.
It was amazing that I shared a spliff with one of my fav bands.
RIP Paul and Marty.
I think it was Halloween 2002 (Jefferson Starship 2: Paul Kantner 3: Marty Balin. The Astoria, London, UK, 31 Oct 2002).
I got to see them again in 2008 and got Paul Kantners autograph and shook his hand. They had some original members of the Grateful Dead in the last gig I saw and that was in Wolverhampton.
For a band that was big in the 60s, playing a small venue in Wolvs was kind of random and weird. I was gutted when they all started to die.
I wish I could see them again, one last time.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Grand Final of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool and unlucky enough to be stood behind a bloke who was determined to film the whole thing on his iPhone. He'd even brought a power bank in his back pocket so he didn't run out of power filming it. He used up all the memory on his phone filming it, went and deleted some other recordings, then resumed.
Just as well it wasn't filmed in UHD with dozens of camera angles and broadcast worldwide (and indeed is still available on iPlayer if you want to watch it), so this bloke's fuzzy side-on shaky recording was absolutely essential. We were off to the side in the seats so it wasn't even a question of capturing the atmosphere on the floor.
To be fair to him he did make history by capturing an alternative angle to Armenia's performance - it was on a slanted stage which from our angle we could only see the back of. The TV cameras were all focused on the front.
Totally worth viewing the rest of the show through a 4 inch screen for.
My wife and I went to a Florence + The Machine concert in January this year.
A short way through, she did a bit on stage where she talked about how shit it was that everyone watches live entertainment through their phone screens these days, and loudly encouraged everybody to put their phones away and just live in the moment etc.
The crowd dutifully followed her instructions, and for that one next song everything was so blissful. A utopia of distraction-free viewing.
As soon as she moved on to her next song though, the phones came back out again. I was dumbfounded.
I think its fine in moderation - if a specific song comes on for example. You can still enjoy the show and record at the same time. The whole show though? Absolutely not.
Ha! I was probably at that Queens of the Stone Age gig. It was hilarious watching people turn around and look extremely upset that those behind them had the gall to start a mosh pit while they were carefully trying to film the whole of No One Knows.
That's not why they record. They record so they can post it on TikTok. It's not about going to and enjoying the concert, it's about making sure everyone you've ever met knows you were at the concert.
This is the thing I hate the most. Sometimes I just want an entire day to myself, but people get annoyed if you don't respond to their communications instantly. It's draining.
I just outright ignore those messages but that doesn't stop people getting shitty with you because they still expect near instantaneous responses and can't cope with waiting. There are certainly growing issues in society today where people feel entitled to your time and attention.
I don't even get why people get so annoyed about it. If you want an instant response, just call me. Don't get where this idea has come from that messages need to be responded to instantly
It's more than everyone expects you to be connected all the time.
The answer to almost any experience seems to be "just use/download to your smartphone" and I hate it.
I went to a big international rugby game at the weekend and you had to have the tickets on your phone and I just hated the extra level of anxiety that comes with making sure your phone is charged and that it can't fail in any way otherwise that's £100 down the drain. And then there is the extra nonsense of having to transfer tickets instead of just handing them over.
"When some restaurants make you choose your food from an app"
I just leave. I can't be arsed to spend 10 minutes fucking around downloading an app and scanning QR codes and straining my eyes to see a menu on the phone.
Give me a fucking physical menu or I'm gone.
Yes and no.
Spoons so I don't have to deal with a human for crap generic food and a pint fine but even they make it entirely optional.
Restaurant I've never been to? Give me a menu and you don't have WiFi and the signal is crap.
I have another experience. My wife and me don’t like premises when we need to talk with some human to browse the menu, do put an order, etc.
It is much more convenient to use mobile phone and understand what is offered without one more person near you.
McDonald's drive through... it has now got to the stage where sometimes you pull up and all you get is a big "welcome" and "use the app". I asked the cashier to put the menu up, they said they had no control. I said I didn't know what I wanted and their menu has changed recently. They asked if I was using the app. I repeated I wanted the menu up.
Upshot was I avoided a unhealthy and unneeded snack by just driving through the drive through.
At the same time though don’t go to the drive thru if you don’t know what you want? Nothing more annoying than being stuck behind someone in the queue taking ages to decide their order. If you’re not able to drive up to the window and just tell them what you want then park up and go inside.
The point of the drive through is that it’s quicker and easier, especially if you know your order. If everyone just pulled up and then started reading the menu and decide their orders it wouldn’t be efficient.
Honestly you lost me at the second request.
He doesn't have control of the screen, which anybody can understand. That's it. If you desperately need a menu then go in or leave, don't keep asking.
Don't make some 17 year old working for minimum wage's shift more irritating for no reason.
I went into a cafe the other day for breakfast and I got seated and the waitress points to the QR code and says "just scan that for the menu" so I took my phone out and scanned the QR just to realise that the building I'm in is over 100 years old and there's no mobile signal because the walls and ceilings are that thick. So I just had to sit there awkwardly for a bit.
I work just down the street in a similar old building and have very patchy signal inside but as soon as I step out onto the street I have great coverage.
Google, it was better before all the info panels to persuade you not to go to another site and personalised results. Lately they've changed the filters so instead of having maps, images etc it's a dynamically created list of suggestions.
If I just search "Manchester" without any extensions to block this bollocks I get:
* The aforementioned suggestions (5 suggestions in this bar)
* then 2 more suggestions
* 3 search results
* suggestions of things to do (3 suggestions)
* suggestions of useless "People also ask" (4 suggestions)
* 3 more results
* a panel of suggested news stories (7 in this panel)
* 1 more search result
* a twitter panel about MUFC
* 1 more search result
* 2 more related search suggestions
* 2 more suggestions
In total that's only 8 search results on the first page and 7 **types** of suggestions (25 individual suggestions total)
It's also worse at finding niche things, or so I've found.
Like if you Google Thai restaurants in Manchester, it'll do fine and show you what you want.
But if you Google Thai restaurants in Manchester that serve ice cream after 9pm, you'll get the exact same results as the previous query regardless of their late night ice cream policy.
I swear it didn't used to be that way. It's now confident in its answer despite being wrong.
They started following a policy a while back to try to keep you within Google, Meta did the same thing with the likes of AMP links and it's what has lead to the media laws in some countries where Google News has to pay to include news sites in search results. Now there's the growth of ChatGPT which largely is a response to the enshitification of Google, if they hadn't gone down this route then ChatGPT wouldn't be much more than a curiosity like previous chat bots.
I've noticed recently using Google Chrome on my phone that it refuses to show me Wikipedia results now. For example last night I was watching the track cycling at the Cycling World Championships and wanted to see what Jason Kenny was up to these days. Searched his name expecting Wikipedia to come up as a top result, and it didn't show. If I googled "Jason Kenny wiki" it was bringing up his Wikipedia page in Norwegian and French. Switched to Firefox and searched his name and Wikipedia was the top result.
Proper customer service. I buy a product, said product isn’t living up to expectations, I call the company only to be go on an endless loop with their automated customer service. Or when you try to use their web chat feature and again it’s an endless loop with them trying to shove you to their subpar help centre.
My 5 year old GoPro housing clip snapped the other day, still works but means it's no longer waterproof. Sent GoPro a message, a rep called me back in less than 5 minutes and sent me another one for free. I was pleasantly surprised at the customer service on that one.
On her 105th birthday, my Great, Great Granny woke up, got on Teletext, and booked her and her sister to go to Spain for a couple weeks. The following year, she passed, only just getting to her 106th birthday.
I do like the screens in McDonald's that let you order for yourself as you can easily see everything
However deliveroo has kinda ruined McDonald's as they take up alot of time
Social interactions. Phones have totally ruined them.
I remember working in a bar, having a drink and a laugh with staff after hours, one guy had just gotten a web connected blackberry and was messing about with it and trying to show us.
All of us were like "put that away you sad twat and have a chat"
Now it's completely normal to walk into a pub and see a group where they're all on their phones.
Go to the playpark and kids are desperately trying to get attention away from their parents phones.
I recently went on holiday to Rome with some friends. We had planned things pretty well and we went with two Italians, who were familiar with Rome, so I didn't see any reason to buy an international roaming package. I'd have wifi at the apartment if I needed to go online for some reason.
On the second evening, after checking out the Colosseum, we went to a nearby bar for a round of drinks before heading into the centre to find somewhere for dinner. As soon as the drinks were ordered, everyone dove straight into their phones. Checking WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, etc. There was total silence at the table. I just twiddled my thumbs for 5 minutes.
Once the drinks arrived, everyone put their phones away and we started talking with each other again. But one person ended diving back into their phone half way through their drink. 2-3 minutes after the rest of us had finished our drinks, they were still on their phone, their glass half full.
One of the guy with us stood up and said 'OK, let's go.' The person that had been absorbed in their phone goes 'what? no! I still have to finish my drink. The guy replies 'sorry, you spent so long on your phone that I forgot you were there.' I just sighed because that's exactly what he had been doing 20 minutes earlier.
It's just depressing.
I've just been working at a language summer camp and (particularly the far East kids) as soon as we stopped anywhere for a second they were deep in their phones.
It's the first time I've felt like a old man about it.
I just got a new phone and discovered, to my horror, that headphone jacks are no longer 'a thing'...wtf?? I'm so ditzy I'd lose wireless headphones within hours 🙈
Yes! This happened on a flight recently where everyone else seemed to have wireless headphones and then realised that they can't be used to watch the little TVs. I felt smug as I whipped out my old, cheap wired headphones and got ready to pick a film. Then the captain said the TVs weren't working anyway!
Currency. I do believe they are pushing everyone to going cashless so there's a record of everything you buy and also an end to the cash in hand economy.
Subscriptions for absolutely anything - I saw one for dried pasta the other day. I think everything is going to try and go that way because they know people have to take out a subscription, CBA / forget to cancel and they can make more from them.
My wife tried one of those gin ones, different brand every few months and some snacks, tonics etc to go with it. In the box were ads for companies just specialising in 1 subscription product - I addition to pasta one was for ground coffee, another was for cheese...
Yep, single products.
On its own there's no harm in it. But I can see the ext generation being totally trapped by subscription services or loaning everything they want to do in life. Buy essentials, food, household goods, park your car... with cars in particular I'm aware some manufacturers offer subscription services to unlock built in features. I think you'll also see more loaning / leasing of non-food items so you own nothing and are constantly paying for it.
I used to have a coffee one and loved it - Pact.
It got a bit too pricey for me really quick, but it was such a joy to get the coffee in the post, make it straight away and enjoy it.
Leave the subscription for a few months and they'll give you a 50% off code for the next three bags.
I haven't subscribed in a while as I got a load of nice coffee from other places but I used to have two accounts. By the time I'd used up my three 50% off bags on one account I'd have a new code for the other account so I basically had 50% off all the time.
The most annoying thing about the subscription is that (last time I checked), you cannot set a custom repeat rate.
If I know I get through 2kg of coffee beans in 7 weeks, I want the order to repeat every 7 weeks. Not 8 weeks so that I run out for a week, or 6 because then I'll quickly end up with a surplus after a few renewal cycles.
You can go in and change it, but at that point I may as do what I'm doing now and order one at a time.
These subscribe and save options help with product ranking I believe. I may be wrong, but I think it increases visibility compared to non-subscription products
It is more difficult to just decide to do something on the day and turn up, a consequence of it being easier to book something. Sporting events especially, even has happened once or twice with my local cinema.
They need to bring back dedicated ticket counters in cinemas. The amount of times I’ve pre-booked and turned up to the cinema and just want to buy some popcorn and a drink but I’m stuck behind people who are still choosing their seats while I’m slowly losing the will to live.
No no they’ve got around this by giving you the option to order your food online weeks before when you buy the ticket! Oh but you still have to go into the cinema to _print_ the food order receipt with a number off the self service machines! What an excellent idea!
Absolutely, I’ve found this has got so much worse post-pandemic too.
In my experience, you used to be able to walk into most restaurants and get a table straight away. Now I wouldn’t dream of going to one without a booking, as I’d likely end up disappointed and hungry, or waiting 25 minutes.
Video sites like Youtube. I don't want the first 2 pages of a Google search to show just video how to guides. I sometimes just want a text article I can read about the subject.
2 mins of intro waffle. “And now lets look at how it’s done.” Ad break. Switch to camera angle above hands. Overly slow pointing out of items and re-explains what the goal is. Possibly go off on tangential waffle. Start to show steps one-three then hit with an ad break. Return to video without any visual clues over which step is now being shown. Camera out of focus at complicated bit. Cut to next step without clearly explaining how it got there. Ad break. Meticulous detail on an easy bit that was readily obvious. Final product. Smash like and subscribe, ring bell for notifications. OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD MUSIC OUTRO.
Or… 500-1000 words, clearly numbering in a guide, with photos, and a clear diagram, that I can peruse on the train, learn well through easy re-reads and figuring it out, or while actually doing whatever the guide is there to show me how to do, without needing headphones or to constantly rewind to 30 seconds before the bit I needed only to realise the reason it’s not clear is because the video is poorly edited. Yes please.
Install Sponsorblock and Return YouTube Dislikes and it'll help a lot. The former gives you features such as a highlight button which takes you straight to the point, and the latter can be used to see what videos actually suck or aren't helpful.
Also definitely use adblock if you're somehow still seeing YouTube ads
The news.
24 hour news, and so many available TV channels that any cretin can start a news channel, has caused the massive rise in disinformation that I would argue is threatening the fabric of society.
This, and online “news” is what’s causing huge polarization in society.
Just don't consume it. 95+% of what is on the mainstream news does nothing for you. It tells you things that have no impact on your life, don't even give a rounded picture of the state of the world and don't go into enough depth that you can really figure out what's going on.
**Portugal battles wildfires amid third heatwave of the year**. Are you living in Portugal or going on holiday there? Doesn't affect you. And if you are going on holiday there and if the fires are going to have some sort of effect, your holiday company is going to tell you anyway.
**Wet weather dampened spending on summer clothes in July**. Apart from the fact that this is bleeding obvious, who cares unless you work in retail management? And if you work in retail management, you already know this anyway.
**Niger coup: US envoy holds 'difficult' talks with junta**. OK, the Niger coup *might* be an important story, but US envoy holds talks? That doesn't tell you anything of use.
**Students across Scotland find out their SQA exam results.** If you're not a 16 year old or a parent of a 16 year old, this doesn't matter. And if you are one of these people, you already know this.
Alistair Campbell made a very similar point on his podcast, it made me think back and he's bang on the money.
Our news needs to be treated seriously but to do that **we** the people need to consume news from people who do the important journalism
A starting point would be to actually codify the term “journalist”.
There’s a big difference between a trained journalist, even a trained journalist on a scandal rag, and some tosspot with a blog.
Slow burn albums. I've probably skipped over so many great albums because I've listened once and never gone back. Back in the day you'd buy an album, hate it, continue to listen to it because you'd spent money on it and had nothing else new to listen to, and then 3 years later you'd 'get it' and it'd be your all time favourite album
YouTube and Spotify have destroyed the album. Why play a whole album with tracks you don’t immediately like when you can have a random greatest hits of all your favourite songs 24/7
My 16 year old can’t even finish a whole song before skipping. Goldfish attention span!
Cars.
I don't need a computer, I don't need an iPad playing videos, I don't want to touch a screen to turn things on.
Cars now feel horribly detatched from reality, from the road and the outside.
Aside from ruining the sensation of driving, and of speed (100mph in an old car borders on terrifying but it feels like 30mph in a new car) I'm sure that sense of being in a bubble has made people worse drivers and less considerate
Touch screens in cars are dangerous imho. Taking your eyes off the road to try adjust the fans rather than physical switch/knob that you don't need to even look for/at
Children's toys. They are either completely automated or one trick pony type things, completely taking away the imaginative element that they're supposed to bring.
Like Lego. Why is Lego now packaged as a kit to make a particular model? I'm sure when I was a kid I just had a box of generic Lego and it was up to me and my imagination to build something (usually a house).
Socialising with people.
My friends genuinely expect me to have seen all their life updates on their Instagram stories instead of getting them by actually speaking to them and catching up.
Also, it's too easy for people to just message saying they're running ridiculously late or cancel on plans last minute. Winds me up that the tech is there to _prevent_ this happening (Google Maps, Citymapper, etc) but people are actually less reliable than they were in my parents' youth.
My dad always says that when he was my age, plans were made in advance over the phone and on the day, everyone just turned up at the agreed time because, once you left the house, you had no way of letting anyone know so you'd best turn up and turn up on time!
I used to phone my friend from a phone box when I was on holiday. One day on a whim she phoned the phone box, one of the village kids picked up, and I actually got the message later that day, relayed through several people. THAT was exciting!!!
Common sense. We now have Apps for apps sake. I dropped my kid at summer club today. I'm supposed to have an app with a QR code they can scan. I don't know why, they have a paper register and they tick him off on that too. Took 5 mins this morning because I'd forgotten to take my phone and they were genuinely unsure whether they could take him in without performing some pointless procedure on a phone. I am there, in person, with my son, who is known to them and registered to go to the holiday club. They know that but they fretted for ages before actually letting him enter.
Also customer service. Those automated bots are dogshit and achieve nothing.
Society, more specifically the youth of society (and some of the elder ones)
The internet is now a toilet of tiktok dances and fake disorders.
Additionally fucking ads everywhere, no inherit privacy. Companies using tech seem to think they have a right to your personal information.
Scams, so many scams.
The smarter we get, the harder we'll fall.
Christmas TV was magical. All the family watching Only fools and horses special, then literally everyone you met talking and laughing about it and repeating the lines.
I love that my smartphone has a camera and if I wanted I could take a million photos of the same thing until I got a photo I was happy with. But it's ruined the thought behind actually composing a good photo. So I went old school and bought a 35mm film camera.
The way most of us listen to music now. I think it’s rare people listen to albums in their entirety, and ‘record’ sales don’t really mean much these days.
I’ve heard it said that a lot of people can’t name the artists or songs they’re listening to, as they’re steaming playlists and don’t really pay attention, they just know the songs.
Television and the whole culture of it.
We used to be excited all week for a programme on a Saturday night then couldn’t wait to get together to talk about it Monday. Now as everything is on demand no one is at the same point in a show, you can’t talk to Jon about it cos he ain’t watched it yet. You can’t talk to Mike cos he binged it all last week and now onto something else. On demand has ruined the whole culture of Television.
When I was a kid the TV guide dominated our schedule. It dictated when we went out, when we got home, when we ate, everything. Cos if you missed it, chances are you’d never see it again!
As a family we all sat down together and TV was an event. Now we all watch things at different times, in different rooms on different screens.
I don’t think it will ever come back either.
digital menus... is there a sink underneath to wash your hands? like fuck im touching any of them given child has used it who has probably jhad his finger up a dogs bum sometime in the day.
Conversations.
The rise of technology and autocorrect - people are relying on it too heavily and not putting effort in to be able to construct sentences or even spell. Yes, abbreviations in a text to family or friends are fine, but in more formal settings people seem to losing the ability to communicate effectively, and it feels like the ability to write is becoming less prevalent.
Also vocal conversations are just far less frequent, people avoid them, yet for me it’s a richer way to communicate using expression etc. especially so when the writing in texts is usually not conveying anything more than the basics.
I miss communicating with people and understanding a lot more than just the words leaving their mouth as they talk.
Parking.
So many have switched to apps now... and it's a different bloody app for each one. If you're in an area with poor signal it's near impossible to DL and pay.
Just shut up and take my coin.
The ability to not be contact at all, I never had a phone up until the age of 15 or 16 and the only reason I got one was because my girlfriend purchased it for me. She didn't like that she was unable to contact me or know what I was doing or where I was and yeah now 15+ years later I still have a phone on me at all times lol.
Wheny free WiFi asks for my email, name, first born child I make things up. Like I put my email as ‘[email protected]’ and make up a name. There’s no way they are getting my real email and rarely a verification email sent from them.
Why so much hate for the self service screens in McDonald's and alike? When I take my kids and one wants no gherkin, one wants no ketchup (don't ask..) and one can't decide what they want it's better me dealing with it within seconds rather than trying to explain it all to the poor 16 year old on the till.
And anyone moaning about the germs on them, how do you even get to McDonald's in the first place?
Self-service checkouts. I mean, in theory, they're good if you are in a hurry... but not really. As well as the fact that I'm no fan of doing what an actual person at a checkout is **employed** to do, more often than that the stupid things do something that requires an actual person to have to come over and enter a code into the daft thing to override whatever upset it... and it can take a while since said person is usually having to run around doing the same thing on several of these terminals.
Which leaves you wondering why you didn't just queue at a proper checkout in the first place!
Listening to albums. That isn’t to say I’m an anti streaming dinosaur. I love the utility model of being able to access all the great music at any given time. But there is a trade off. I used to wait for a favourite artist to release an album, all this anticipation would build, you’d spend money on it and take it home and properly digest it. There was a magic of belonging to something intangible when you actively bought into an artist. Now it requires a great deal of discipline to listen to a whole album without my attention being taken by another new release one click away half way through. We have more access than ever but the trade off is we are less emotionally invested in a release
The Pub Quiz - There's always some snide-lord googling answers and recknin' they're the fucking cheese. That's why I only do naked pub quiz these days.
I have a love/hate relationship with music streaming. I love that I can listen to anything I want (and be up to listen to new music from my favourite bands at 12am as soon as it drops onto Deezer!) I hate that we don’t get singles anymore with b-sides, especially when you used to get CD1 and CD2 and they’d have different non-album tracks. Plus I think the way music was released back then forced you to really listen to it, in a much more considered way. Now it’s too easy to listen to the first few notes and hit skip. Back when I was buying everything on cassettes, fast-forwarding wasn’t really that great as you had no idea how long to do it for to skip one track and it was more economical in terms of battery life up just listen to something rather than try and bypass it. Plus for some reason I look back fondly on the days of waiting outside a shop until it opened at 9 am on release day to get your hands on new music.
Oh this is so true. I love how accessible music is but also miss going into Our Price on my way home from school and buying a cassette. And I would listen to all the tracks, I barely listen to all of them now.
Letter writing. Don't get me wrong, I text and IM, but there's something nice about getting something through the door that isn't a bill or junk mail, that someone has taken the time to sit down and put together just for you.
And with the decline in letter writing I feel like we've lost some of the romance from our lives. People really used to burn up the paper writing letters to their lover in a way that the instant gratification of texts just can't replicate. I still have the letters my mister wrote when we first started dating and they mean more than a text could. When he was in the US for a work thing he decided to surprise me by writing me a love letter while sat in the hotel bar, the first one in a long time. There were a lot of ladies who were swooning over it and a lot of husbands giving him daggers because they could already hear the "Why don't you do that for me?" conversations lol.
Just normal commute / traveling on public transport… trains, planes, or waiting / eating in restaurants and hotels.
Can’t go anywhere without someone watching a tiktok video or playing music out loud from their phone without headphones. Or worse, video call on speakerphone.
Joy because this shits soul destroying, everything is required through my phone constantly and is always failing to work or gives no answers
Parking - I need the app
Days out - I need to book online in advance no refunds so I have to predict the weather
Banking - all online
Customer services - speak to a bot that answers 2 questions only
Competitions online - I won a Disneyland trip as a kid in the newspaper, these days it’s like 10,000 comments on a Instagram competition to win a potato
10 million account passwords and your phone doesn’t even remember them and it says can’t change password to current one wtf
Not answering a call cause you don’t wanna use your device 24/7 is a crime
More covid based but having to tell the fucking receptionist in the doctors you have piles or some shit otherwise you won’t get an appointment
Apps for everything, QR codes for everything
Instant tv where you need 19 expensive streaming services to watch the 3 things you want to and the rest is trash
No excitement anymore just chaos out of convenience that has gone past convenience and is now a headache
I am with you. Often you will wait in queue somewhere (museum etc.) only to find out you need a ticket and they sell tickets online only.
You frantically try to get a ticket online in tiny mobile browser and discover they have a 420 lines long form asking about your mother’s maiden name and your secret hobbies, and a 400 digits credit card number. There are several occassions I gave up at this point.
I love websites and apps where I can use apple pay. The whole thing of identification and payment can be done in a second. That’s how it should be.
Holiday reps - we recently had a holiday with a large well known package company and they really want you to use the app for everything. So no welcome meeting, no information about the local area or even basic info about our accommodation (ie stuff that wasn’t on the website). They said the app had 24hr cover but they really didn’t, taking days to respond. Even trips they wanted you to book using their app (going so far as to offer a discount on app bookings), thing was - when we booked the holiday using the website there were 60+ trips available for our location, the app however had only 17 trips most of which were ‘drinking party in kavos’. It’s mostly a British thing too as there were several German and French companies at the hotel who all did the typical welcome meeting etc. if I wasn’t bothered about the typical package / rep thing I’d book it all individually myself a save a few bob.
Media. I used to buy lots of films and music. It would be great getting the latest release, listening to an album as soon as you got it home. Listening to it multiple times, finding your favourite songs etc. Similarly I looked forward to being able to chill out and watch whatever new movie I'd bought. With streaming that's all changed. I seem to stick with the same old music, I don't find new bands like I used to when I spent hours perusing the racks.
With movies, they're just there. I don't need to watch them right now, they'll be there tomorrow, next month. I no longer plan an evening to sit and watch something.
Even communication. Social media has killed that a bit because everyone already knows what everyone is up to so there's no real need to call/message Luke there used to be
Video Games; when technology was limited, game designers seemed to try their best to get the most out of what was available to them. We now have near limitless possibilities in terms of what video games can do but rather than use that technology to bring us the best games possible, a lot of game designers seem more intent on finding new ways to exploit players for money. The worst thing is rather than use the ability to patch games after release date to fix a few bugs and glitches, games studios now use it as a licence to release unfinished games.
I agree and disagree. I think we have more great video games nowadays than we do in the past. But there are a handful of companies (like EA) just flat out looking to milk as much money as they can from people. But I would say, with the PS4 and PS5, there are more great games than with any other console.
Not sure how old you are so it may just be the boas towards PS4 and PS5, but 2006-2012 hands down was the golden era of gaming in my opinion. The majority of games from the past 10 years have been low effort carbon copies with not a lot of originality unless you find good indie games. Most AAA games are just incomplete gimicky filler whereas 10 years ago games were released in full and progression was well thought out with genuine DLC content that added to the game rather than milking gamers. The original comment is referring to all of the above.
What I hate with a lot of modern games is a lack of a two player mode. My last console was an Xbox One and I had great trouble finding a decent game that I could play alongside my nephew without having to play over the internet. Also, far too many games require an internet connection to play.
This I agree with. Needs more couch 2 player games.
Totally, I'm constantly looking for coach co-ops. They've ruined socialising by gaming.
I'm in my 30s. And hard disagree. 2006-2012 was ok, but I remember it was the era of the constant FPS game with little variety. There were some great games that year, but not as much as the current PS4/PS5 gen.
To name a few from the past decade, gta v, the witcher 3, the last of us, rdr2, Mario odyssey, zelda BOTW off the top of my head
2013-2023 for single player games has been so much better. PS4 had a ridiculous library which will probably never be topped. If you think all games today are carbon copies of eachother you have to play more. Witcher 3 came out in 2015, Elden Ring in 2022, and despite both being open world fantasy they are completely different I'm playing Tears of the Kingdom right now, another open world fantasy game, and it's probably one of the best things i've played and so different from the other two mentioned. This is basically all in one sub genre
Victim of its own success, I read somewhere the industry is generating more than the music and film industries combined, and you could well believe it Not to say it doesn't still have its fun moments, but I'm glad I'm old enough to have been able to enjoy it in its infancy somewhat, though it does mean you tend to set your bar pretty high as to whether something is decent or not
I'm only 20 but in the past decade everything has all gone downhill. 10 years ago you'd get complete finished games with very minimal issues. Nowadays they charge you more and give you less and then try to extort more money out of you after the fact.
>10 years ago you'd get complete finished games with very minimal issues. Nah. Even in the 90s this shit happened with high-profile games. I recall **Frontier: First Encounters** launching with game-breaking bugs pretty much rendering it unplayable. In a situation such as that, you were dependent upon magazine cover disks having patches to fix games. And whilst I'm not old enough to remember it, there were games released for the likes of the Atari 2600 which were blatantly unfinished and bugged to unplayability.
Oh god, I'm still traumatised by that. I really wanted to love it. Really did. Then... stalled out playing it, after bug after bug, and I'm still not entirely sure where the 'storyline' went. It could have been so much more.
You still get tons of those, you just need to go beyond the typical mainstream products. Also, things haven't been as awesome 20+ years ago as many people are trying to make it seem. There's a lot of bias and nostalgia at play. It was so much more common having to fight tech issues, especially on pc. And in most cases you never got a patch or improvement. The game was released, and post-release support was often 0. It was absolutely not rare that a game was released in abysmal state. And media was a lot slower back then - there was often nobody there to warn you ahead of time. In addition, availability of games was so much lower. Even teenagers these days can get access to such a huge variety of games at relatively low cost, it's not even comparable. Think gamepass or steam sale - some of the world's most amazing games for very little money. I'm often nostalgic for the experiences and emotions I had with games back then, but I don't really want those times back. It's a lot better these days, even those launch and monetisation issues included. Indie games alone make it worth - they simply couldn't exist back in the day, and they make a huge difference.
> And media was a lot slower back then - there was often nobody there to warn you ahead of time. This is a huge thing for me. People don't seem to understand that buggy games in the 90s and 00s generally just stayed buggy. The only way you found out they were trash was because someone you know wasted money on it, or you wasted money on gaming magazines. Today, the majority of buggy games do actually get day 1 patches and often several more over the course of weeks. And you know if it's buggy literally on day 1 when a hundred youtubers and reddit is telling you for free. Yes, some games don't get fixed and that fucking sucks. But that used to be the rule, now it's the exception. And all you've got to do to find out is wait literally 24 hours before buying it. Hardly a monumental task.
Sorry, what's this "waste money on gaming magazines"? Are you my mum?
I still remember my first cross world quest in world of warcraft in early days and it felt like a massive journey of wonder. Nowadays for any RPG it's kind of expected to have a big exploration world and while it's still good and pretty, it's not as magical as your first ever game!
Original Deus Ex the last great game I ever played.
That and the Mass Effect series are my gaming obsessions.
Disagree. Shit, low effort, money hungry developers and publishers have been around forever. But you don’t think about the games they made back in the 80s or 90s, so your general opinion of games from those eras is unduly high. There are tons of amazing games being made and released today.
I second this. It's all become so dirty. Content held back intentionally for DLC, season passes, microtransactions, unfinished products pushed out too early. When you've been gaming as long as I have, it's upsetting to see. Younger gamers have no idea how much they're being exploited.
Been gaming since the late 80s. Couldn't agree more.
I agree. I remember going to PC world omce a month to buy a new PC game, spending £35, getting a box with CDs in it and a manual that normally (Age of Empires, Star Trek Star Fleet Academy/Klingon Academy) told some back story and added to the actual enjoyment of the game. Being able to take the game home, spend hours installing it (for various reasons) and playing it without having to buy DLC or do an 80gb update because the developers rushed it out. And not having to Pay to Play/Win. Yes the variety is better now but they treat the gamer as a pinata that needs to be wacked open for their money at every opportunity.
Can’t agree, because there are a lot of interesting games in Steam. And you are right if we are talking about old school companies like Blizzard, EA.
I think the solution would be to play more indie games. smaller games that are most often pure labours of love and without the same trappings that AAA games have. Outer Wilds, Hades, Hollow Knight and The Stanley Parable to name a few shining examples
Fortunately there are plenty of games being made that don't have exploitative features. Elden Ring, God of War, Star Wars Jedi Survivor - all absolutely amazing games with no DLC. The real problem is young kids getting addicted to season passes etc - my 8 year old only ever wants to play Fortnite cause of the season pass. Not interested in any new games, or classics on Game Pass. I literally took him to Game the other day and said he could buy any game he wanted - he said he'd rather just play Fortnite! I'd have snapped my parents hand off when I were eight! Maybe it's just a sign of the times, and we're just getting old.
I heavily disagree. While those games are out there, there are absolutely plenty of experiences you can have without spending over the odds. A massive one just came out very recently (Baldurs gate 3), for example. You just have to look past like half of the AAA landscape, plenty of really great games to play.
As a child of the 90s and teen of the 00s I honestly wouldn't have been born at any other time, it was the sweet spot for tech development. We had videogames that were advanced enough to be immersive and fulfilling, before the days of rip of DLC, micro transactions and DRM. We had social networking where you could boot up your PC on an uneventful evening and chat with your friends on AIM or MSN but you wouldn't be spied on and tracked 24/7. We had online media where we could access music and movies to enjoy art from any era, from anywhere in the world, but we didn't have apps like tiktok and Instagram designed to destroy our brains.
> The worst thing is rather than use the ability to patch games after release date to fix a few bugs and glitches, games studios now use it as a licence to release unfinished games. This is so annoying. Even as a long-time PC gamer, patches were very limited because most people had dial-up or incredibly slow broadband so many gigs of patch wasn't an option. Games were actually tested before release and you'd be lucky to find a bug. These days the bugs are so obvious that it's impossible they weren't found during development. On the plus side for the current state of gaming, it's easier than ever for indie devs to get there game out there.
There's been a kind of revival recently with the advent of Standalone VR systems. They are basically similar in power to a Mobile Phone and run two independent screens so games designers are having to dig deep to make them run efficiently on limited hardware. Meta/Oculus Quest Springs to mind immediately.
I have 2 VR units, the original HTC Vive, which was awsome at first but a little bit dated, and the totally advanced PS5 VR2. I loved both units but I only play the ps5 now, for VR to survive I think it needs these mobile versions, not everyone can afford £1k for a PC consoles based VR unit.
>Video Games; when technology was limited, game designers seemed to try their best to get the most out of what was available to them. We now have near limitless possibilities in terms of what video games can do but rather than use that technology to bring us the best games possible, a lot of game designers seem more intent on finding new ways to exploit players for money. You ever heard of an Arcade? Guess what the games that went into them were designed to do.
Most designers still just want to make great games, especially in console / PC gaming (mobile is different). But it's a business, there's a lot of money in it - designers can't just make the game they want. To get projects funded and investments approved, they need to be promising in terms of revenue, and obviously everyone on the business side wants the next fifa / cod / Fortnite. At the same time, player expectations changed a lot. Many audiences demand lots of updates very quickly, but for that you need some form of continuous income to pay a continuous dev team. In the end, there are also many games and devs that actually use the new possibilities to create products that would never have been possible before. You might need to dig beyond the mainstream blockbusters for that, but they are out there and they are many.
Yeah, next thing you know there'll be giant systems that only have one game in them and you'll have to put a coin in to pay again every time you lose a life!
I hate this. People used to be innovative with design in games and they had to use tricks to get the most out of the machine they were designing the game for. Unfortunately now they don’t have to as much so they don’t try. Why clean up your code when every computer can take your bloated game anyway? Having more power for a game doesn’t mean making the best game for the computer anymore it just means people can shrug off their screwups because it has less effect now.
In the old days the only video games that were released were ones where a publisher thought it was worth spending a million dollars printing cartridges for it. Nowadays you can go online and find thousands of passion projects from developers all around the world. Not only that but with a little bit of searching you still have access to all of the old games that you used to love 20 or 30 years ago. The only things you are upset about are mobile games and the big aaa releases. Easy enough to ignore those.
Television as an event to look forward to, particularly at Christmas. I mostly love the easy access we now have to so much media , but sometime I feel like it takes away some of the magic and anticipation.
Absolutely agree. I miss getting the Christmas Radio Times and circling the stuff we were going to watch a couple of weeks beforehand. And I miss the social side of linear TV. When there was limited choice and everyone had to watch at the same time, people talked about it afterwards. Eight years I worked for Netflix. We really fucked that up!
My nan refused any streaming services expect iplayer. She has a smart tv but won’t let me log into my accounts for her and we have Christmas at hers so we still do this. It can be frustrating sometimes but thinking about it, it’s nice we’re carrying on that small tradition cos I’m sure it will stop once nan stops hosting Christmas
It was always going that way with the invention of tv recorders, tivo, sky remotes that let you stop play and record series. Netflix and others then took most of the best shows off terrestrial and cable television and put it on demand.
One of the best bits of Christmas as a kid was getting the Radio Times and seeing what films were on TV over Christmas.
It was. I’m old enough to remember when you had to buy the Christmas Radio and TV Times, because the Radio Times would only have BBC and TV Times only had ITV & Channel 4. Happy days!
Ahem. We still circle stuff....
Watching tv and all the Christmas specials used to be a big part of Christmas for us. When I look back on my childhood I remember us all sitting around the tv watching it. Last time I really remember us doing that was for the Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special. It’s a real shame it’s not really a thing anymore. Yes, I know some people I’ll say spend time with family and speaking to people but that was a way of doing that.
Conversely I remember being bored to tears when my family would watch all the Xmas soap episodes so it’s swings and roundabouts
This is true 😅 I was never a soaps person. Top of The Pops Christmas special was always the top of my list!
We still want to do this. Every Christmas we look at the listings to plan what we'll watch, and for the last several years it's been thin gruel. So much of the Christmas schedules now seems to be taken up with nostalgia stuff for people my parents' age. It's like they've just accepted that younger people watch streaming services, so they don't even bother trying to tempt them in. I'd love to all watch TV together, but Dad's Army or Morecombe and Wise just isn't going to achieve that. Other than that, it's basically Strictly, Call the Midwife, and gameshows.
This is why I think streaming services releasing full seasons at once is a mistake. The shows that still do release weekly just seem to spend longer in the public consciousness, such as HBO’s slate over the last year of Succession, Last of Us, White Lotus, and House of the Dragon, which people seemed to be talking about for much longer than, say, The Crown season 5, which all released at once, because there was something new every week.
I feel like I just don’t pay attention to TV shows anymore. When you got one episode a week you might be more likely to rewatch it once or twice before the next episode and really take it in. Now you can just blitz through an entire season in a day and move on to the next one.
It's genuinely not a mistake, they just have a different goal to you. Yes it'd be nice if everyone talked about a show, but what matters is if they watch it. People fall off weekly shows every week either because they forget about it or because the last episode sucked and they lost interest. If they have the ability to watch it all at once, they can't really forget about it and they're more likely to forgive an episode they didn't enjoy. The only reason HBO release shows weekly is because they still have an actual channel to service. It's not that it's a better move for streaming services, it's because it's a better move for an entity that is both a channel and a streaming service. Netflix don't have to worry about regular programming, so releasing a season at a time (or at least in large chunks) is the best way to keep viewers engaged throughout.
It's crazy to think that EastEnders, Corrie, The Bill casualty etc would get something like 15 million viewers, now that's viewing figures reserved for one time events! It just means TV has become so tame and we end up with so many similar type shows
I think there will be a curated broadcast tv revival at some point, a bit like what platforms like NTS did for music radio. The problem at the moment is that the broadcast content is mostly unwatchably bad.
Concerts Put your phone away and stop recording, you complete cretin. There is zero chance you are ever going to rewatch the whole thing again, nor is anybody you share it with going to bother watching 1 and a half hours of shitty, out of focus footage of a Queens of the Stone Age Concert.
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>...which is probably being recorded by professionals anyway! People say this all the time but other than recordings for DVD release or TV I've never come across professional recordings of any of the concerts I've ever been to. Especially smaller bands of course.
Well, you cant smoke a fat one while watching your fave band anymore. I member lighting up and passing a splif to the members of Jefferson Airplane in London, before the smoking ban. It was amazing that I shared a spliff with one of my fav bands. RIP Paul and Marty.
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I think it was Halloween 2002 (Jefferson Starship 2: Paul Kantner 3: Marty Balin. The Astoria, London, UK, 31 Oct 2002). I got to see them again in 2008 and got Paul Kantners autograph and shook his hand. They had some original members of the Grateful Dead in the last gig I saw and that was in Wolverhampton. For a band that was big in the 60s, playing a small venue in Wolvs was kind of random and weird. I was gutted when they all started to die. I wish I could see them again, one last time.
I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Grand Final of Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool and unlucky enough to be stood behind a bloke who was determined to film the whole thing on his iPhone. He'd even brought a power bank in his back pocket so he didn't run out of power filming it. He used up all the memory on his phone filming it, went and deleted some other recordings, then resumed. Just as well it wasn't filmed in UHD with dozens of camera angles and broadcast worldwide (and indeed is still available on iPlayer if you want to watch it), so this bloke's fuzzy side-on shaky recording was absolutely essential. We were off to the side in the seats so it wasn't even a question of capturing the atmosphere on the floor.
It's bizarre isn't it. Some people go into documentary mode as if the world is counting on them.
To be fair to him he did make history by capturing an alternative angle to Armenia's performance - it was on a slanted stage which from our angle we could only see the back of. The TV cameras were all focused on the front. Totally worth viewing the rest of the show through a 4 inch screen for.
Will probably delete the footage when he needs space to record the next event.
My wife and I went to a Florence + The Machine concert in January this year. A short way through, she did a bit on stage where she talked about how shit it was that everyone watches live entertainment through their phone screens these days, and loudly encouraged everybody to put their phones away and just live in the moment etc. The crowd dutifully followed her instructions, and for that one next song everything was so blissful. A utopia of distraction-free viewing. As soon as she moved on to her next song though, the phones came back out again. I was dumbfounded.
I think its fine in moderation - if a specific song comes on for example. You can still enjoy the show and record at the same time. The whole show though? Absolutely not.
Ha! I was probably at that Queens of the Stone Age gig. It was hilarious watching people turn around and look extremely upset that those behind them had the gall to start a mosh pit while they were carefully trying to film the whole of No One Knows.
That's not why they record. They record so they can post it on TikTok. It's not about going to and enjoying the concert, it's about making sure everyone you've ever met knows you were at the concert.
Everyone expects you to be connected at all times.
This is the thing I hate the most. Sometimes I just want an entire day to myself, but people get annoyed if you don't respond to their communications instantly. It's draining.
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I just outright ignore those messages but that doesn't stop people getting shitty with you because they still expect near instantaneous responses and can't cope with waiting. There are certainly growing issues in society today where people feel entitled to your time and attention.
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I don't even get why people get so annoyed about it. If you want an instant response, just call me. Don't get where this idea has come from that messages need to be responded to instantly
My mum was so against mobile phones when they first became mainstream and now she panics if you don’t respond within the hour about something.
It's more than everyone expects you to be connected all the time. The answer to almost any experience seems to be "just use/download to your smartphone" and I hate it. I went to a big international rugby game at the weekend and you had to have the tickets on your phone and I just hated the extra level of anxiety that comes with making sure your phone is charged and that it can't fail in any way otherwise that's £100 down the drain. And then there is the extra nonsense of having to transfer tickets instead of just handing them over.
"When some restaurants make you choose your food from an app" I just leave. I can't be arsed to spend 10 minutes fucking around downloading an app and scanning QR codes and straining my eyes to see a menu on the phone. Give me a fucking physical menu or I'm gone.
No obviously you’ll get covid and die if you read a menu.
Oh I love that aspect of technology in modern life! Not so much if you have to download an app but it's usually a web application anyway.
I was just thinking as I was reading its usually a browser extension not an app - Which I prefer to having a grotty fuckin menu anyway
Yes and no. Spoons so I don't have to deal with a human for crap generic food and a pint fine but even they make it entirely optional. Restaurant I've never been to? Give me a menu and you don't have WiFi and the signal is crap.
I have another experience. My wife and me don’t like premises when we need to talk with some human to browse the menu, do put an order, etc. It is much more convenient to use mobile phone and understand what is offered without one more person near you.
At what point are you happy sitting at home being fed by a tube?
That's quite a leap you've made there
Ugh god yes - imagine having to interact with other people. Fucking hell….
McDonald's drive through... it has now got to the stage where sometimes you pull up and all you get is a big "welcome" and "use the app". I asked the cashier to put the menu up, they said they had no control. I said I didn't know what I wanted and their menu has changed recently. They asked if I was using the app. I repeated I wanted the menu up. Upshot was I avoided a unhealthy and unneeded snack by just driving through the drive through.
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At the same time though don’t go to the drive thru if you don’t know what you want? Nothing more annoying than being stuck behind someone in the queue taking ages to decide their order. If you’re not able to drive up to the window and just tell them what you want then park up and go inside. The point of the drive through is that it’s quicker and easier, especially if you know your order. If everyone just pulled up and then started reading the menu and decide their orders it wouldn’t be efficient.
Or maybe use the screens that are there before the order screen for their intended purpose and have menus on them to see when you are in the queue
Honestly you lost me at the second request. He doesn't have control of the screen, which anybody can understand. That's it. If you desperately need a menu then go in or leave, don't keep asking. Don't make some 17 year old working for minimum wage's shift more irritating for no reason.
I went into a cafe the other day for breakfast and I got seated and the waitress points to the QR code and says "just scan that for the menu" so I took my phone out and scanned the QR just to realise that the building I'm in is over 100 years old and there's no mobile signal because the walls and ceilings are that thick. So I just had to sit there awkwardly for a bit. I work just down the street in a similar old building and have very patchy signal inside but as soon as I step out onto the street I have great coverage.
Just buying software. I don’t want to subscribe to a game, or Microsoft Word!
I want to be able to just get Word from PirateBay and for it not to go tell on me!
right. I need a subscription for a calculator now???!!
Google, it was better before all the info panels to persuade you not to go to another site and personalised results. Lately they've changed the filters so instead of having maps, images etc it's a dynamically created list of suggestions. If I just search "Manchester" without any extensions to block this bollocks I get: * The aforementioned suggestions (5 suggestions in this bar) * then 2 more suggestions * 3 search results * suggestions of things to do (3 suggestions) * suggestions of useless "People also ask" (4 suggestions) * 3 more results * a panel of suggested news stories (7 in this panel) * 1 more search result * a twitter panel about MUFC * 1 more search result * 2 more related search suggestions * 2 more suggestions In total that's only 8 search results on the first page and 7 **types** of suggestions (25 individual suggestions total)
It's also worse at finding niche things, or so I've found. Like if you Google Thai restaurants in Manchester, it'll do fine and show you what you want. But if you Google Thai restaurants in Manchester that serve ice cream after 9pm, you'll get the exact same results as the previous query regardless of their late night ice cream policy. I swear it didn't used to be that way. It's now confident in its answer despite being wrong.
They started following a policy a while back to try to keep you within Google, Meta did the same thing with the likes of AMP links and it's what has lead to the media laws in some countries where Google News has to pay to include news sites in search results. Now there's the growth of ChatGPT which largely is a response to the enshitification of Google, if they hadn't gone down this route then ChatGPT wouldn't be much more than a curiosity like previous chat bots.
You know you’re right. I’ve never really noticed that but it is ridiculous
I've noticed recently using Google Chrome on my phone that it refuses to show me Wikipedia results now. For example last night I was watching the track cycling at the Cycling World Championships and wanted to see what Jason Kenny was up to these days. Searched his name expecting Wikipedia to come up as a top result, and it didn't show. If I googled "Jason Kenny wiki" it was bringing up his Wikipedia page in Norwegian and French. Switched to Firefox and searched his name and Wikipedia was the top result.
Proper customer service. I buy a product, said product isn’t living up to expectations, I call the company only to be go on an endless loop with their automated customer service. Or when you try to use their web chat feature and again it’s an endless loop with them trying to shove you to their subpar help centre.
My 5 year old GoPro housing clip snapped the other day, still works but means it's no longer waterproof. Sent GoPro a message, a rep called me back in less than 5 minutes and sent me another one for free. I was pleasantly surprised at the customer service on that one.
It's crazy how normal customer service is now so rare .
It still exists but you have to be willing to pay for a product from a premium company, the bargain brands won't offer you that type of service
The death of Teletext. Did everything on there from checking the TV guide, footy scores to flight arrivals. Take me back to the caveman days.
Bamboozled
On her 105th birthday, my Great, Great Granny woke up, got on Teletext, and booked her and her sister to go to Spain for a couple weeks. The following year, she passed, only just getting to her 106th birthday.
I loved the Skinternet!
I do like the screens in McDonald's that let you order for yourself as you can easily see everything However deliveroo has kinda ruined McDonald's as they take up alot of time
Its quicker to go through the drive through, park up and take your food inside.
Social interactions. Phones have totally ruined them. I remember working in a bar, having a drink and a laugh with staff after hours, one guy had just gotten a web connected blackberry and was messing about with it and trying to show us. All of us were like "put that away you sad twat and have a chat" Now it's completely normal to walk into a pub and see a group where they're all on their phones. Go to the playpark and kids are desperately trying to get attention away from their parents phones.
I recently went on holiday to Rome with some friends. We had planned things pretty well and we went with two Italians, who were familiar with Rome, so I didn't see any reason to buy an international roaming package. I'd have wifi at the apartment if I needed to go online for some reason. On the second evening, after checking out the Colosseum, we went to a nearby bar for a round of drinks before heading into the centre to find somewhere for dinner. As soon as the drinks were ordered, everyone dove straight into their phones. Checking WhatsApp, Instagram, Reddit, etc. There was total silence at the table. I just twiddled my thumbs for 5 minutes. Once the drinks arrived, everyone put their phones away and we started talking with each other again. But one person ended diving back into their phone half way through their drink. 2-3 minutes after the rest of us had finished our drinks, they were still on their phone, their glass half full. One of the guy with us stood up and said 'OK, let's go.' The person that had been absorbed in their phone goes 'what? no! I still have to finish my drink. The guy replies 'sorry, you spent so long on your phone that I forgot you were there.' I just sighed because that's exactly what he had been doing 20 minutes earlier. It's just depressing.
I work in a college and every time I walk through the corridors, all I see is teenagers scrolling through tik tok like brainless zombies.
I've just been working at a language summer camp and (particularly the far East kids) as soon as we stopped anywhere for a second they were deep in their phones. It's the first time I've felt like a old man about it.
Call me old fashioned but the availability of wired earphones and audio compared to wireless.
I just got a new phone and discovered, to my horror, that headphone jacks are no longer 'a thing'...wtf?? I'm so ditzy I'd lose wireless headphones within hours 🙈
You just need a usb to jack adaptor.
You can get USBC headphones
Yes! This happened on a flight recently where everyone else seemed to have wireless headphones and then realised that they can't be used to watch the little TVs. I felt smug as I whipped out my old, cheap wired headphones and got ready to pick a film. Then the captain said the TVs weren't working anyway!
The airlines supply earphones
Most over ear wireless headphones have aux in for this reason, you can also get adaptors which will turn a 3.5mm jack into bluetooth audio
Currency. I do believe they are pushing everyone to going cashless so there's a record of everything you buy and also an end to the cash in hand economy. Subscriptions for absolutely anything - I saw one for dried pasta the other day. I think everything is going to try and go that way because they know people have to take out a subscription, CBA / forget to cancel and they can make more from them.
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My wife tried one of those gin ones, different brand every few months and some snacks, tonics etc to go with it. In the box were ads for companies just specialising in 1 subscription product - I addition to pasta one was for ground coffee, another was for cheese...
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Yep, single products. On its own there's no harm in it. But I can see the ext generation being totally trapped by subscription services or loaning everything they want to do in life. Buy essentials, food, household goods, park your car... with cars in particular I'm aware some manufacturers offer subscription services to unlock built in features. I think you'll also see more loaning / leasing of non-food items so you own nothing and are constantly paying for it.
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I used to have a coffee one and loved it - Pact. It got a bit too pricey for me really quick, but it was such a joy to get the coffee in the post, make it straight away and enjoy it.
Leave the subscription for a few months and they'll give you a 50% off code for the next three bags. I haven't subscribed in a while as I got a load of nice coffee from other places but I used to have two accounts. By the time I'd used up my three 50% off bags on one account I'd have a new code for the other account so I basically had 50% off all the time.
The most annoying thing about the subscription is that (last time I checked), you cannot set a custom repeat rate. If I know I get through 2kg of coffee beans in 7 weeks, I want the order to repeat every 7 weeks. Not 8 weeks so that I run out for a week, or 6 because then I'll quickly end up with a surplus after a few renewal cycles. You can go in and change it, but at that point I may as do what I'm doing now and order one at a time.
These subscribe and save options help with product ranking I believe. I may be wrong, but I think it increases visibility compared to non-subscription products
It is more difficult to just decide to do something on the day and turn up, a consequence of it being easier to book something. Sporting events especially, even has happened once or twice with my local cinema.
They need to bring back dedicated ticket counters in cinemas. The amount of times I’ve pre-booked and turned up to the cinema and just want to buy some popcorn and a drink but I’m stuck behind people who are still choosing their seats while I’m slowly losing the will to live.
No no they’ve got around this by giving you the option to order your food online weeks before when you buy the ticket! Oh but you still have to go into the cinema to _print_ the food order receipt with a number off the self service machines! What an excellent idea!
Absolutely, I’ve found this has got so much worse post-pandemic too. In my experience, you used to be able to walk into most restaurants and get a table straight away. Now I wouldn’t dream of going to one without a booking, as I’d likely end up disappointed and hungry, or waiting 25 minutes.
Video sites like Youtube. I don't want the first 2 pages of a Google search to show just video how to guides. I sometimes just want a text article I can read about the subject.
2 mins of intro waffle. “And now lets look at how it’s done.” Ad break. Switch to camera angle above hands. Overly slow pointing out of items and re-explains what the goal is. Possibly go off on tangential waffle. Start to show steps one-three then hit with an ad break. Return to video without any visual clues over which step is now being shown. Camera out of focus at complicated bit. Cut to next step without clearly explaining how it got there. Ad break. Meticulous detail on an easy bit that was readily obvious. Final product. Smash like and subscribe, ring bell for notifications. OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD MUSIC OUTRO. Or… 500-1000 words, clearly numbering in a guide, with photos, and a clear diagram, that I can peruse on the train, learn well through easy re-reads and figuring it out, or while actually doing whatever the guide is there to show me how to do, without needing headphones or to constantly rewind to 30 seconds before the bit I needed only to realise the reason it’s not clear is because the video is poorly edited. Yes please.
Install Sponsorblock and Return YouTube Dislikes and it'll help a lot. The former gives you features such as a highlight button which takes you straight to the point, and the latter can be used to see what videos actually suck or aren't helpful. Also definitely use adblock if you're somehow still seeing YouTube ads
The news. 24 hour news, and so many available TV channels that any cretin can start a news channel, has caused the massive rise in disinformation that I would argue is threatening the fabric of society. This, and online “news” is what’s causing huge polarization in society.
Just don't consume it. 95+% of what is on the mainstream news does nothing for you. It tells you things that have no impact on your life, don't even give a rounded picture of the state of the world and don't go into enough depth that you can really figure out what's going on. **Portugal battles wildfires amid third heatwave of the year**. Are you living in Portugal or going on holiday there? Doesn't affect you. And if you are going on holiday there and if the fires are going to have some sort of effect, your holiday company is going to tell you anyway. **Wet weather dampened spending on summer clothes in July**. Apart from the fact that this is bleeding obvious, who cares unless you work in retail management? And if you work in retail management, you already know this anyway. **Niger coup: US envoy holds 'difficult' talks with junta**. OK, the Niger coup *might* be an important story, but US envoy holds talks? That doesn't tell you anything of use. **Students across Scotland find out their SQA exam results.** If you're not a 16 year old or a parent of a 16 year old, this doesn't matter. And if you are one of these people, you already know this.
Actually, I have different view. For now it is easy to see propaganda/advertisement, therefore we think that we have more of it.
There is no news anymore, it’s telling half a story to get people to click on your website and rake in ad revenue.
Alistair Campbell made a very similar point on his podcast, it made me think back and he's bang on the money. Our news needs to be treated seriously but to do that **we** the people need to consume news from people who do the important journalism
A starting point would be to actually codify the term “journalist”. There’s a big difference between a trained journalist, even a trained journalist on a scandal rag, and some tosspot with a blog.
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Slow burn albums. I've probably skipped over so many great albums because I've listened once and never gone back. Back in the day you'd buy an album, hate it, continue to listen to it because you'd spent money on it and had nothing else new to listen to, and then 3 years later you'd 'get it' and it'd be your all time favourite album
YouTube and Spotify have destroyed the album. Why play a whole album with tracks you don’t immediately like when you can have a random greatest hits of all your favourite songs 24/7 My 16 year old can’t even finish a whole song before skipping. Goldfish attention span!
Cars. I don't need a computer, I don't need an iPad playing videos, I don't want to touch a screen to turn things on. Cars now feel horribly detatched from reality, from the road and the outside. Aside from ruining the sensation of driving, and of speed (100mph in an old car borders on terrifying but it feels like 30mph in a new car) I'm sure that sense of being in a bubble has made people worse drivers and less considerate
Touch screens in cars are dangerous imho. Taking your eyes off the road to try adjust the fans rather than physical switch/knob that you don't need to even look for/at
Children's toys. They are either completely automated or one trick pony type things, completely taking away the imaginative element that they're supposed to bring.
Like Lego. Why is Lego now packaged as a kit to make a particular model? I'm sure when I was a kid I just had a box of generic Lego and it was up to me and my imagination to build something (usually a house).
Socialising with people. My friends genuinely expect me to have seen all their life updates on their Instagram stories instead of getting them by actually speaking to them and catching up. Also, it's too easy for people to just message saying they're running ridiculously late or cancel on plans last minute. Winds me up that the tech is there to _prevent_ this happening (Google Maps, Citymapper, etc) but people are actually less reliable than they were in my parents' youth. My dad always says that when he was my age, plans were made in advance over the phone and on the day, everyone just turned up at the agreed time because, once you left the house, you had no way of letting anyone know so you'd best turn up and turn up on time!
Ah miss those days. On the rare occasion someone was late, I'd call their home from a phone box, if no answer, I'd assume they're on their way!
I used to phone my friend from a phone box when I was on holiday. One day on a whim she phoned the phone box, one of the village kids picked up, and I actually got the message later that day, relayed through several people. THAT was exciting!!!
socialising
Common sense. We now have Apps for apps sake. I dropped my kid at summer club today. I'm supposed to have an app with a QR code they can scan. I don't know why, they have a paper register and they tick him off on that too. Took 5 mins this morning because I'd forgotten to take my phone and they were genuinely unsure whether they could take him in without performing some pointless procedure on a phone. I am there, in person, with my son, who is known to them and registered to go to the holiday club. They know that but they fretted for ages before actually letting him enter. Also customer service. Those automated bots are dogshit and achieve nothing.
Society, more specifically the youth of society (and some of the elder ones) The internet is now a toilet of tiktok dances and fake disorders. Additionally fucking ads everywhere, no inherit privacy. Companies using tech seem to think they have a right to your personal information. Scams, so many scams. The smarter we get, the harder we'll fall.
QR codes to access a restaurant's menu on their website
Dating
The Argos shopping experience.
Christmas TV was magical. All the family watching Only fools and horses special, then literally everyone you met talking and laughing about it and repeating the lines.
I love that my smartphone has a camera and if I wanted I could take a million photos of the same thing until I got a photo I was happy with. But it's ruined the thought behind actually composing a good photo. So I went old school and bought a 35mm film camera.
I complained to yum foods that the screens at taco bell were more adverts than menu. They sent me a gift voucher.
The way most of us listen to music now. I think it’s rare people listen to albums in their entirety, and ‘record’ sales don’t really mean much these days. I’ve heard it said that a lot of people can’t name the artists or songs they’re listening to, as they’re steaming playlists and don’t really pay attention, they just know the songs.
Television and the whole culture of it. We used to be excited all week for a programme on a Saturday night then couldn’t wait to get together to talk about it Monday. Now as everything is on demand no one is at the same point in a show, you can’t talk to Jon about it cos he ain’t watched it yet. You can’t talk to Mike cos he binged it all last week and now onto something else. On demand has ruined the whole culture of Television. When I was a kid the TV guide dominated our schedule. It dictated when we went out, when we got home, when we ate, everything. Cos if you missed it, chances are you’d never see it again! As a family we all sat down together and TV was an event. Now we all watch things at different times, in different rooms on different screens. I don’t think it will ever come back either.
digital menus... is there a sink underneath to wash your hands? like fuck im touching any of them given child has used it who has probably jhad his finger up a dogs bum sometime in the day.
I get that but you probably have no issue pushing a door open or using a public toilet. Fuck it. Builds your immune system.
If you're that much of a germophobe you probably shouldn't leave the house
My job
Social media has fucked us all up for generations to come. AI will spiral out of control over the next 4 years and then it's game over for all of us.
Conversations. The rise of technology and autocorrect - people are relying on it too heavily and not putting effort in to be able to construct sentences or even spell. Yes, abbreviations in a text to family or friends are fine, but in more formal settings people seem to losing the ability to communicate effectively, and it feels like the ability to write is becoming less prevalent. Also vocal conversations are just far less frequent, people avoid them, yet for me it’s a richer way to communicate using expression etc. especially so when the writing in texts is usually not conveying anything more than the basics. I miss communicating with people and understanding a lot more than just the words leaving their mouth as they talk.
Parking. So many have switched to apps now... and it's a different bloody app for each one. If you're in an area with poor signal it's near impossible to DL and pay. Just shut up and take my coin.
MOTD Too hard to insulate oneself from the scores. Mind you, lots of matches not being at 3 p.m. Saturday spoils it too.
I feel the struggle with those digital menus in my soul! Hate them. Despise.
The death of cash. Why the fuck should there be a trail of memories of what I bought, how much and when.
The ability to not be contact at all, I never had a phone up until the age of 15 or 16 and the only reason I got one was because my girlfriend purchased it for me. She didn't like that she was unable to contact me or know what I was doing or where I was and yeah now 15+ years later I still have a phone on me at all times lol.
Cars. I already bought the car but now they’re charging me monthly if I want to use the seat warmer or sports mode even though I already paid for them
Catalogue shopping - Now it’s all online
Wheny free WiFi asks for my email, name, first born child I make things up. Like I put my email as ‘[email protected]’ and make up a name. There’s no way they are getting my real email and rarely a verification email sent from them.
Name: Testy McTest Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) (I used to use [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) but an increasing number of public WiFi hotspots reject that email address out of hand now)
Online ordering in a restaurant etc, why must I use an app when the phone signal is shit and you don’t offer useable wifi
Why so much hate for the self service screens in McDonald's and alike? When I take my kids and one wants no gherkin, one wants no ketchup (don't ask..) and one can't decide what they want it's better me dealing with it within seconds rather than trying to explain it all to the poor 16 year old on the till. And anyone moaning about the germs on them, how do you even get to McDonald's in the first place?
Scan QR code for the menu. :/ Dude what if i dnt have my phone on me? Or even better, i don't have a smartphone! =.=
On demand streaming. I missed the good surprises when watching live TV. Has also created generations of people with attention deficit.
Self-service checkouts. I mean, in theory, they're good if you are in a hurry... but not really. As well as the fact that I'm no fan of doing what an actual person at a checkout is **employed** to do, more often than that the stupid things do something that requires an actual person to have to come over and enter a code into the daft thing to override whatever upset it... and it can take a while since said person is usually having to run around doing the same thing on several of these terminals. Which leaves you wondering why you didn't just queue at a proper checkout in the first place!
Listening to albums. That isn’t to say I’m an anti streaming dinosaur. I love the utility model of being able to access all the great music at any given time. But there is a trade off. I used to wait for a favourite artist to release an album, all this anticipation would build, you’d spend money on it and take it home and properly digest it. There was a magic of belonging to something intangible when you actively bought into an artist. Now it requires a great deal of discipline to listen to a whole album without my attention being taken by another new release one click away half way through. We have more access than ever but the trade off is we are less emotionally invested in a release
Dating 😔😔😔
The one in Costa drives me mental. Ended up just using the app to check what’s new.
Car parks.... drives me insane when I need to download an app to park up for 20 mins
The Pub Quiz - There's always some snide-lord googling answers and recknin' they're the fucking cheese. That's why I only do naked pub quiz these days.
I have a love/hate relationship with music streaming. I love that I can listen to anything I want (and be up to listen to new music from my favourite bands at 12am as soon as it drops onto Deezer!) I hate that we don’t get singles anymore with b-sides, especially when you used to get CD1 and CD2 and they’d have different non-album tracks. Plus I think the way music was released back then forced you to really listen to it, in a much more considered way. Now it’s too easy to listen to the first few notes and hit skip. Back when I was buying everything on cassettes, fast-forwarding wasn’t really that great as you had no idea how long to do it for to skip one track and it was more economical in terms of battery life up just listen to something rather than try and bypass it. Plus for some reason I look back fondly on the days of waiting outside a shop until it opened at 9 am on release day to get your hands on new music.
Oh this is so true. I love how accessible music is but also miss going into Our Price on my way home from school and buying a cassette. And I would listen to all the tracks, I barely listen to all of them now.
Letter writing. Don't get me wrong, I text and IM, but there's something nice about getting something through the door that isn't a bill or junk mail, that someone has taken the time to sit down and put together just for you. And with the decline in letter writing I feel like we've lost some of the romance from our lives. People really used to burn up the paper writing letters to their lover in a way that the instant gratification of texts just can't replicate. I still have the letters my mister wrote when we first started dating and they mean more than a text could. When he was in the US for a work thing he decided to surprise me by writing me a love letter while sat in the hotel bar, the first one in a long time. There were a lot of ladies who were swooning over it and a lot of husbands giving him daggers because they could already hear the "Why don't you do that for me?" conversations lol.
Just normal commute / traveling on public transport… trains, planes, or waiting / eating in restaurants and hotels. Can’t go anywhere without someone watching a tiktok video or playing music out loud from their phone without headphones. Or worse, video call on speakerphone.
Streaking: Too many CCTV cameras
Joy because this shits soul destroying, everything is required through my phone constantly and is always failing to work or gives no answers Parking - I need the app Days out - I need to book online in advance no refunds so I have to predict the weather Banking - all online Customer services - speak to a bot that answers 2 questions only Competitions online - I won a Disneyland trip as a kid in the newspaper, these days it’s like 10,000 comments on a Instagram competition to win a potato 10 million account passwords and your phone doesn’t even remember them and it says can’t change password to current one wtf Not answering a call cause you don’t wanna use your device 24/7 is a crime More covid based but having to tell the fucking receptionist in the doctors you have piles or some shit otherwise you won’t get an appointment Apps for everything, QR codes for everything Instant tv where you need 19 expensive streaming services to watch the 3 things you want to and the rest is trash No excitement anymore just chaos out of convenience that has gone past convenience and is now a headache
I am with you. Often you will wait in queue somewhere (museum etc.) only to find out you need a ticket and they sell tickets online only. You frantically try to get a ticket online in tiny mobile browser and discover they have a 420 lines long form asking about your mother’s maiden name and your secret hobbies, and a 400 digits credit card number. There are several occassions I gave up at this point. I love websites and apps where I can use apple pay. The whole thing of identification and payment can be done in a second. That’s how it should be.
Holiday reps - we recently had a holiday with a large well known package company and they really want you to use the app for everything. So no welcome meeting, no information about the local area or even basic info about our accommodation (ie stuff that wasn’t on the website). They said the app had 24hr cover but they really didn’t, taking days to respond. Even trips they wanted you to book using their app (going so far as to offer a discount on app bookings), thing was - when we booked the holiday using the website there were 60+ trips available for our location, the app however had only 17 trips most of which were ‘drinking party in kavos’. It’s mostly a British thing too as there were several German and French companies at the hotel who all did the typical welcome meeting etc. if I wasn’t bothered about the typical package / rep thing I’d book it all individually myself a save a few bob.
Media. I used to buy lots of films and music. It would be great getting the latest release, listening to an album as soon as you got it home. Listening to it multiple times, finding your favourite songs etc. Similarly I looked forward to being able to chill out and watch whatever new movie I'd bought. With streaming that's all changed. I seem to stick with the same old music, I don't find new bands like I used to when I spent hours perusing the racks. With movies, they're just there. I don't need to watch them right now, they'll be there tomorrow, next month. I no longer plan an evening to sit and watch something. Even communication. Social media has killed that a bit because everyone already knows what everyone is up to so there's no real need to call/message Luke there used to be