Is technology bad now or am I just a grumpy old man?

I’ve been obsessed with technology and gadgets for almost all of the 37 years I’ve been alive. While I now spend my days meticulously testing the latest products such as Pixel 10 Pro Or electric driving Cars in the ArcticTechnology of all kinds has always dominated my existence. When I was a kid, I used to get excited Casio watches With built-in calculators. I was never outside of my family first Archimedes’ acorn My home computer, and I’ll use tape-based dictation machines to record the occasional “radio show.” my brotherlong before podcasting was created — and may have been a precursor to Both of them are his And I host technology podcasts as adults. I grew up with technology, and this passion is what drove me 14 years as a technical writer at CNET.

But in recent years, I’ve noticed that things have changed for me. Technology has gone from being a real point of excitement in my life to a real frustration for me Less excited when new innovations come along. So I kept wondering: Has technology changed or changed?

It’s not that I don’t like technology anymore. I’m sure I do. Many of these tools designed to make our lives easier and more enjoyable actually don’t work as well as they should. Take gaming consoles, for example. for me Xbox Series Great fun when it works. But more often than not, when I found myself in the mood to do some button pressing and playing, I was faced with a long wait while huge updates were downloaded for both the console and then whatever game I wanted to play.

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By the time I’ve had coffee and looked out the window while updates are installing, I usually lose the desire to play and end up doing something else. Ditto PS5. Then there are many games that launch fundamentally broken, with massive day one patches needed to make them barely passable. I’m looking at you, Cyberpunk 2077. You know what doesn’t require massive updates and patches? My doodling group.

Then there are the different Bluetooth headphones I use – AirPods Pro 2, Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro, OnePlus Buds Pro – Which works well most From time to time, every now and then for no apparent reason, one earbud will decide not to connect and I have to stop what I’m doing and re-pair the whole set. Even worse are cases where the sound is slightly out of sync, meaning the sound in my left ear might be a fraction of a second ahead of the sound in my right. Headache causing.

Sound has been a big issue for me lately. Mostly I like the first generation Apple HomePod. The sound quality is great and AirPlay works well when it wants to. But he often doesn’t want to and decides to disconnect in the middle of the song. And when I try to reconnect via Spotify, I can’t even see my HomePod as an option anymore. Troubleshooting often seems more like fortune telling than actual technical support and it seems not possible to always guarantee a stable connection.

I have had many similar experiences with Bluetooth speakers From other brands as well. And don’t even get me started on the fragility of in-car Bluetooth connections, which often seem to completely forget your existence every time you turn off your car.

A few years ago my brother gave it to me Vinyl record player. Then I promptly bought myself a whole collection of records from some of my favorite bands, including Periphery, Incubus and Tesseract as well as a few selected classics from Green Day and Linkin Park. I honestly found the whole experience to be a revelation.

I’m not going to talk about the “warmth” or “character” of vinyl sound quality because frankly I’m not bothered as long as it’s “good enough”. But what’s refreshing is to actually record a recording and play it, without having to establish wireless connections or inexplicably disconnect in the middle of a song. I drop the record on the turntable, move the needle and it plays. I don’t even have a proper speaker setup, just an aux cable connected to an old TV speaker I have installed nearby. But it still works as it’s supposed to.

I’ve also found that I love listening to entire albums again, rather than just adding a few songs to a playlist or randomly playing all my “favorites” on SpotifyOr simply replay Spotify Wrapped’s “Top Songs of 2025” over and over again. Going out to record stores to find specific artists I want is a much more satisfying process than simply searching the endless abyss of Spotify’s catalog. I might also enjoy returning to DVDs instead of endlessly scrolling through Netflix and failing to decide what to watch before turning it on. Loop from task manager Because I couldn’t come to a decision. Probably not though.

It is worth noting that I am 37 years old. There’s a certain cliche about people in their 30s suddenly starting to use vinyl. I’m a professional photographer, and yes, I also dabble in film photography, and I enjoy the more minimalist approach that the high-tech Canon R5 lacks. That said, me too I fell in love with the expensive Hasselblad And it’s over Buy a Leica for $8,000 So maybe the technophile in me hasn’t left yet.

To be fair, I’ve always felt a little older than my years. I prefer bubble baths to nightclubs, have been making scented candles at home since my mid-20s, and have always been able to identify the most comfortable chair in any given room.

So am I? Have you just reached this age? Or is technology actually more annoying? Communications that are interrupted; Constant updates and patches that need to be downloaded; Software errors found on phones that cause reboots; Applications that crash; Games were released half-finished which turned us into unpaid beta testers to help make their product less terrible. What happened to technology that just works? To provide easier and more efficient ways of doing things rather than making life more complicated? Is just doing what it’s supposed to and providing the seamless experience we paid good money for?

Am I wrong to get frustrated when things don’t go well? I love technology and everything it adds to our lives. I love games. I love FaceTime calls with my family. I don’t want to go back to a “simpler time” when “instant messaging” was done by mail or when the last AAA game was a ball in a cup. I just want things to work right and not feel like I’m actively fighting against technology that’s supposed to help me.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my comfy chair with my hot cocoa and my blanket.