usagibryan wrote:
I mean, I could probably rant about this all day, but my grievances aren't with appliances, rather apps and software these days. It seems companies are constantly dumbing down their software and removing functionality. Apps on phones never have as much functionality as their desktop versions even though most people use their phone instead of a PC these days. What pisses me off even more is I can't find too many people complaining about this (I guess most people didn't use these extra features) and that's how they get away with it.
Windows is making it harder and harder to get to the original control panel settings which are superior IMO to the way settings are now. Trying to search my own PC it tries to search Bing... WHY would I want to search the internet from the task bar? I'd open a browser for that. The other day there was no internet so I figured I'd play Solitaire, but no native games on Windows anymore. It seems EVERYTHING requires internet, even games I've already paid for and downloaded on my phone, you can't play without internet.
Google search used to be much more versatile, you could use operators like minus "-" to remove terms or quotation marks "" to get exact phrases, not it just completely ignores these things. YouTube used to let you open all comments on one page (sometimes I like to CTRL + F to find a specific comment, name of the song in the video, etc) but now it's just "click to see more comments", "more comments" etc. Good like finding a specific comment when there are thousands.
Same with Facebook. It also seems like everything is designed these days to put you in a bubble. Whenever I can I try to disable cookies, NOT sign in, etc. Because the more websites and apps know about you the more they make your experience designed for you, which sounds nice but it actually makes it harder to find new content. Facebook is creepy as hell btw I think it's listening to what you say, I could have a conversation about the most obscure thing and next thing I know Facebook is showing an ad for it.
WHY am I still getting ads if I'm paying for a subscription? Why are movies constantly disappearing from streaming services? Some aren't available anywhere. I've started building a DVD collection again, it feels archaic but it's kind of nice to have your own physical collection that you know you physically own and won't disappear. Same with games, I prefer buying physical copies of games these days to save on space on my consoles.
Then you have planned obsolescence and right to repair, phone manufacturers removing the SD card slot, the headphone jack, not shipping with a charging block. Printers not shipping with a USB cable and trying to force you to sign up for something to just install the driver, etc. Being forced to use your phone to set something up on your computer (makes zero sense).
I'm starting to feel like an old man ranting about this stuff. I thought the future was supposed to be better, lol.
This is simply, because previously the customer was the physical user.
Now the customer is company paying for it, and you get stuff for "free" as if.
Meaning you are the target not the customer.
Algorithms are the same.
The algorithms and facebook, google etc. no longer work for us. They work for companies that pay big money to get our money.
The real customer who has the final say is the company. We are users who have bank accounts and companies love our money so much they make our user experience sometimes living hell.
This is true of almost everything on internet including microsoft.