Image by: barmala
Modern life is annoying. There is no escaping it.
It is probably true that modern life is really actually not that much more annoying than any other point in human history, it is just that there are more things to potentially annoy us these days.
We can see this is in a number of ways:
- A key part of getting annoyed comes down to patience. In today’s society, everything is supposed to happen as quick as possible, meaning an increased amount of annoyance when things don’t work that fast
- Related to this is the fact of the increasing amount of technology we use. Things we used to do ourselves are now done by technology and this means we are constantly at the mercy of temperamental machines that don’t care about us or our feelings
- Another key part of being annoyed is the feeling that some person or group is not acting in a way that benefits the smooth survival of the rest of the tribe. Modern economics is built around the self interested decisions of individuals in the market place, which leads to the loss of the ‘tribe’ mentality as people begin to become annoyed by any action that is viewed as not being beneficial to themselves
Some examples, slightly trivial but relevant nonetheless, of this new kind of modern annoyance are listed below.
Beeps and Buzzes
The proliferation of technology in our lives means that we are constantly confronted with a whole host of machine noises to try and identify.
You can be lying in bed and hear a beep. Was it your phone? It didn’t sound like it. Was it your computer, your laptop, your burglar alarm, your TV or microwave?
Even if you manage to figure out that the noise is coming from your computer, is the noise related to email, power shortage, virus protection software, catastrophic hardware meltdown or your internet browser?
Spam
Does anyone ever actually buy the Viagra that is offered by these people? Is it a case of a few ridiculously stupid people spoiling email communication for the rest of us?
Having said that, it is sometimes quite amusing to get an email supposedly from an employee of the United Nations asking me if they can use my bank account to temporally store some loose cash in, before illegally letting me keep some afterwards.
‘LOL’
This has got to the point where people are actually beginning to say ‘LOL’ as a response in conversation…while not actually laughing out loud. Has anyone actually ever laughed out loud and then typed/said the word LOL? Or is it just a stupid way of saying to someone that while you didn’t find what they said personally funny, you understand that other people will and so you are showing them that you understand why that would be? Pathetic.
Internet Dependence/Slow Internet Connections
This is a huge annoyance in modern life. Nearly everything we do now is in some way connected to the internet, which means that when our connection is slow it is nearly enough to drive a person to murder.
When you are getting annoyed that you cannot stream videos of cats quickly enough, it is perhaps a sign that this dependence has gone too far!
Badly Thought Out Automated Telephone Systems
Now, a good and logically thought through automated telephone system is fine. It is the ones where clearly not much thought has gone into the user experience that can lead to serious annoyance.
We are talking here about the ones that have about 7 levels of options before telling you that no one is available to speak to you, or the ones where you have to enter a number only then to repeat it to the human you eventually get through to!
Phew, I feel better now. I am well aware, by the way, that this list probably says more about me then it does about the things that annoy us in the modern world, so feel free to share your own annoyances in the comments below…
Attached Images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
James Duvalis a calm and collected IT specialist, who every so often becomes enraged at things that probably shouldn’t work him up so much, like computer games and Coldplay. James likes to spend his spare time blogging for companies such as Vicorp.