Is modern consumer technology less interesting

Recently I saw a post on Hacker News: I used to be excited about new tech, but I rarely am anymore. The author, Andreas, talks about how he’s just not excited about new technology the way he used to be when he was younger. He poses the question of whether getting older just makes it seem more boring.

I’ve had similar thoughts about new technology, but I don’t think it’s a question of age specifically. A lot of modern tech just feels very mundane. But I recently got an old school calculator, an HP 16c Programmer’s Calculator, and it had that feeling of excitement about it to me - wow this is pretty cool, look it’s a calculator and it has all these functions! Why is a calculator exciting to me when a lot of other stuff isn’t?

I think there are at least the following factors that affect it:

1. Novelty
2. Convenience and Usability
3. Market appeal

Modern consumer tech lacks novelty

This is probably the biggest factor. Modern consumer technology seems to have converged to a point where it’s very appliance-like. Then they use some undesirable gimmicks like “Smart” features on a fridge to attempt to add some kind of novelty into the mix, with predictably poor results.

Mobile phones are a good example of this. Nearly all new phones are slabs with the same design, same features and same apps. The next generation of phones are going to be slabs with the same design, same features and same apps. The only likely difference is they’re probably going to be larger because that seems to be the trend with smartphones.

The two most interesting phones I’ve had are the Nokia N97 and the Palm Pre 2, which are very different from the typical phones today. If I could get a version of the Palm Pre 2 that runs all the modern apps I need, I would buy one in a heartbeat. Funnily enough, both iOS and Android later copied many of the features of the Pre, but not the look and feel of the device itself. Nokia’s industrial design was so good that it’s hard to even imagine, because on the N97, just the open/close action on the hinge mechanism was so tactile, that everyone I know who owned one enjoyed playing with the open/close mechanism for fun. You can’t say that about today’s phones.

The story is similar with physical media. Some time ago I bought an album on CD from Bandcamp, and it had cool art printed on the disc and case. It’s fun to look at and memorable when you play it. Purchasing digital music is uneventful and unmemorable. It’s the same with purchasing games on Steam, there’s no novelty to it.

Modern tech is too easy to use

Saying something is too easy to use might sound like a weird complaint, but hear me out. The reason ease of use is a factor is somewhat related to novelty.

When you have something that you just turn on and it works it’s not that interesting. When you have something where you just press a button and it does its thing… it’s not that interesting. You don’t have to think about it, you don’t have to learn anything, you don’t have to figure anything out.

If I open the Windows calculator, it just works. You key in 1 + 1 and you get the result. It’s not interesting. But the HP 16c I bought uses Reverse Polish Notation. You key in 1 enter 1 +, and then you get the result. This initially made it more difficult to use as I was unfamiliar with the method of operation, but it also made it more interesting. I actually had to read the manual.

We can also put the digital vs physical purchases example into this category. It’s never been easier or more convenient to purchase games or music online, but with the ease of use, there’s nothing interesting about it. You press a button. A new entry appears on a list. You press another button and play. There is nothing interesting about this.

Ease of use and convenience is great in general, but purely looking at it from a “how interesting is this to use”, it’s definitely one of the factors contributing to the lack of it.

Mass-market products can’t take risks

The average tech product must appeal to as large of an audience as possible. When mass-market appeal is the goal, you can’t take any risks with the design, functionality or anything else that would typically make a product more interesting. Instead, you follow the trends that everyone else is following.

There are of course exceptions, but those are typically more niche products, which you wouldn’t know exist unless you went looking for it.

These are not bad things

These three factors are what I think contribute most to why a lot of today’s tech is kind of boring. But on the other hand, these also mean the average tech product is usually cheaper, more reliable, easier to use and more convenient.

There are a lot of things where I appreciate that technology is boring. I like the fact that a lot of tech is convenient and easy to use and I don’t have to think about it. It also means that tech is accessible to more people, which generally seems like a good thing. All of this does mean that the average tech gadget is more boring and it takes more active effort to look for something that stands out.

It seems this also applies somewhat to software and websites: A lot of it has converged to look and feel pretty similar. This is again a good thing for the most part, but it can also be a bit boring. For an interesting take on the software aspect of this, give a read to Why Old Software Sometimes Feels Better from Dead Parrot BBS.