Useless Product "Improvements"

While I am well aware that part of my inspiration for writing this post is purely related to the fact that I was born and lived in a pre-internet and pre-smartphone time, there are certain things about the inevitable march of technology that make absolutely no sense to me.

For example, we have a number of aging appliances in our kitchen so I periodically check up with appliance vendors online to see what's available and how much we should expect to spend when the time does come to replace these.

To be perfectly honest I am a little bit alarmed by the sheer number of completelt useless "technological" improvements that are being marketed with virtually everything these days.

For starters, why does everything need to have an app? Why does my toaster oven need to have bluetooth?

Those sorts of things do not sound like an improvement to me... they merely sound like an excuse to charge extra for features that are completely meaningless.

One of the more stupid things I saw recently was a refrigerator with a giant touch screen on the front door. Billed as a "family message center," one of the features of this item — which undoubtedly adds an extra $500 to the price of the fridge — is that you can tap a button and actually have displayed on the screen what's happening inside your fridge. Why would I pay $500 extra when I can just open the fridge door and see what's happening inside the fridge?

The thing that outright annoys me about a lot of these gadgets and appliances is the fact that apparently many of them won't even work unless you have an app downloaded to your phone. There are actually two things about that that annoy me: One is that I now have to have two devices on hand in order to use one device and that seems completely stupid, and the other is that a bunch of these apps evidently require you to subscribe and pay money for!

So what you're telling me is that not only do I have to spend extra money for a bluetooth enabled toaster oven, I have to buy a subscription to the app so that I can actually use the toaster oven I already bought? WTF mate, over?

And yes, I realize that there are probably a whole bunch of conspiracy theorists right now who are rubbing their hands with glee as they read these words and are nodding sagely at my previous "ignorance" at not believing the warning that "you will own nothing and you will like it."

Lately, our homeowners association (HOA) has been talking about updating the way we use and get into some of the common spaces we have in our housing community of some 700 properties. Those would be things like the pool, the gym room, the events hall and so forth.

A few years ago, they went from having a numerical keypad, to everybody being issued key fobs that allowed us to buzz ourselves into these common spaces. The key fobs were OK... as long as they were working, even if they weren't much of an improvement over the keypads. But now they're talking about replacing the key fobs — which are simple and nice and easy to use — with an app you have to have on your phone in order to unlock the doors.

Part of what's particularly stupid about that is that we live in an area with lots of retired people and many people I know over the age of 60 don't even take their phone with them all the time, let alone have any familiarity with downloading and using an app in order to use another device.

In addition, we live in a place with sketchy cell service at the best of times, so now we're going to potentially be locked out of the system whenever certain atmospheric conditions exist. How the hell is that an improvement? It's just plain stupid and now it seems likely that they would also find some way to implement a monthly "technology fee" (or something) for being able to use this app to access services we already pay for with our quarterly fees.

They have already nailed us with a "convenience fee" when paying quarterly dues online... while taking away the option of just dropping off a check at the community office, because all dues payments evidently have to go to a lockbox in Dallas, Texas... 2,200 miles away.

Just to reiterate, I have nothing against actual technological advancement, I just have something against foisting ostensible "improvements" onto people... that nobody actually asked for or want, while broadly ignoring features people might actually want and benefit from having access to.

Back when I worked with programmers in the IT industry, the term used was "creeping elegance," describing software features serving no purpose but to "look clever" and enable the company to add another $5 to the price tag.

Just sounds like a bunch of grift and enshittification, to me.

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week ahead!

Comments, feedback and other engagement is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer comments, even if it sometimes takes a few days!

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2026.07.20 00:47 PDT
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