I'll Tell You One of Mine
While I have a number of pet peeves, the one that is uppermost in my mind right now is the practice of social media platforms (and other platforms) to make changes without explaining the changes and telling us how to navigate them, and, indeed, without even telling us that a change has been made.
An Example
When I try to upload a post, I sometimes suddenly find that I can no longer do so. Occasionally I can figure out what has been changed and how to deal with it, but often, I have to ask my consultant, who is expert at these things. And sometimes she has trouble figuring it out, too.
When things change and become incomprehensible, I feel free to express my feelings about this; but an expert has to maintain an attitude of competence and confidence. When something incomprehensible happens, one of my IT helpers will say, "Hmm, that's interesting." At some point, I commented on the fact that he finds these problems interesting, and he responded "Actually, that phrase translates to..." and he uttered an obscenity, which I won't repeat here.
Unnecessary Complexity
On my iPhone, when I use the timer, it now suddenly has a long list of past times I've set for various things. Why are they there and taking up space? Do the coders think that all of these past times are so routine that I might click on one of them instead of merely setting the time I want?
Disappearance of Convenient Features
I used to be able to easily place emails in appropriate folders; now this convenience has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared. The process of "filing" is now more cumbersome.
Mysterious Error Messages
A window suddenly pops up telling me that a certain application can't be opened, or, more mysterious yet, a window appears containing some unintelligible gobbledegook. When I check these with my IT guy, he usually tells me that they are of no significance and can be ignored.
I used to feel significant irritation when these kinds of problems arose, but my Inner Guide minimizes negative emotions, so I feel only a trace of irritation, and then a feeling of calm is restored.
Coders' Passion
What fun it must be to be a coder who can create ever more complex functions. I can appreciate their delight, even though they don't seem to have any empathy for the ordinary user. (me)
And You?
What is your pet peeve, and how do you cope with it?
