I’m Irritated (Part 1: The Bad)
(All illustrations made by me)
I don’t know about you, but I’m suffering from DOS.
DOS ~ Device Overload Syndrome (.n, acronym): an involuntary feeling of irritation when overwhelmed with multiple devices, their charges, wires, and internet connections, as well as the absence of synchronization between them.
Screens. Wires. Plugs. Charging. Sync. Apps. Loading. Repeat.
There are so many screens we must deal with on a daily basis. There are so many nonsense notifications and alerts we receive every hour (sometimes every minute) that are increasingly unrelated to our daily lives. The more screens and devices we have the more annoying it gets. Instead of having one versatile experience, we have five different experiences with five boxes with screens. iPad. Kindle. Laptop. Desktop. Smart Phone. Apple Watch.
But I don’t want to deal. I want to experience.
They are separate entities that appear to sync only when asked. They all need to connect to Wifi separately. And often times I have to email myself things as attachments because there is always some ill-timed error while I’m syncing. I’m really starting to hate this word “sync.” I’m talking to you, too, iCloud.
There are endless loading icons that spin and spin and spin. There are endless “authorize this app to access your whatever” screens. And the apps! How many apps do you actually use every day? I can think of six apps. Yet, I have downloaded over 60 apps since I’ve bought my phone.
I can feel the struggle. People want protection over their data and information, but we want a seamless experience that doesn’t feel disjointed by screens and battery life. I think this is our biggest hurdle: Privacy and trust. I totally understand this, too. I’m the type of person that doesn’t like to connect my Facebook to every app I use and occasionally searches my name on Google to make sure I’m not publicly listed too many times.
Why is our mobile experience so compartmentalized by apps and tabs? Apps are becoming the very opposite of fluid. The most fluid I can be on my device right now is by double clicking the home button so I can switch to a different app.
And about “battery life”…
Why do I still have to charge my devices? Why can’t our devices charge via Wifi or some other way without the pile of tangled wires we all have? I like to think about the day the phrases “it’s charging” and “you have to plug it in” will be be studied by high schoolers in their tech history class. (Yes, in this version of the future, there will be a mandatory tech history class)
These are things I think about every day. When we start to question a technology’s existence, that’s a good sign there’s a problem.
I think we are closely approaching the edge of our patience. #EndRant