Technology '“ shouldn't it make our lives easier, not more tricky?

A few months back I needed a new phone and couldn’t believe how hard it was to find one which had buttons.

Instead it is all about touch screen, voice recognised, can-do-everything-but-the-washing-up phones.

Which is fine if you want to use your phone to play games or surf the web, but not so helpful if you want to just phone someone.

It seems that by making our lives easy, we’ve manages to make them a lot more complicated.

Every time we have a computer glitch in my office I can’t help but think of my trustworthy typewriter sitting at home.

Then there is the hassle of attempting to get train tickets without talking to a person... and don’t get me started on self-service checkouts – I don’t think I have ever used one without letting out a low growl as it doesn’t recognise something.

Now my laptop is on the brink.

I only use it to check emails, watch films and search for recipes. But five years is longer than most gadgets seem to last these days.

It will only turn on if plugged in, and it only thinks it is plugged in if the cable is wrapped around the screen in such a way. Leaving me stuck to the spot trying to guess when it will randomly let out a dramatic whirring noise and turn itself off.

However there is something that is more frustrating – the prospect of having to find a replacement.

I know my generation are meant to be tech-savvy, and I am when things work. But talk to me about memory space, drivers and operating systems and I am lost.

While the mere mention of RAM – which quite frankly I thought was a male sheep and therefore shouldn’t be inside a computer – makes my brain turn to mush.

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