The Old Coot doesn’t follow instructions.
By Merlin Lessler
When you buy an item that requires assembly, you are going
on an adventure. If you are lucky, the instructions will contain words. More
often than not, it’s just a series of pictures. I have not assembled anything
in this new world of instruction without “un-assembling” it a few times to get it
right. And, what happened to screws and nails? I put some bookcases together
last year that used fasteners I’d never seen before, taking me longer than I
expected.
Some things today don’t come with any instructions at all. Most
appliances seem to be like that, our Samsung range for example. It came with a
QR code pasted to the oven door. We couldn’t figure out how to set the clock. Our
daughter Alicia, with a chuckle, told us to just scan the QR code. We did. It
took us to a website and instructed us to download an App. That’s how you set
the clock, not on the range, but on the app. When we go from regular time to
daylight savings time, it takes me forever to reset the clock because I can’t remember
the name of the App or what it looks like. Multiple scrolls through the sea of
Apps on my phone finally gets me there. (It’s called SmartThings, in case you
were wondering. I thought Samsung was what I was looking for.) It should be
called, “Instructions for Dummies.”
It’s just the opposite when it comes to automobiles. They
come with a thick wad of instructions, often broken down into several booklets.
You can’t use your instincts to work the smart screen or sometimes, to start
the car, turn on the wipers and lights or shift from park to drive. You’re forced
to dig out the manual, something you rarely did until twenty years or so ago. Back
then, you could hop into any car and off you went. The controls were easy to
find and use. Now, you need a lesson before you dare take off. What’s my point?
Nothing! I’m just an old coot complaining about our modern world that continues
to become less and less user unfriendly.
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