No focus, no fights, and a bad back – 16 ways technology has ruined my life

Insightful, funny list. (This guy is a good writer.)

Let’s be fair: technology has improved my life in ways that still surprise and delight me on a daily basis. My phone is also a torch! My TV remembers how far I got in last night’s episode, even if I don’t! The bus stop knows when the bus is ­coming, and I can watch my ­pizza’s entire journey from the restaurant to my house! These are, frankly, miracles.

But there have been corresponding sacrifices. Over 20 years, I have turned over whole areas of competence, memory, authority and independence to the machines in my life. Along the way, I have become anxious about problems that didn’t used to exist, indecisive over choices I never used to have to make, and angry about things I would once have been wholly unaware of.

There are probably hundreds of ways in which ­technology has ruined my life. But let’s start with 16 of them. — Tim Dowling, UK Guardian