We have a PVR from our local cable company and I swear it’s the best thing I’ve brought into this house since I got HD television. It operates using literally five buttons. One to record, shaped as a red circle. One to open the list of saved recordings, which says “List”. Two to go up and down to highlight the current recordings, shaped as an up arrow and a down arror. And one to select the highlighted recording, which says “Select”.

To me this is a very simple and user friendly system. I’ve shown it to some of my less tech savvy acquaintances, and every time they keep saying it’s “too complicated”.

These are the same people who only use one function on their stove, because it has “too many buttons”. Needless to say, they are also all middle aged people.

There’s a paradigm shift going on, where every-day technology is moving from simple options with few buttons or even just knobs, to full blown computer controller systems with one gazillion options. When you grew up in a world where the TV had one button (or you had no TV at all!), and your thermostat was how many logs of wood you threw in the fireplace, it can be hard to adjust to everything being digitally controlled with more options than you really need. Seriously, do we really need to roast a turkey in our microwaves? I can’t even fit a turkey in there!

I think we’re in a time of transition where no matter how simple you make a computerized system, it’s still too hard for some people to interact with them. Let’s face it, computer systems are not inherently obvious how to use. They may seem obvious to you or me, because we tap away on computers 8 hours a day so it doesn’t matter if it’s in a laptop or in a fridge, but for someone who doesn’t know Windows 95 from Windows XP, it’s like a brand new adventure (or nightmare) every time.

Some people love technology and want to stay up to date. Some people just can’t be bothered. I think when the new generations grow up this problem will diminish, because these days as a kid or teenager you can’t not use a computer even if you wanted to. Until then, we’re stuck in limbo with a bunch of people that no matter how easy you make that PVR, they’re not going to remember or understand how to use it.