What is a technology/gadget you refuse to use and why?

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Anything that has the word "smart" in it.
- Where do you find a non-smart TV these days? Seems like nobody makes them anymore
  
  Any good TV will be a smart TV. Just don't connect it to the internet and it'll effectively be another basic TV.
  
  Actually worse than a basic TV, because almost every button on the screen or on the remote will try to do some action involving internet or smthg, giving you an error message after 15s freeze time trying to fetch data from that unplugged cable
  Basic TV have no netflix button, no personal folder, no data management settings, not trying to anticipate what button you will want to push and push it in advance for you.
  Even if you don't use them, if these options are not here, it makes the TV simpler, better, faster, stronger
- ^ this
  "Smart" anything is something of a misnomer as the "smarts" are on some "cloudy" server far away. One can only hope that without the "cloudy" connection the thing will continue to function on a "dumb" level.
  "Smart" "phones" are even more of a misnomer since they're basically pocket computers that happen to have a phone in them. I'll use them because they can be useful if they do what you want, but I don't install any proprietary apps.
  
  My phone can't even show pictures... and that's the way I prefer it.
  
  Kinda makes me miss the days when I had an ipod touch and a flip phone.
  
  One can only hope that without the “cloudy” connection the thing will continue to function on a “dumb” level.
  I actually like smart products, but this is a requirement for me. It needs to be a functional "dumb" product if internet connections/servers fail, I usually won't buy anything I can't verify that for (or will return it if I find out that is not the case when I test it). I never want to be stuck in a situation where I can't turn my house lights on because the router went down, or the blinds become inoperable.
  Smart features should always be on top of basic functionality, they shouldn't be a requirement just to remove a couple physical buttons.

248 comments