Gear

12 Most Annoying Technologies as Chosen by Wired Commenters

The commenters have spoken. After posting 12 of the World’s Most Annoying Technologies article two weeks ago, I’ve returned to the harsh, yet hilarious, comments of the original post to mine for your most hated of all technologies.
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Photo: Ariel Zambelich/Wired The commenters have spoken. After posting our 12 of the World’s Most Annoying Technologies article two weeks ago, I’ve returned to the harsh yet hilarious comments of the original post to mine for your most hated of all technologies. The crowdsourced list includes items I had overlooked or blocked from my mind because I was traumatized by the sheer annoyance of said technology. And now, against my better wishes, here are the pieces of technology that annoy Wired readers the most. Above:

Phone Voice Recognition

tianlung "How about voice recognition software? How many times have you called the electric company, the cable company, or customer service only to hear the prompt... 'please say why you're calling...'? This is one thing that infuriates me. Not to mention the dialogue that I know we've all had... 'representative. Representative..... REPRESENTATIVE!... Fuc* this.' Click." Using the voice prompts when you call a company is like direct-dialing into the seventh level of hell. Phone voice recognition systems never understand complex statements, and often even have trouble with simple words and numbers. Oh, hey, it turns out five and nine sound very similar to a computer. My advice is to just keep saying “operator” until an actual human being comes on the line.