I wonder very much for whose benefit contemporary technology is developed. Our printer packed up recently, and it became necessary to buy a new one.* I need one which is versatile enough to produce reasonable colour images, in connection with my art work. So we bit the bullet and invested in a new model. Today, on the first occasion when I have tried to print a full-colour image, I ran into problems with persuading the printer to connect to the computer. I was told that I need to consult the on-line manual using my smart phone to register a QR image. I don’t have a smart phone. There must be a way around this, but at the moment I am left with the idea that the purpose of contemporary technology is to persuade us to but more technology, rather than to meet our original needs.
If Canon (yes: name the guilty men!) is going to abandon the old practice of issuing a printed manual then an on-line version would be quite acceptable, or better still a chat-line through which users can obtain advice.
*Actually, I’m not sure about that in retrospect. I enquired about getting it repaired and was told it would cost me £80 plus parts. Our decision then was that this was not an economically sound decision. Now I am beginning to wonder, and starting to think that we have been lured too deeply into a “throw-away” culture.