There was a time when tech felt like magic. Even Facebook, back in 2003, had an almost whimsical charm—letting you reconnect with long-lost cousins or that guy from high school you pretended to like. It was like time travel but without the risk of paradoxes.

Now? Tech is less “Wow!” and more “Why?” Every app demands your life story just to order a mediocre cup of coffee you weren’t that excited about in the first place. In return, you get a lifetime subscription to spam and notifications that “just might change your life”—spoiler alert: they won’t.

And if the nuisance wasn’t enough, there’s the delightful surprise of apps randomly breaking or disappearing altogether. Remember Google Pay, the peer-to-peer payment app? Gone. Poof. No farewell party, not even a courtesy breakup text. Or take MongoDB Realm—the gold standard for synced mobile databases. One day, it’s powering apps across the world; the next, it’s yanked from existence like a sitcom canceled mid-season. So much for ever trusting MongoDB again for anything...

Turns out, the real innovation in tech isn’t convenience—it’s teaching us new and exciting ways to feel powerless. At least when your old Rolodex fell off the desk, it didn’t send you a push notification about it.