Electric can openers

Word Spy, a site that tracks jargon and buzzwords, offers up this term and definition:

electric-can-opener question n. The recognition that some older, low-tech products are superior to the newer, high-tech products that are supposed to replace them.

Example Citation:

Ultimately, the question for potential Iridium buyers was what has sometimes been called the electric-can-opener question. Why pay a lot of money to buy something which you know to be inferior to an older, cheaper technology?
—Editorial, "The sky's not the limit," The Globe and Mail, August 23, 1999

Although I've never heard this term before, the electric can opener is a terrific example of technology overkill . I never liked electric can openers. We don't have one in our home. We have the little manual kind you turn. My cans open just find and I have a little more counter space.

Distractions and disruptions

43 folders, a blog I check semi-regularly, has a good post referencing an CNET article about how communications technology, in some cases with all the email and IM popups and such, has caused us to become less productive. Too many of us (I include myself in that us) are a slave to email and instant messaging. I know I check it too often, which often leads me away from the work I had at hand. If we could better block off our email management time, in the long run, we could probably get more done.

When technology is not the answer

Although I work in technology, I strongly believe that technology is not always the answer. When used properly, technology is powerful and helpful. But sometimes, it can be overapplied, and when technology is used for technology's sake alone, it just isn't helpful.

This is just a general feeling and related to a general belief in approaching like with simplicity. But I'd like to begin to collect real world examples. They can be small or big, but some concrete examples of when technology was not the answer.

Ok, first one I can think of is small. I've seen this in several offices. The "old" way of reserving a meeting room was to put a piece of paper on the door and people would "sign up" for a time. Then many offices moved to scheduling their conference rooms with Outlook. Many people don't even understand how to do that, but really what's not effective about this is that if you want to have an impromptu meeting, you go to the room but never know if it has been reserved or not, or who reserved it. Seems simpler to me to just post the piece of paper on the door.