A while ago we were listening to the morning radio show on the way to work and they were reading from a survey of things people dislike.  And then they added their own.  We have to say this was a pretty inclusive list and it held some new dislikes.  Gone is the old, I don’t like clowns, I don’t like lines, I don’t like taxes.  Today’s dislikes are not your average pet peeves.

So what are some of the things people don’t like?  Some of them are related to new technology.  One of the new dislikes is that little animation that every network puts on the lower corner of the screen during its television shows.  You know that ones.  Something that’s coming up next or maybe next week.  It starts as a blurb or maybe a blotch.  It grows to a fuzzy representation of whatever or whoever the show is about.  The it grows to encompass the bottom third of the current broadcast, rendering most of the action – and all of the closed captioning if set to “bottom” – invisible.  The characters dance, chat, and otherwise interact all on top of the current show.  Then it retreats to the corner, disappears, and lies in wait until the next show segment.  We hate those too.

Another technological irk is the rash of new-fangled pop-ups on computer pages.  No longer is the cyber advertising world happy with springing a new window open over the one you are reading.  It’s much too easy to click a tab and get back to your screen without much fuss.  Now we have pop ups slide across a page or scroll down the display right along with you. 

She of We is particularly un-fond of a most annoying type of pop up that looks like a page of a newspaper folding over the current display.  We have a local newspaper that is particularly fond of that one.  Did you ever try to find the little “X” to click to close one of those things?  Devilish they are.

Some semi-high tech things that nobody is wild about are crawls on television screens, the fine print voice on radio ads for drugs or mortgages, and cell phones screens that you can’t see in bright light.  

There are also some things that people do that many others don’t care for.  Nobody likes the person who speeds down the highway, changing lanes every other car, and does it within inches of other cars.  And nobody likes to be behind the person at the express checkout lane with a shopping cart full of items.  Nobody likes slow pizza delivery, cold pizza delivery, or crushed pizza delivery.  Not even pizza delivery people.

What does He of We not like?  Wet newspapers.  Somebody has to be low tech. 

Now, that’s what we think.  Really.  How ‘bout you?