Narrator: Now listen to part of a lecture in a design and technology class.

Professor: Technology is supposed to make people's lives easier. But in fact, some inventions that are supposed to make life easier actually make life more difficult in a variety of ways.

What's going on here is something called the paradox of technology. That's when new technology that's supposed to simplify life actually has the opposite effect.

For example, electronic devices, DVD players, TV stereos, each one of these different devices comes with its own remote control. Now, remote controls are handy.

You don't need to get up from your seat to change the TV channel or to turn down the volume on your stereo. Everybody loves them.

But say if your DVD player is hooked up to your TV, then you may need two remote controls to watch a movie. To get rid of the need for multiple remote, universal remote controls were invented.

One universal remote control can be programmed to operate all your electronic devices. However, you have to program it yourself.

So, you spend hours reading a manual figuring out the directions. And after you've programmed it, you wanna use it.

But you have to remember which buttons do what. If you forget, you have to go back to the manual.

The universal remote control was supposed to make life easier, but instead it's more complicated. Another example, mobile phones or cell phones, they're being made smaller and smaller.

Today they're lightweight and portable. Even fit inside your pocket.

That's great. But as the cell phone has gotten smaller, so have the buttons.

Lots of people find that with these miniature phones, they cannot accurately or easily manipulate those tiny buttons. People are constantly dialing wrong numbers by accident because the buttons are too small for their fingers.