Advancing backwards?

Technology is a wonderful thing, but I sometimes wonder how much it improves our daily life.
Nothing I do, these days, seems as simple as was its replica 50, 30 or even 20 years ago, but I’m not going to type a whole list of examples, because I’m sure you know what I mean.
I used to write with a fountain pen (“Waterford”, of course, the one with the little rubber bladder (and I won’t go further along that line)). Then there was a progression of typewriters, all of which worked on the same system except for the fiddly bits.
Since someone invented PCs from Mr Babbage’s original cog and ratchet calculator, though, the very act of writing (let alone arranging delivery of this blog, for instance) demands that one learns (a) how to use a computer (b) how to type, (c) how to use an inevitably complicated piece of software and then (in Australia at least) how to defeat a PC centred spelling correction system that is firmly biased toward the US version of Her Majesty’s English.
Now, I exaggerate the difficulties, of course. But what about video recorders? – they’re getting so complicated that only toddlers can use them properly!
Strangely, my wife refuses to use our new-fangled (no bag) vacuum cleaner, and so I’m left to get dust over my clothes when I empty the so-called no-fuss container. I, by the way, have mastered the bread-maker, but refuse to even contemplate the complexities of the dish-washer (which I installed), the microwave, or even the gas stove.
Really, though, I really wonder if the great mass of humanity is much better off from the march of science.
Are we and our families more secure, more physically safe, now than a generation ago? Is living noticeably easier?
But then, through the wonders of technology, we still get to see re-runs of “Mash” on telly. Perhaps life’s not really all that bad.