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The humble mobile phone has come a long way since the brick-sized units that used to be bundled with their own backpack battery. But not everyone is happy with that progress, according to a study for the BBC's Focus magazine.
In fact, according to the 4,164 people who typed in their answers to the Radio Times website, the only thing worse than mobile phones are nuclear, biological and mechanical weapons.
OK, so it's tiring listening to speed garage being blasted out of tinny speakers on the bus or having the passenger next to you loudly shout "I'm on the train, I'll see you in a minute" when they're only five minutes from home.
But surely they don't deserve to give nukes, toxins and machine guns a run for their money?
The weapons category captured 35 per cent of the vote and included items as diverse as guns and explosives, all the way up to biological weapons and atomic bombs.
However, mobile phones were the next worst invention, according to 17 per cent of those questioned.
"When contemporary inventions such as the car and the mobile phone, which apparently enhance modern living, get voted as the worst inventions ever, it makes you realise that technologies and 'objects of desire' that seem to play an integral and important part in our lives may not in fact be pleasing the masses," said BBC Focus editor Paul Parsons.
Nuclear power, television and the Sinclair C5 came joint third with nine per cent.
Surprisingly - or perhaps unsurprisingly, depending on your viewpoint - religion snuck into the top 10 with two per cent of the vote.
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