...get your mind out of the gutter.

I don't get it, people carry around so much shit these days. iPods and Blackberries (I don't even know what this thing is to tell you the truth) and meaningless gizmos that serve no purpose.

People are now being suckered into paying $11 an album for shit quality 128kbps AAC files on iTunes and shelling out megabucks every month just so "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" as their ring tone.

...my birthday is tomorrow, my mom, bless her, got me an iPod, I returned it and gave her some of her money back. She wasn't upset. Just between the time that I go to work and get home, I don't feel that my attention span is so short that my 6 disc CD changer can't support my needs, and while I'm running around all day at work, talking to people and being involved, I don't see why an iPod is necessary to hold my attention.

The 19 year old kid who shares my office at work cocked his head at me today because I said I didn't want the iPod, like I was committing a sin. Of course, where I work, the fact that I have no interest in a brand new Itanium server or brand new Ram specs or next generation game systems causes weird looks.

I just don't get it. I have a watch, I have 3 keys on my keychain, and I have 4 cards in my wallet... id, debit, credit and gas card.

I feel so left out of this consumerism angle. I bought my guitar the other day, and it was like an epic purchase for me ($1200 with cabinet and wires, etc.) then I realize that I beat myself up over a purchase like that that's been coming for 10 years and there's people around me who spend that a YEAR in cell phone bills, chattering away on their stupid little idiot boxes about truely meaningless topics.

I feel so out of place.

Face the truth, you're old.

Lol, Krem!


I'm 20, and I share add-rock's sentiments. I don't own an ipod, have no interest in it, and loathe the idea of someone buying me that stuff. I also refuse to buy a cell-phone. When necessary, I use my dad's. Here's the deal: unless in cases of emergency, a cell phone is not necessary. It just makes no sense.


So yeah, I'm with you on this.

The upside is that you can safely admit to watching CBS now.

You are not out of place. You just seem like a person leading a normal life.

The consumer is deluged with mostly bullshit items. Blackberry didn't even work for me in Toronto in 2001. Why stop at 1000 songs. Create the Supersized Ipod that can carry every single song ever made. Why?

The beauty of the iPod is that I don't have to lug my CDs around. Ever again. They don't get scratches. My friends don't ask me to borrow them. They don't get misplaced. And I can actually put some other stuff into my bookbag. Like more iPods.

It's very possible that the iPod is the mark of the beast.

If being in the same group as Mr. X is "out of the loop", then I apologize. But, I have no interest in this stuff. I didn't like the idea of an MP3 player when they came out, actually, and so I haven't gotten past that. CD Player is all I use. As for all this other new high-tech shit, I've passed on all of it. I consider a webcamera, new computer (not state-of-the-art either, not by a long shot) and my DVD player to be the most advanced technology I have. It's not that I don't have the money for all this new stuff (although it does set you back a fair bit), it's just that I don't want it. None of it can really do much more for myself in any way. I'm sure it's more convenient for some, but I really don't care.

As for video games, I have a Nintendo Gamecube. I do like keeping up with video games, but even that I have lost touch with. Gamecube is probably the least advanced of the newest gaming consoles. The New Gameboy? PSP? I'll pass on all that. Just the regular Gamecube, 64 and SNES are all I use in video games. I don't even know if I'll bother getting the next generation of gaming system (the next XBox, PS3, or Nintendo, whichever). Oh well. My rant is over.

I like my iPod.

I do agree that people carry too many gadgets, though.

Yeah.

I have had a $350 gift certificate to Best Buy since Christmas, I've been in there like 10 times, and I haven't spent a dime on anything. My father wants a new business computer, we're trading it the card for cash so I can you know... put it towards gas or my car bill or whatever.

It definately is a status symbol thing, and it's almost become a point of some controversy. Apparently my co-workers are a little shocked that I don't have a cell phone, so I may have to get one, although I wouldn't get reimbursed for it...

It's weird. I don't think they expected that someone who works in a rather affluent industry wouldn't have something as simple as a cell phone.

I also couldn't live without my cell, especially planning a wedding now.

...and, um, I have an electronic planner, too..

Does this make me a bad person?

I prefer CDs to mp3s myself.

No, because a wedding is, indeed, a set of emergencies over an extended period of time beginning with the proposal and ending with the, em, wedding night. So no, you're not an abonimable creature, just very stressed right now, probably :Sleep:

Go Go Gadget.

No. But if your cell got lost would it really cause you much frustration? I mean people planned weddings in written notebooks and had careers/planned weddings before cell phones.

People hype the convienience aspect of it, but honestly, how many people have more time to spend with their friends and loved ones because they have a cell phone?

Not anybody I know. They usually just find cell-phone-centric activities to busy themselves with.

I dont plan on ever getting a cell-phone. Why would I want to have constant contact with my friends 24/7?

Cell phones are a personal choice.

It all depends how accessible you want to be. With a cell phone, at the wrong job or with the wrong person, could make you ON CALL 24 hours a day. I usually leave it in my briefcase so it is my choice whether to answer it and sometimes I don't check messages for up to a day - depends on my mood.

And, for both business and personal, it all depends how convenient you want it to be. Right now, I am on a project with an hour drive - so I get my alot of business / personal calls done - which I otherwise would do when I got home.

Also I know some who only have a cell phone and no home phone.

It all depends where you stand.

*******************

Also from your statement above.

*I just don't get it. I have a watch, I have 3 keys on my keychain, and I have 4 cards in my wallet... id, debit, credit and gas card.

I never understood why people need multiple cards - I never had those other cards - because one major credit card - Visa/MasterCard/American Express - is accepted everywhere.

Put everything on one card and then you only have to make one payment.

Well, I'm not so much a gadget girl, but I will stand up for cell-phones because most of the people I call are out of the state. Distance plans are way more expensive. Local phones as just becoming a hastle. Especially if you move around alot. I use my cell like a home phone though. Its never on during the day, and my family finds it frustrating because I'll often forget its off and never think to turn it on even when home. They'll call me and I'll finally call them back three days later.

On the other hand, for someone that is never physically at their place, a cell is a must. Pay-phones, etc, are barely in existance anymore, so if you want to check your messages off-site you can't even call your own answering machine. I don't like when people walk around and talk on them constantly in public, but mostly because it bigs me that people are so dependant on technology (as you call it, gadgets) as an escape from have to think a bit. Its like insta-distraction. Why not walk down the street and just contemplate yourself for awhile instead of speed dialing your bff of the month to chit-chat about nothing?

When I do make a call on my phone a sit and my room with no distractions and give my attention to who I am calling just as though it were a home phone.

I also use my cell to call for cabs, touch base with my brother when he gets off work if I'm in his neighborhood and want to grab a drink or dinner, or any number of other small things. Sure, people managed before, but people also used to manage audiotapes before cd's and dvd's came around.

I think the gadget craze is exsessive, but my boss in Chicago finally got a palm pilot when I was working for him and it was miles of improvement. Everytime he needed a number and wasn't at the office he didn't need to call me while I looked it up on the database and read it to him over the phone. He just had all 2000 entries in his palm, alphabetical, and walah!

*now excuse me, I have to go sync my tungsten3 palm with my outlook calendar, tasks list, and contact databases*

I don't have a cell phone either. Maybe it's cause I'm not really important enough for one. And, I do prefer CDs. Something about them, I guess. MP3s or iPods or whatever the hell (I really know next to nothing about them) just seem so lifeless. Faceless. CDs almost tell a story with the songs, you know? I know that's a little much, but it's how I feel.

I'll never give up cd's. Mostly because I'm addicted to cd cover art ;-)
I keep all of mine in one of those cd books, and even then I need to carefully cut out each cd cover and place it in the sleave with the cd. They are tangible too, and for some reason I can't let go of touching things. I like to go into stores and flip through cd's, touch them, turn them around, read the tracks. Purchase the one I want, bring it home and play it (to death usually).

i love gadgets but i barely barry any around. I'm not a fan of the iPod only cause i can't see myself in situations where i require music to be playing and i dont have access to an alternate music system.

blackberries i must defend .. atleast those who work. blackberries are great great inventions. Telephone, scheduler, emails (EMAILS!), web browsers .. all in one. and they're relatively small and most important, its Canadian : )

cell phones ... depends .. be responsible with them but yea .. i'm never ever at home so i need one.

I don;t mind gadgets, I mine their overuse.

I have a cell phone, its handy for the times I have been stuck on the side of road and emergencies. I hate when peopel have ot be on their cell phone at all times, and when you hang out them, say at dinner, and htey pick up their godamn phone...I didn;t ocme to dinner to listen to you talk to another person. I have one student in my class this semester, and one last semester whose cell phone goes every godmdan class.

I bought when iPod as I used to take the bus to college, it took about an hour and half to go the 35 miles, so the iPod was nice. Now I use it while running, as some days i go running for like an hour or so. I also like it for working out at the gym, I like sogns iwth a certian minimum beats per minute to maintain a certain cadence, so I prefer to pick my musci rather then listen to the stuff played in the gym.

Gadgets can be handy, but they have a place and a use. I get crap my com sci friends because my computer has an old processor, an aold viceo card and onboard sound...well I bascialy use this computer to check email, surf the net and do basic stuff in Office, I don't knwo that shit. i don;tplay video games or wathc movies on this thing.

I don' liek gadgets for the sakeof having a gadget, if I get a gadget I feel I should have some use for it. I don't want to replace my old iPod with the new U2 one just because its prettier...

haha...just wait until you see all the accessories you start buying for that guitar if you really start getting into it. What kind did you end up getting? Strings alone cost me a small fortune, as I'm changing them every few weeks. You probably won't be playing that much, or have to worry about recording all the time, so you can probably get away with not changing them nearly as often, unless you break one. (that happens a lot more when you are starting out)

I'm not really a gadget person either. My cellphone is used for business purposes only. Friends and family have been told to never call it unless it's a serious emergency. When I get away, I don't like being tracked down for stupid shit, I got away for a reason. I don't know how people can stand their cellphones ringing all the time. My mom's never seems to shut up, and she's got the most obnoxious ringer. You should not be allowed to have a cellphone until you are 25 years old, as I see many people, especially teenage girls, paying more attention to the call than they are to the road while driving, and an automobile is not a toy. In a split second, many lives can forever be changed.