Modern Life is Rubbish. Part 5: Gadgets

Gadgets

I like gadgets, I have many. I have a laptop for media, one for art, one for writing and a broken one. I also have several hand-held devices, smartphone, pocket pc (I use it for reading ebooks), two iPods (one’s a Touch) and most recently an iPhone. Three cameras. I seem to get things in threes. If I had enough money and less common sense I would have lots more gadgets than I already have. I adore the feeling you get when you have just purchased a new gadget and you loose the next two days to exploring it and finding out all the ways to waste time with it. When I got my iPod Touch it was brilliant, I watched videos, searched endlessly on YouTube, listened to music and surfed the web. Then, a week later the system update that brought out the App Store arrived and suddenly I was loosing days at a time to this new little wonder. The things you can do with a hand-held gadget never fail to excite me.

But I’m not here to rave about how great gadgets are, nor am I here to complain about how many hours of my life I have wasted playing Angry Birds on my iPhone, or the days I’ve forgotten to eat because I want to get that elusive red block in Lego Star Wars for the Wii or DS Lite. I don’t actually mind spending my downtime lost in a haze of gadget lust. I can on occasion exhibit restraint and get a lot done most days. Most days.

No, what I am here to have a good angry mutter about is the space all these damn things take up!!

I have an artistic mind, personality and lifestyle. For the most part. I like things to be beautiful and I do enjoy a day spent with a paintbrush or pen in my hand. I don’t really mind being distracted by the odd email, or a curious urge to find out what strange things people are tweeting about. And I certainly don’t mind looking up from my notepad to see my big old flatscreen leering at me. I’m just pleased it made it up the stairs in one piece, y’know?

What does have a tendency to bother me is when you plan a room, you decorate it and place all your beautiful belongings about the place, you fill it will twenty-odd houseplants (though that could just be me) and it is all looking fabulous. Your bookshelves speak of a wide range of interests and a cultured if somewhat geeky literature collection. Even the extensive DVD boxset collection doesn’t look too bad when the action figures are arranged in front of them (again, could just be me). You stand back and survey your room. It looks perfect. Then someone comes in with a box of your gadgets and their accessories and your blood pressure rises. You have to find a home for three laptops, two graphics tablets, a wireless keyboard. The hand-held items are less of a problem, they slide in drawers, sit on the arm of the sofa or live in your pocket. Then you notice the tangled pile of chargers. Not good. Even when you’re as organised as I am and have individual drawstring bags for each charger they still take up room and you can never seem to find the one your looking for.

I look around me right now and what do I see? Gadgets, they have homes, for the most part, but as I use them all they rarely live in their homes. Power cables trip me up and my writing laptop still doesn’t have a permanent home.

Oh for a simpler life and less of a gadget addiction!

Did I mention the robots?