The fascination with tech gadgets

By | February 17, 2008

I am planning to get a new laptop one of these days, but I don’t know why. Beyond laptops and desktops, there are many other shiny new toys out there that I wish I owned. Why tech frequently fascinates, is largely a psychological phenomenon which isn’t easy to explain. For example, I don’t need a laptop right now – but I still want one.

My friend recently bought a new Sony Vaio CR (lappy is what he calls it) and it sure looks cool. The only problem, he tells me is the preloaded Vista (he hates Vista). Seeing his Vaio, I hope to get myself a black Vaio G later on. But, what am I talking about? I don’t really need a laptop!

Is it unnatural to be in love with shiny new toys? I mean beyond the utility, aesthetics, functions, beauty, and all other words which can define a gadget there’s something totally different about these gadgets which forces us to grasp them. Is it unnatural to be in love with these shiny new toys? Remember, this generates the passion to grasp something which is…non-human!

Firstly, I think it is in no way unnatural to fall in love with these gadgets. It is probably our natural instinct to make things work better. The way gadgets cloth, grind and solve the complex situations for us; this actually can be quite arousing! Even the problems they give us…

This love affair deepens, and then we wonder why. It is slightly funny but true; today many humans find solace with tech gadgets instead of the living beings around them. I just read somewhere that home boys in Taiwan now fancy PCs and gaming more than girls!

I think it is becoming increasingly common for people to spend more and more time, just toying with a gadget rather than doing anything else. In The Matrix, humans create their own universe by a synthesis of human mind and machine. That’s an extreme case of tech domination. I’m just wondering what it will be like 10 years from now.

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