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The Champion, Thursday, August 14, 2014
Page 87C
When is one more gadget just too many?
by Jocelyn Noveck
NEW YORK (AP) Kira Marchen-
ese works in online communications,
and so she arrived on a business trip to
New York equipped with all the gadgets
that might be expected: personal smart
phone, work smart phone, laptop, iPod
touch.
Problem is, her hotel room had too
few outlets to keep the darned devices
charged. “I unplugged the lamp and still
couldn’t do it,” she noted ruefully. “At
least half the things I’m carrying right
now are just dead hunks of metal.”
And so, though communications is
her world, Marchenese has no plans to
rush out and buy the iPad, Apple’s new
tablet device unveiled with much fanfare
last a week ago. She just doesn’t see
the need for yet another gadget.
Nor does Ray Bowman, a self-
described “technojunkie” who lives on a
farm in Kentucky, raising sheep some 60
miles from the two nearest Apple stores.
Bowman spent a recent Wednesday
eagerly following news of Apple CEO
Steve Jobs’ presentation, by Twitter,
Facebook and wherever else he could
find it. “I can’t wait to see what this
puppy is capable of,” he enthused be
forehand.
And yet by Thursday, he had decided
not to jump in, even though he still plans
to swing by the Louisville, Ky, store
when the iPad is in, just to examine it in
his own hands.
“I’ve seen the hype and the after
hype,” said Bowman, 58, executive
director of an agriculture-oriented non
profit organization. “I’ll stick with my
netbook. Right now, I can’t see making
the switch.”
Marchenese and Bowman use at
least seven devices between them. Are
they indicative of a cultural tipping point,
a sense of general gadget overload?
Steve Jones, a historian of communica
tion technology, has seen signs of it, and
believes it is at least partially connected
to the state of the economy.
“I think we’re at the point where
we’re getting a little more mileage out
of our old gadgets, being a little more
budget-conscious,” said Jones, a profes
sor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign.
“There’s a significantly growing cul
ture of people tweaking their old technol
ogy to keep it useful,” Jones said. “For
some, it’s actually a point of status now
to get more mileage out of their gad
gets.”
Flow many gadgets do we own, any
way? The average teen has 3.5, accord
ing to figures compiled in September by
the Pew Research Center’s Internet &
American Life Project and provided to
The Associated Press. Adults between
18 and 29 averaged nearly four gadgets,
those between 30 and 64 just under
three.
Seen from another vantage point,
the average household owns about 24
electronic gadgets, according to the
Consumer Electronics Association.
That figure includes televisions, mobile
phones, computers and home receivers.
It should not be surprising, then, that
consumers are getting more difficult
to convince with each new gadget that
comes along.
“The last decade was defined by
mass adoption,” said Sean Dubravac,
the association’s director of research.
“We loaded up on gadgets. The next de
cade will be defined by refinement, and
a refocus on usability and functionality.”
Debby Abbott sees it both ways.
“I’m a technogeek,” confessed the
48-year-old college administrator, who
also followed Apple’s presentation and
pronounced herself “salivating” over the
iPad.
Make no mistake, Abbott said: She
plans to own it. Well, eventually. First,
she wants to wait for the second genera
tion, when the kinks have been worked
out and the price, now $499 and up,
may be lower.
She also has decided to wait until
her 8 1/2-year-old iBook finally crashes,
which she expects (and maybe hopes)
to happen soon. Finally, she is awaiting
this year’s income tax refund.
“I’m frightened that I want this,” said
Abbott, who works at Harper College in
Palatine, III.. “With the monthly fee for
my iPhone, and the monthly for this, it’s
getting to the point where the average
person can’t afford this stuff.”
For others, it’s also a matter of scar
city, if not of money, of time—time to set
up and really learn how the things work.
“Every new device is an investment
in time,” said Marchenese, 36. “The
whole power of the device is that you
can set up all these apps, but that does
not happen by itself. And if you’re not
going to make the most of it, why have
it?” "
That is all part of a general feeling of
conflict many have about their devices,
said Lee Rainie, director of Pew’s Inter
net project. A December 2007 study, he
said, showed that “Lots of people have
conflicted views about their gadgets. On
the one hand they can be expensive and
time-consuming ... on the other hand
they help people navigate their social
and information worlds and can make
life easier or more exciting.”
And it is the excitement that takes
over when a cool new toy emerges, said
Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for
the Digital Future at the University of
Southern California.
“Yes, we are really deviced out, tired
out, overburdened,” Cole said. “And all
that goes out the window when a must-
have device appears. We still fall for this
stuff.”
Matt Scatchell seems to have al
ready fallen hard for the iPad.
The high school senior in Avon,
Conn., was in school the day of the
Jobs presentation but received constant
text alerts of the Apple presentation on
his cell phone, via a Web site for Apple
enthusiasts. He scoured them even as
he traveled with his hockey team to a
game. Nothing surprising for someone
who waited 13 hours on line to buy an
iPhone-for someone else. (He had sold
his spot in line on Craigslist.)
“I was getting more and more ex
cited as the press conference went on,”
Scatchell said. “I think the iPad is excel
lent. Apple has the most efficient touch
screen around.”
But youth’s impetuosity has not car
ried the day. He, too, is not ready to buy
the device.
“Most kids my age aren’t pragmatic
enough,” said Scatchell, who obviously
is. “I want to see if I can really use this.
I don’t want to get carried away just
‘cause it’s the next cool thing.”