That’s Okay; You Can Go First.

Let me take a moment to publicly appreciate those noble citizens who are always willing to adopt new technology, so that the kinks can be worked out before I get around to embracing it myself. See, I have never been first in line when it comes to new gadgets. Usually something comes out, there’s some buzz about it, and then people start buying it. And then roughly 10 years later I’ll see the light and give it a try.

Take compact discs, for example, which came out in the early 80’s. “I’m pretty happy with my 8-track tape player and my collection of LPs, and don’t see any reason to invest in another type of media.” Sure, most of my 8-tracks eventually were sat on or warped in the sun in my car. And 33-RPM records make you get up every 15 minutes or so to flip them over, but I was young and this didn’t seem inconvenient. (I also had a television without a remote, so I was hopping up anyway.) But then sometime around 1988 or so, my husband started suggesting that we modernize our collection. It took a while for him to convince me to get a CD player and once we did, it was my favorite thing. Several hundred CDs and a couple of jukeboxes later, I’m still buying them. MP3 music, alas, is not something I have any interest in. I’m pretty sure that’s a fad.

“Why would someone need a military-style vehicle to drive around in the city?” They’re tall, have a lot of cargo space, drink gas like crazy and are hard to park. And we have two people in our household. Then in 1991 I test-drove a Ford Explorer and knew immediately that the SUV was for me. Drove an Explorer for the next 20 years before I even considered another type of vehicle.

I thought the idea of satellite radio was preposterous. “Why would anyone pay for radio when it already comes to your car for free?” And then we bought a Traverse in 2010 and I found myself with 3 free months of XM radio (this is a trick…do not even turn it on unless you intend to buy it). It was right before Christmas and I discovered the holiday station. Oooh, no commercials. Whoa, such good music. Nice, I don’t have to carry CDs into the car. Hooked!

The car also came with a backup camera. “Are you kidding? I’ve been backing up for years and that’s the dumbest thing I ever heard of.” Until I tried it. So cool. It not only helps me back up better, but I can see how far into the garage I am without getting out and checking. (I know, a tennis ball hanging from the ceiling can do that too.) Now when I drive my husband’s car I’m terrified to go in reverse, because there might be something at bumper-level that I can’t see back there.

“Who needs a smart phone? A phone should be for talking.” Why on earth would anyone need a combination camera, computer and all-around communications device? That has to be charged EVERY SINGLE DAY? And how do people function with one hand effectively out of commission since it has to constantly fondle the phone? Which kind of explains why I didn’t turn in my flip-phone until 2012. But I’ll admit the smart phone is handy, and it does take WAY better pictures than the flip. It’s a far cry from the brick-sized mobile phone bolted to the console of my first Explorer (I didn’t know I wanted that either).

My latest gadget is the single-cup coffee brewer. They’re everywhere, and so are the expensive little k-cups to feed them with. It took me a while to digest the purpose – “They’d only work for a single person (and not someone married to a pot-a-day drinker)”. Then one day I realized that I AM a single person whenever my husband travels, and one cup of coffee in the morning is really all I drink anyway. So I gathered up my Kohl’s cash and my discount coupons, and got one of the smallest brewers and a refillable k-cup. This time it was Art who was skeptical. I put the new brewer (it’s cute!) next to our old one, and started experimenting with it. Art continued making a pot with the old machine, until one morning when the carafe broke and he was faced with a critical decision: no coffee or try the new device. After a few days he was sold--drinking less coffee and we weren’t wasting any of it--and I was finally ahead of someone in agreeing to new technology.

There are two possible morals to this story:

1)      Never dismiss something as silly until you’ve tried it.

2)      Don’t even consider these things because they are sure to be expensive.

Which reminds me, two different people have recently recommended the Roomba after we were all complaining about the thankless job of keeping the floor clean. So…dismiss, or look? I checked and it’s been around since 2002…