A cell phone is a cell phone — who needs a gadget?
26 February 2008
No Comment
My boyfriend has had his current for almost two years, and he wants something new. He’s reluctantly decided that an iPhone is not in the budget, but he’s still holding out hope for plenty of neat features. I’m the exact opposite — it took me almost two hours to buy my last cell phone because I was trying to find a phone that was just a phone. I can cope with things like an address book, and the alarm function comes in handy. Anything beyond that (like cameras, mp3 players, etc.) seem a bit useless to me because I just about always have a full laptop in tow.
This simple lack of interest in cell phone features has put me in the interesting position of being the heavy on my boyfriend’s attempts to buy the shiniest gadget out there. He finds a new toy and sends me a link or brings me to a store. He tells me all about the aspects of the cell phone that has him hot and bothered and I get to ask questions that variate on the theme of “Why would you want a phone to do that?
My anti-feature stance isn’t about making my boyfriend miserable. Instead, it’s about letting him bounce ideas off of me so that he can be sure that a particular feature is worth taking even an extra dollar out of savings. And I am persuadable: he’s been able to point out enough logical uses for a camera on a cell phone that it seems like a good idea even to me. There’s even some argument for a phone with some sort of web browsing capability. I’m standing firm against the mp3 player, though — with an iPod, who needs one?
Gadgets, from cell phones to gaming consoles, are attractive; they’re meant to be, in order to lure buyers in to spending their hard-earned cash. The best way of avoiding their allure, as far as I’ve found, is the buddy system. Just one person to remind you to question why you need a quad-speed whatever can help you stay on track with your budget. Even I need an anti-gadget friend occasionally — I have to be sat down when cute little USB accessories come around for my computer. Sometimes I’m not even allowed custody of my wallet.
Who is your buddy? Who recommends that you go home and think about what you really want to spend your money on?
Leave your response!