The Hidden Cost of Gadgets
When thinking about the latest gadgets, you consider, among other things, whether the cool features are worth the price, right? But some of those features make it so convenient to keep spending money that it drives the price up beyond what you might have considered.
We’re not really gadget heads in my house. Usually not worth the money to have the latest thing, we figure. Still, my husband recently acquired an iPad, and I was an early Kindle adopter back in 2008.
Admittedly, I bought my kindle out of wrath one day, when my 45-minute train commute was delayed by over two hours. I was grumpy, hungry, and so not in the mood for whatever tech-heavy computer science book I had brought with me. During the drawn-out conclusion of a long, cranky day, I wanted to read about shopaholics or vampires or something. So when I (eventually) got home that night, I ponied up the $400, figuring it was worth it in my—and, frankly, my husband’s—sanity.
Both the kindle and iPad in our house have found sneaky ways to get our money, though. They make it so easy! On the kindle, you search the bookstore just as you do on Amazon. Find a book you like? Click “purchase” and it appears. Oh, but there’s a bestseller you’ve been wanting to read. And one that’s relevant to you work, so, really, you need that one. Before you know it, that’s $30 down the drain.
Likewise, the iPad, even though it has many free apps, enables you to spend money without blinking an eye. My husband is addicted to a game called Duel: Blade & Magic, which was free. But he can upgrade his armor or buy a pet for a buck, and it’s all hooked up to his iTunes account. Easy.
In time, I’m quite sure, we will arrive at a day when you can simply think about a book or a game and, boom, its digital self is in your hot little hands. I might be doomed.
Are you a gadget head? Have you encountered these easy-spending conveniences? How have you handled them?
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