Electronic Gadgets

[Shandeh]

Is your house filled with electronic gadgets and gizmos?

I used to have a Samsung Galaxy Tab, a fancy HP laptop, 5 different gaming systems, a smartphone, etc.
Now, I just have a simple cellphone with texting, the Tab is gone, and my laptop died. I still have a Wii gaming system and a Nintendo DS.

What kind of gadgets do you enjoy using? Which ones can you not live without?

[karenarp]

My husband and I joke all the time about how we would survive if we lost electricity.
We love our cable TV with our super handy DVR, our PS3 (not for games but for the best blue-ray player you can buy and the ability to use a usb key to run movies downloading from the internet on), iPod (to listen to OTR's for going to sleep by), my sewing machine (which is electronic). Oh, and must not forget our lap tops, my eReader, my NDSXL and my awesome iPhone.

We are both grateful we know crafting, this way if the electricity went out forever he could make pretty wall hangings (cross stitch) and I can keep us warm through knitting or crochet!

[Shandeh]

My husband and I joke all the time about how we would survive if we lost electricity.
We love our cable TV with our super handy DVR, our PS3 (not for games but for the best blue-ray player you can buy and the ability to use a usb key to run movies downloading from the internet on), iPod (to listen to OTR's for going to sleep by), my sewing machine (which is electronic). Oh, and must not forget our lap tops, my eReader, my NDSXL and my awesome iPhone.

We are both grateful we know crafting, this way if the electricity went out forever he could make pretty wall hangings (cross stitch) and I can keep us warm through knitting or crochet!

We have definitely changed as a society, haven't we? I remember back in the 60's and 70's, when all we had was radio, TV, and landline telephones. I remember when FM radio first came out. Before then, all we had was staticky AM radio. I used to have a fluffy dog AM radio that sat on my bed. The radio knobs were on his belly. And the TV only had 4 channels! We were lucky enough to have a TV antenna on the roof of the house, so reception wasn't too bad. When color TV became available, we were AMAZED! That pretty peacock display on NBC always made me smile.

If nothing was on TV, we would go outside, and play roll-a-bat, 500, hide & seek, or just sit in the yard talking. Occasionally, we would string flowers together, or look for 4-leaf clovers. And we saved the colorful wrappers from our chewing gum, to cut them in half, fold them, and hook them together to make a long chain. We also did needlepoint, embroidery, and sewing. Other than that, we did housework, yardwork, gardening, and schoolwork. And most of us loved to read books from the library.

When the telephone rang, we would all RACE like CRAZY to answer it! Our phone had a very long cord, so we could walk down the hall and close the door if we wanted privacy. I remember spending many hours with that cord stretched down the hall while I talked to friends. When it was time to hang up the phone, I had to unravel it from around my fingers and hands, because I had been fiddling with it while talking. It's amazing that our cord didn't break from all the twisting.

Nowadays, we still have all the other things, but those things are usually ignored, in favor of all the new electronic entertainment. BUT, the internet has had the greatest impact on the world. Now, we don't have to depend on the local experts for answers to our questions - we can go online, and find out EVERYTHING about ANYTHING! It has been so satisfying to me to see some of our local "experts" proven wrong. Ha!

[Shandeh]

This past Christmas, I got a Nook Tablet!
So nice to have a tablet again. Do any of the rest of you have a Nook?
I'm a voracious reader, so this is really the right tablet for me.

I love that I can go to any Barnes & Noble, and read any book available online for an hour for free. This helps me decide if I want to buy the book or not. I can also go to my local library and download books for free! Of course, there is a time limit to read them, then turn them back in online.