Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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New! Shiny! Useless?
November 25, 2008 10:39 AM
A reader who called him/herself Worz13 left a provocative comment in response to my little experience with the BlackBerry Storm:
"As this is a science and society blog, can anyone actually explain why people have always got to have the latest gadgets ?
"Some things are genuinely new and innovative, like the PC when it arrived, and the mobile phone.
"But you seem to have experienced questions like "Whaddya think of it? Is it cool?" rather than "Crikey, Carstairs old chap, that's a wonderfully new and innovative piece of technology, I can see a great future for that, I wish it had been invented 50 years ago, it would have made my whole life so much easier !"
"Have we reached the stage where progress is to satisfy psychological needs rather than practical ones...
"If so, why bother?"
My private cop-out answer is to say I reviewed the Storm because I was assigned to do it. But why DO people lust for the latest, shiniest electronic toys? Does the wish to own the latest PDA have roots in the cave, when the hominid who staked out the most territory got to lead the tribe? Is it all that primal?
I found a useful piece by Joanna Stern in, of all places, Laptop Magazine. At the risk, perhaps, of biting the hands that feed them, she talks to David Greenfield, a psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet Behavior -- who says a BlackBerry and sex have things in common:
“There is a release of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter. It’s a pleasure chemical that is also released during orgasm. People find themselves chasing that dopamine rush by checking their BlackBerrys, but also by having sex. They aren’t conscious of it, but they do know that both feel really good.”
She also quotes Chicago psychiatrist Paul Dobransky: “Men are more prone to value gadgets and technology as tools that further their mission in life: to provide.”
Now, these are hardly the only possible reasons the CTIA reports there are 263 million cellphone subscribers (out of 306 million people) in the U.S. It's a bit demeaning to think we go for a new handheld for no higher reason than instinct.
But Michael Agger in Slate suggests that some of this even applies to Barack Obama, the BlackBerry user who may have to give his up because of presidential-privacy concerns: "Being the leader of the free world might have its compensations, but it has to be enfeebling to lack the power to hit the send button."
(Image courtesy Research In Motion.)
November 25, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (12)
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Interesting premise. Yes, what is the societal value of that gadget next to, for example, a computer hard drive that retains its data after one of the world's largest buildings falls on it?
Posted by: dragon | Nov 25, 2008 1:39:25 PM
If, as you suggest, desire for new gadgets is instinctive, it can't be demeaning, because it's hard-wired into us. It's a part of our behavior patterns, as much as sex is the way we reproduce as a species. If our desire for new gadgets is only that, desire, then it is demeaning. It shows how shallow we can be. But not to devalue the natural desire to want to improve what we've invented. That's an indication of the lofty ideals that we are capable of holding.
Posted by: andyr | Nov 25, 2008 1:42:21 PM
I ran to Verizon and bought the Storm the day it came out; I took it back to Verizon today. I am definitely one of those people who loves the latest and greatest -but this device certainly doesn't live up to the latter. The processor is slow, the entire screen slides around in the body of the phone, and the camera initializes itself at any given time and requires you to pull the battery out to fix the situation. Back to my pearl!
Posted by: Matt | Nov 25, 2008 2:28:36 PM
it would seem to me that we buy the latest gadgets as a status symbol-another primal instint. Instead of the bird with the biggest plumage attracting a mate, maybe it is the man with the newest cell phone. We buy the latest gadgets for the same reason we buy sports cars and designer clothes- to convey to other members of the species that we are at the top rung of the social ladder.
Posted by: Anna | Nov 25, 2008 2:38:07 PM
Nonsense about status. I am a 67 year old woman and I love gadgets. Believe me, I'm not trying to impress anyone. I buy them because they are fun to use and that is the only reason.
Posted by: Jean | Nov 25, 2008 11:13:13 PM
Regarding the key word, "ENFEEBLNG." The above article prompted me to call to mind another technological arena: managed health care and how it too, is enfeebling! Being told that you have to use a generic brand of medication when everyone in the industry knows that the binding agents in the generic brand, modify a pills properties -- often making medication relatively ineffective so that so called health care managers can pick up a pay check -- does the opposite of empowering a patient. If one has the opportunity to obtain all the right features and benefits on a specific technology and people removed from the end users (clueless on technology properties) decide you don't need it) they only thing they done is enfeeble the patient.
Let us DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. ENFEEBLING -- that's a word I may be using to describe Managed health care. The pendulum has swung too far!
Posted by: Wisdom | Nov 26, 2008 8:25:07 AM
I love technology, I build my own gadgets all the time. But I build things that are useful to me. And I build them because the industry has not built them, they concentrate on things like the blackberry rather than actually useful items. Fancier, faster, but not actually any better.
Posted by: Quietman | Nov 26, 2008 12:40:28 PM
Lots of things provoke your brain to release dopamine, like eating food and finishing a task. It's a correlation, nothing more.
Posted by: Carling | Nov 26, 2008 3:32:41 PM
Awesome Article baby
Posted by: mamo | Nov 26, 2008 7:45:38 PM
Wow, that's just some funny stuff right there. But I am pretty young and I like the new technology because it helps makes things so much easier and some are actually pretty cool.
Posted by: Vince | Dec 9, 2008 9:06:34 PM
i think that the new phones are cool i have one right now and i think u don't need the new things some peolpe just want them. just like not everyone have sex, they want to have sex
Posted by: tt | Dec 10, 2008 9:01:47 AM
Yes, there is people that think on impress others when they buy a fancy gadget, as there is people that really have the need of something to easy their day-to-day. Both of them, and the ones that fall in the middle have their dopamine quota in their brains as all of us have when we are doing something we like or have what we wanted. The impulses the pushes us to buy or have sex are very well known by the advertasing and entertainment industry, even by politicians and other mass manipulators. We are the objetive of their marketing strategies. They know very well how thoughtless the mayority of us are when it comes to choose the best option (price and features) to couple with our real needs. Yes, some of us want a neat gadget full of features even if we are not to use all of them.. they got our money.. that's all about!
Posted by: jhrozo | Dec 12, 2008 9:09:07 AM
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