Men's Lifestyle

Upgrade This

I have this old television set that was given to me many years ago. It’s an old Zenith that weighs about five hundred pounds, is encased in wood, and was bought and sold in 1977 (the same year I was born). It still works. My parents have an even older T.V. that they no longer use but keep it in storage. Last time I checked, it still worked.

This morning I saw a commercial for a new 2D T.V. with such advanced color soft technology and some sort of hyper-reel, super pixilation, fine-grained, high intensity whatchamacallits that it put its earlier model to shame (an earlier model, might I mention that was released less than a year ago). Man, times are a-changin’.

I remember when the iPad was first released in the States (like it was so long ago). I was just about to run out and jump in line with the other stoked tech-nuts when what the techxpert said on T.V. stopped me: in a couple months, the new iPad 3G will be released.

What? I turned back. Why should I go buy one now if a better version will be available in another hundred days?

I remember pulling up to a coffee-shop bench to see one of my friends playing with his phone. What kind of phone is that, I asked? It’s an old piece of crap, he responded – the old iPhone. I watched as he played with the piano keys on the screen, so old.

The iPhone, iPhone 4, Evo, G2 (or is it G3?), Blackberry, Droid, iPad, Kindle, 2D HD televisions, 3D HD televisions, plasmas, iPods, iCarly, I don’t know what is happening anymore. Every few months we see an upgraded version of the last upgraded upgrade that makes its first model the equivalent to a rotary phone. It still works, but it’s technological pariah.

I still use that old Zenith. I’m writing this on a legal pad with a pencil that even has a pink eraser top. It works just as well as the backspace key. Maybe I’m just uber-reluctant to succumb to the new drug called technology, but I’ve never been willing to grab on to a fast-moving bullet train before knowing where it’s heading (it could be a wall).

Don’t get me wrong, I know you have to keep up with the times and I do make an effort. I just find it ridiculously difficult to keep up with something moving and changing at the speed of T3, I mean Road Runner, I mean Broadband.