A Rush of Blood to My Processor

Gah, I'm getting a tech headache, am I alone? Am I the only one who finds the constant slew of new and improved products, gizmos, and accessories, features, firmware updates, expansions, updates, and alternatives a bit of an strain on my already beleaguered mind. And for some strange reason, I find enjoy finding myself head over heels in a world of electronic circuits and wireless connections. I think that the general detachment that comes standard in the world we live in today can be very alluring, especially for today's 'young' generation (and I see young cautiously, very much aware of way our teenagers have been polarizes, largely along lines of age, race, and religion). In a culture where you are encouraged to be different by buying products that everyone else is buying, but that will still make you feel different, but only if you buy them by this weekend, and preferably with your parent's credit card, it can be VERY confusing for the average-schmoe, like me, to get a grip on which products are trendy, when, and why.

I like to think of myself as reasonably tech savvy. There are numerous industries out there that are affected by the trends and fluctuations of "what's 'in' ", a notion that is about as vague as Bush's exit strategy for Iraq. The culture encourages you to blindly follow others into a mad herd-like rush to buy whatever is hot, whenever it becomes hot. And in a society where garage sales and flea markets are aspects of a generation we'd rather forget about, there's going to be a whole lot of crap no one is going to know what to do with in about...well...30 seconds.

So I understand tech, and I have a good grip on how things work. Why is it then that I am still confused as to why I should pay 300 dollars for an iPod? It's really stupid. And I could continue in this style, listing off very stereotypically, the reasons why I don't want an iPod, because I am an independent thinking, bright young blogger. But the fact remains: I want one. I mean, I REALLY want one. And its not because my friends have them, and its not because of the cool features, or attractive package design, or the ability for me to load up practically every song I have on my computer three or four times, and then still have time to load every single Diehard movie ever made (yes, all 37 of them).

So, this is naturally a very confusing concept for me. But I like to think about it. Does that mean that the constant addiction to the latest-and-greatest that seems to plague our young ones, be described as 'self punishment'? Most likely not, and this is why: No one else seems too confused by it, and I say this quite honestly. They obviously haven't run into as many conscience conflicts as I have when it comes to buying an iPod.