Gadgets, are you a gadget person?

Really like that distinction.

It sounds as though you have bought a tool rather than a gadget, I think tools are things that are useful and gadgets are things to fill drawers with!

I wouldn’t say I’m a gadget person in the sense of having to have all the latest things - my cousins on one side are particularly like that in a showing off way. I’m more of a ‘if it captures my imagination at the time’ kind of gadget person. For example I recently bought a soup maker and I love it so much. I’ve known they exist for a long time but never had an interest before and then one day went to a shop I don’t normally go to and imagined myself chopping all the ingredients and making lovely soups and had to buy it. It’s been making me smile ever since,. No, it won’t last forever but life’s so stressful sometimes that we all need things that bring us joy (even if we get obsessed with them as I’m getting!)

I always keep my xmas decorations, I've never had a lot of the gadgets, I spent so long moving around from place to place, that for years if I couldn't pack it into a nissan micra I didn't have it. I do have more stuff now, but it's a miniscule amount compared to many people.

I think a lot of people just buy rubbish as something to do, my ex's family were a bit like that, his Mum bought a bread machine and then got bored of making bread after a couple of months and his sister bought a new hoover because she was bored of her dyson that was working perfectly! I mean bored of hoovering I can understand, but bored of the actual machine, that I don't get?

Is AI a gadget for gadgets?

Your post made me smile Number thanks for that

Iain said:

I've seen 5 decades of gadgets come and go and they all end up in the bin, mostly sooner rather than later. Bad value and bad for the environment.

I often think of this......and shudder!  All those iPODS......all those "Spiralisers"......all those "halloween decorations".......all that STUFF!!  I wonder how long the coffee machines and air fryers will be in vogue?  I wonder how long it will be until mindless consumerism of "stuff" will end.....and how that end will be achieved.....again, with a shudder!

Your post made me think about what gadget actually means. The Merriam Webster dictionary describes it as: "an often small mechanical or electronic device with a practical use but often thought of as a novelty"

I have a laptop but it's quite old, has an out-dated operating system and is too heavy for me personally to carry it far, and as gadgets are supposed to be portable and innovative I don't think my laptop can be classed as such.

I have a "smart" mobile phone which is again some years old - it's 4G. But I use it mostly with the internet turned off, making it into a "dumb" phone as I mainly use it for calls & texts. It makes the battery last much longer.

I have an Xbox console but it's not portable and definitely not a novelty or innovative now.

I also have a Kindle tablet. It's portable and has multiple uses, so I think it probably counts as a gadget? So that's the only one I have I think.

I've just bought myself a new dumb phone as I can't cope with a smart one, I don't take photos or have a video doorbell, we got rid of our dvd machine ages ago and I don't have a cd player, I'm not sure I have any cd's either for that matter.

I do have a bread machine and wouldn't be without one now, I've made my own bread since I was 16 and it's nice not to have to wash up the mixing bowl. I have a food processor and have had for years. I always make my coffee in a cafetierre, I've tried a nespresso and wasn't impressed, I have black coffee and don't want an espresso shot topped up with hot water, it tastes horrible.

Tools are always worth spending money on, with me it's garden tools, a decent spade and fork and shears.

I agree that most are a waste of money, unless you've got a reason for it, like my Nan had an electric can opener, because she had rhumastism in her hands.

I do have a sewing machine, but guess what it hates me! It never matters what I do I always end up with a nest of thread underneath, somebody else can come along and use the exact same fabric and thread and it will be fine, I will swap places with them, and I get nests! I mean WTF? Nobody knows how that happens as the only thing thats changed is the user.

I have a car and a lap top and a kindle which is great as I read so much.

Hi CatWoman. Other than my mobile I don’t keep up with the latest gadgets, I tend to get a new phone every 1-2 years. Mostly for the new camera quality – I take a lot of pics – and I use my phone for my banking so I like my phone to be up to date with every thing and be nice and secure. My phone also connects to the doorbell, our doorbell has a video screen on the inside, and if I’m the only one in it connects to my phone so I can see who is out there. I like that gadget as well, I find it useful and a comfort.

Other gadgets I use are

• Laptop
• Coffee machine, has a warmer setting so it keeps warm for about 2 hours
• Kindle
• Blender (for homemade fruit drinks!)
• Mixing machine
• Cd player
• DVD player
• Projector and screen (we don’t have a tv)

Those are the only gadgets I really use and find useful on a daily basis in one way or another.

My phone, laptop, and coffee machine are the ones I use the most though.

Electronic gadgets - no.

I've seen 5 decades of gadgets come and go and they all end up in the bin, mostly sooner rather than later. Bad value and bad for the environment.

Tools that have good, practical uses - yes.

I use a lot of tools in my renovation work and finding that one tool that can, say extract a nail that needs to be dug out of a finished piece of wood with minimal damage, will pay for itself after only a few uses as well as saving a lot of time, pain, splinters and dissapointed customers.

Quality is one of the most important criteria for selection with price only second. Most tools will be used lots and hard so need to be able to be used for hours at a time and often under some phsyical duress.

I recently bought a table saw as I'm doing a lot of parquet floor restorations and installations and having this to shape the blocks of wood for the edges and corners of rooms, for borders at thresholds and to carve out spaces under the blocks for, say a pipe under the floor that is a bit high, all save hours of time, make the finished job much better looking and make me look more professional.

It costs about £300 but has saved me twice that in time costs, never mind the residual value, other tasks it gets put to (trimming doors, cutting packing pieces to fill off-square door frames, making cabinets etc) and the increased probability of being referred for other projects.

I do have a sewing machine that I use for re-upholstering furniture and it has an attachment for doing buttons but it takes longer to set it up than sewing one button by hand. I used to use it when I was making clothes for a business and it was practical then but I havent used it in 20 years.