Contentment key to technology race

I want you to look around you right now. Find everything within arm's reach that has an electrical circuit and hold it in your hands, or if it's a computer look at the box in front of you. Take a good look at these objects of yours. Wait a second...now they're obsolete. It doesn't matter if you just took it out of the box, what you possess has just been outdated, outmoded, upgraded, and reinvented to make what you have fodder for eBay.

This column has a point, I swear.

I have come to the conclusion that my iPod has become too old and too small for what I need. It's a dinosaur in the world of technology and it is less than a year old. I received the 40 GB iPod for my birthday last year and it was just before the new colorized iPods hit the market. My parents, who bought me the device, also bought me the Best Buy service plan, which I can use to exchange my iPod for the bigger and better one. Now that the new 60 GB iPods with video capability have been introduced, I have the urge to utilize the service plan to get the newest and the best of this technology.

But I hesitate.

Why, you ask? Because I know that as soon as I get home with my shiny new device I will receive word that Apple will be coming out with a bigger and better iPod and, again, I will be without the best around.

However, it doesn't end with the iPod. Computers have been made fun of by the likes of Dave Barry, Andy Rooney, and comedians the world over as being one of the worst investments because nothing will ever become good enough. To illustrate, one of my best friends built his computer himself with "top of the line" products just so he could try to have the biggest and the best for longer. His thinking was, he would make this machine so good that it would not become outdated for a long time. A year and a half has passed and just about every piece of hardware, software, firmware, shareware, and underwear he has on his computer is now available in the economy-priced Dells. His efforts proved to be fruitless. He wanted to upgrade again recently, but that would mean buying a new motherboard. For those of you who don't know, buying a new motherboard to upgrade a computer is like trying to upgrade your house by pouring a new foundation.

Nothing can be saved. Nothing is sacred.

So, what is the solution to this technology race? It's simple: contentment. We must try to become content with what we have and not try to find the Next Big Thing in our lives. Until recently, I was using an older laptop that I received as a high school graduation gift. That was six years ago. The technology wasn't the best or compatible with everything, but it was functional. I knew what I wanted to do with it and I did no more. It wasn't until recently, when it terminally crashed, that I invested in a new laptop and I started again. I see the ads for the new computers and the new iPods and the new whatever and I just stop and think: do I really need that?