If the technology of the past 20 years disappeared?

[GURUving]

What would you spend your money on?

We spend craploads of money on the trinkets of technology. Purchase a cell phone and time to use it. What could that money have been spent on?
Buy a car with all kinds of gadgetry that push the cost of transportation to the cost of buying a home. What could that money have been spent on?

I bring this up, because the consumer culture hits most of us. We have to have DVD players and cars with 12 speakers. Are we, through our consumption of every new product, helping to create the very type of world that I, for one, am resisting?

I watch tv primarily for sports, and each time am overwhelmed with the crap that is promoted and shoved down our throats.

Think of the amount of freed up money available if we drove cars to get from point A to point B only - no frills. Do we really need to have a phone stuck to our persons every minute of every day?

just a thought...............

[Robb]

1. Well, for one thing

...my computer would be once again state-of-the-art. ;)

I kid, of course. And I see (and enjoy) your point. :thumbsup:

[Deja Q]

2. VCR tapes and laser discs...

Try 40 years instead. :D

With nobody in my life and a general inability to converse with people, trinkets is all I've got.

Take that away and I'll buy a face mask, aquarium tubing, a plastic bag, some duct tape, a couple of rubber bands, rent a small tank of helium and take a guess as to what I'd do with it. Hell, I don't even need the helium; I can just be patient for 25 more minutes.

[frogfromthenorth2]

3. Easy.... I don't buy that crap in the first place...

No cell phone
No portable player
No home theater
No plasma TV (yet.... :-( )
No palm pilot
..........

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Of all this crap

we only have Palm Pilots and wiht ADD they are a god send,

Will need the cell phone soon, for job searches, but that is about it

[teach1st]

5. I 'm not a consumer.

My TV is twelve years old. My last car lasted years and years (and I just got a new one). I don't have a DVD player or a VCR or many gadgets at all. I can go months without grocery shopping. I'm not a consumer.

The money I spend on computing and my cell phone would be spent on books, magazines, and newspapers if the technology disappeared.

But I tell you what - I'd really miss my cell phone (even though I rarely use it, I like the security) and computer.

[Snow]

12. "Months without grocery shopping???"

:wtf - what are you eating?? or do you go months without eating? I used to have a friend, grad student in physics - quantam mechanics, of course - who stocked op on peanut butter and long loaves of white bread. That and a vitamin pill & he was good.

[david_vincent]

6. Yeah, but it's a thought worth thinking

I have no DVD player, cell phone, mp3 player, thumb drive, etc. Clearly I've bought into the tech thing to a degree, since I obviously have a computer, although I typed my thesis on a Smith-Corona manual typewriter. And I have some kind of palm device that was given to me, but I never use it.
And I completely agree with your point about cars. The idiocy that people just buy into when it comes to cars is one of my pet rants. When I was a kid, my dad had a subscription to Road & Track. I can remember the issue when they unashamedly had a ton of fun building a Pinto Pangra (the Pangra was a fiberglass dress-up kit for a Pinto). Nowadays they wouldn't be bothered turning their heads to spit on a Pinto; in fact, R&T became a car-porn magazine for yuppies. The idea that a car is mainly for transportation is now considered radical. This type of thinking is heading for a big, big fall when we really start running out of oil.
To answer your question, if the technology of the past 20 years disappeared overnight, I'd not only be just fine with it, I'd be happier.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. 1983 shopping list

Whoopass stereo. Lots, lots of LPs. Colecovision. Atari 2600. VCR. HP 41-CV. The most recent Apple II available. And an IBM PC. Do TRS CoCos exist yet? Commodore 64?

A ticket to the Brazilian Formula 1 GP, to see Nelson Piquet win. And another to the South African GP, to see him clinch the season title.

Waitaminnit. South Africa? In 1983? No thanks. I'll just buy a bigger stereo.

[Snow]

13. No, man - you want an Atari 800 -

I've still got mine in the garage. It was a wonderful machine. And, I could use it as a dumb terminal to the school Cyber 1600 or whateverthehell that accursed thing was. It came from Control Data Corporation, and ate cards......

[Faygo Kid]

14. No, no - Intellivision

My mom (RIP) could kick butt on Burger Time. Not only did I go for Intellivision, I was sure Beta would beat VHS then, too. So there.

[Intelsucks]

8. I'm still a vinyl junkie, so 20 years back wouldn't hurt me too much.

n/t

[beawr]

9. Vinyl Rules

Although I do kinda like SACD...

If we had to go back 20 years, I would have to learn how to make small talk again.

[Intelsucks]

10. SACD does kick ass. I hope the format survives.

I guess SACD and DVD-A may have to battle it out.

[Don_G]

11. I Buy What I Need

Television isn't a part of my long-term goals so I don't invest in Crap or Sports and pay for the privilage.

Actually, I've made a one-time investment in a Shortwave Reciever and a TV tuner for my notebook. As far as my pre-paid cell phone goes, I just blew my limit talking to a friend after six-months into a pre-paid plan and my next problem will be more a question of empathy than logistics.

I'm cheap....