[Porsche-O-Phile]

OK, here's the devil's advocate position (and possibly the opportunity for someone to convince me to go get one):

The $300 question:

"If I've lived my life just fine up to now without an iPhone, iPod or other 'electronic-doohickey-du-jour', so why exactly do I need one now all of a sudden?"

Sorry to sound Theodore Kaczynski-ish here, but I really find "consumer electronics" to be a rip-off of epic proportions more often than not. I use a computer at work, yes - but it's mostly because I have to, not because I want to. I tend to jot notes to myself on a $0.99 notepad with a $0.19 pencil, which works just as well as a $400 electronic thing-a-ma-jig, and it doesn't need batteries or kill the environment or short out if I drop it in a puddle by accident. It isn't "Made in China" either, which actually means a lot to me. If I need to go somewhere unfamiliar, I use a $2.99 map, not a $999 GPS unit. Or I print out MapQuest directions ahead of time and take them with me. I INTENSELY dislike electronics in vehicles and the tendency towards "digital everything". It ain't necessarily better.

I actually prefer hand sketching to AutoCAD and models to 3D-Studio renderings. It's just my nature I guess. I (generally) prefer the real world to the synthetic world of electronic junk that so many people are so enamored with. I'm not a total anti-technologist here (I do use the Internet a lot and see the value of certain innovations), but I think it's WAY overdone for WAY too many people. I actually don't even particularly like having a cell phone and generally don't use it for much other than calling my wife occasionally or texting a friend about something. I don't see the need (or the desire, personally) to be connected to the world via electronic leash 24/7/365.

I spend VERY little on electronic fads every year, and don't generally regret it. I've considered (and rejected) getting an XBox 360, an iPhone, a plasma television, HDTV and VOIP - all just within the past year. However, if there's someone out there who can convince me as to why exactly any of these things are so indispensable and cool and why I absolutely will be better off with one, I'll take it under advisement.

Salesmen, take your best shot and convince me here. Am I missing something entirely? Am I being hopelessly "old fashioned" or am I really (as I suspect) peeling back the B.S. veneer of yet another overpriced toy that will be in landfills in under three years?