Simple Approach to Technology

This post was written by Anastasiya. Follow me on Twitter or StumbleUpon and keep your life balanced!

Image by Stephen Poff

Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.

Thor Heyerdahl

My family is temporarily living with my in-laws while we are waiting on an answer about a house that we’ve put a bid on (it’s a short sale, so it takes a looooooong time to hear an answer). Last year my in-laws decided to update their kitchen and bought brand new high tech appliances. I am the one cooking most of the time now that is why I am always on the war path with the “progressive” kitchen. My ultimate goal is to have simple appliances that can easily perform simple tasks:

Stove –heat pots and pans

Microwave – reheat food

Dishwasher – wash and dry dishes

Instead of having something simple and easy to use I have these monsters that can do everything that I do not need. A microwave that takes 5 minutes to sense how much food you have in the plate and calculate the necessary time to reheat it (it’s much simpler to set it on 1 minute and check whether the food is warm enough or not). By the way, the super microwave broke about a week ago and the repair guy said that it will be very difficult to fix it. A stove that has so many buttons that I can never remember which ones I should press to heat the oven (my babies press all of those buttons at the same time and the stupid thing does not have an option to lock the touch screen). A dishwasher that can chew up a whole cake but cannot clean plates and glasses. Simple living is not possible in this kitchen. Oh, and I forgot to mention, these are stainless steel appliances and the range has a flat ceramic cook top, so you have to clean these things every time you touch them or even breathe on them. What a waste of time!

So many things in our life get too complicated nowadays and simple living gets further and further out of our reach. We are forced to think that the more functionality the device has the better it is for us and the more efficient it is. We spend money on high tech gadgets and appliances that are supposed to simplify our life but in fact they do quite the opposite. I know some gadget-lovers who would starve themselves in order to get the money to buy the most up-to-date and feature-filled technology and say that they are marching in step with progress. Before you buy your next “progressive” gadget slow down and consider these few ideas:

• We waste our time browsing through options and discovering new features that we will use maybe just once in our lifetime
• We pay more for something that we do not need
• We get overwhelmed with the choices we have
• Complicated things break more often than simple ones
• If something breaks you will spend more money fixing it
• It takes more time to use a complex gadget than a simple one
• Ask yourself the question “What is the most important function of this product?” Look for appliances or technology that are great and reliable and that do not offer you any extra features that you do not need
• Simple does not mean old-fashioned (that’s a common misconception that I notice in gadget-lovers)
• Proprietary rights – if a device has some new innovative technology then manufacturers often place proprietary rights on parts in case you need to replace something and it makes any repair a financial burden for you
• Complicated devices won’t make you more productive

I think that life with simple technology is so much more balanced and easy. Simple functions make life … simple. What are your preferences?

Keep it balanced!