Gadgets – Boon or Bane?

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This post was originally written and published on 7th July 2012.

But since then, more and more innovations have been developed. In 2017, a smartphone-controlled robotic chef was launched. The Moley robot chef, priced at only £10,000, promises to cook Michelin star food in your kitchen by mimicking world’s best cooks.

The latest “helper” is a US$16,000 Laundroid, the world’s first automated laundry-folding robot. All one has to do is just dump the whole lot of clothes into this artificial intelligence-powered laundry-folding machine. And voila! it delivers neatly folded clothes to you in a few minutes.

Are We Really Going to be Taken Over by Robots?!

These are fantastic inventions for sure. But I had only one thought – wow! How lazy are we going to get in time to come that we need a robot to fold our clothes??? Then Henson quipped, “No wonder we will be taken over by robots in the future!”

Hmm…

I guess if our children don’t know how to fold their clothes or cook simple dishes, we could be! Scary thought.

Humans are always trying to find an easier way to do our work. But I am now wondering if we are taking it to the extreme?

Original post from 7th July 2012

I first heard about the Thermomix in 2012.

(It was the hot flavour of the month. Currently, it is the Instant Pot, aka Pressure Cooker of our mother’s time. But powered by electricity and way fancier).

I was told me that the Thermomix would help me spend less time in the kitchen while serving up nutritious meals to my large family of 9. About the same time, a friend was lamenting over Facebook about how lost she felt without her gadget of choice – a functioning dishwasher.

Overly Dependent on Gadgets?

A thought came into my mind – are we becoming a society that is overly dependent on gadgets?

Now please understand that I am not against gadgets. I love my Roomba & Scooba robots. And I sure do not wish to go back to washing my clothes by hand! For a busy mom (working or SAHM) without any help, gadgets are a lifesaver.

But I also wondered, are the gadgets we use a help or a hindrance as we train our children to run their own homes (God-willing), in time to come? Will they know how to do basic household chores without machines? Like folding their clothes.

Will they even need to? Hmm….

Vacuuming vs Using the Roomba

Both the standard vacuum cleaner and the robot vacuum cleaner do the same job – suck up dirt. But vacuuming using a robotic cleaner is basically a no-brainer job. As long as one can press buttons, one can get the house vacuumed.

But operating the vacuum cleaner is a different kettle of fish. There needs to be some skill and strategy or certain places would not get vacuumed. Even more skills and planning are needed to sweep the floors.

Am I Being Old Fashioned?

What’s my point? I am thinking that as we look for gadgets to help us work more efficiently, we should not forget to teach our children how to do it without machines.

But then I am also thinking – am I just being old-fashioned? Do they really need to know how to fold their clothes/cook/clean when there are so many gadgets available to help us? After all, we do own a washing machine as mentioned.

Will our society morph into one where we don’t have to lift a finger to do anything anymore? That would be bliss, wouldn’t it? Or would it?

Food for thought.

I don’t have an answer. But thus far, we have resisted getting the Thermomix or Instant Pot, and a dishwasher and a dryer. But I wonder how long we would (could?) hold out.

Your turn

How many machines do you currently own and will fight tooth and nail to keep? And what are just meh?

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