I was doing some housecleaning this weekend and I decided to tackle the technology graveyard drawer. It’s the drawer in our household where all of the old tech devices eventually are stashed, when they reach the point where you are no longer using them regularly but haven’t quite figured out what to do with them yet. I’m guessing we aren’t the only home in the world that has a drawer like this.
The first step in the process was taking stock of what was in the drawer. We had a Google Android, a iPad, a classic iPod, an iPod mini, and three digital cameras, with assorted other tech bric-a-brac. Of course, our drawer also included a mass of different power cords and ear buds, all of which had been gravitationally attracted to each other until they had formed a gigantic, tangled wad, plus about a dozen plugs.
The next step was to determine which cords went with which devices, which required some careful, patient, cord-by-cord untangling, and then to see whether all of the old tech could be powered up and worked. To my amazement, all but one of the devices actually worked–although the iPod mini battery was so shot it drained almost immediately. Once I had successfully turned the stuff on, and powered up the batteries, I had to figure out how to turn them all off. Let’s see: how do you turn off an iPod, again? Fortunately, internet searches reveal old webpages and YouTube videos providing step-by-step instruction on powering off iPod classics and Google Androids.
After working through the process, I decided two devices should be exhumed from the technology graveyard and restored to active life: my old iPod and an iPod stereo device. As I listened to playlists from my old iPod, I looped up the different power cords and taped them up, so future cord wadding and entanglement would be avoided, and put the different cords with their respective devices, to avoid future confusion. Once I was done, I carefully put the devices that aren’t being returned to immediate use into a neatly organized box, feeling a sense of accomplishment. Only later did I realize that the box is simply a more portable, more orderly technology graveyard.
Will we ever actually use digital cameras again, with camera-capable phones always at hand, in our pockets? Will I eventually remove the Android tablet or the iPad from the tech graveyard and start using them in the future? I don’t know, but I just can’t bring myself to get rid of them yet, so we’ll just let them sleep peacefully for now.