Opinion: gadget gifts destined to gather dust

It might not surprise you to hear that I love a new gadget. Lifting the lid from the box, removing the plastic film from its screen, throwing away any instruction manual and waiting for that delicious chime that tells you it has come to life for the first time – sheer delight.

The best Christmas present I ever had was a gadget from my brother, a glamorous figure 16 years older than me who worked in the theatre. When I was 10, he gave me a Soviet-built transistor radio with rechargeable batteries, which he brought back from his travels. This was the first piece of technology that was mine, all mine.

The gift of technology

We did have a beautiful 1950s radio set, which had a lovely warm tone and a dial with distant names – from Hilversum to Schenectady – nestling alongside the BBC Light Programme. But I couldn’t take that to bed and listen to Radio Luxembourg or late-night sports commentaries under the covers.

My little transistor spelled freedom: I was in charge of my listening and could retreat to my room when my mother turned on the misery-inducing Sing Something Simple on a Sunday evening.

Later, when I was a student with ambitions to be a journalist, that same brother gave me his Olivetti Lettera portable typewriter, not just an essential tool before the PC era but a design classic that I last saw in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

But if you’re tempted to give your loved ones gadgets this Christmas, stop and think again. For one thing, technology has become a matter of personal taste, attracting strong likes and dislikes. An Android fan won’t want an iPhone or anything from Apple; a Mac lover will be derisive about anything that wasn’t designed in Cupertino.

Bargain-basement mistakes

Then there’s the matter of cost. Any gadget that’s really desirable will be much too expensive as a present for anyone but your very nearest and dearest. And if you give them a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip or an iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch screen, they might be too embarrassed to admit they don’t like folding phones or giant tablets, leading to frosty conversations a few weeks later when you notice the present is still in the box.

But if you look in the bargain basement you’re likely to find that when it comes to tech, cheap all too often means either nasty or just plain daft. Remember roaming the Gadget Shop in its 1990s heyday?

It all looked very cutting edge, but let’s face it, from electric nose-hair trimmers to Big Mouth Billy Bass the singing fish, it was the kind of junk that ended up in the bin a few months later. Why do you think the retail chain went bust?

So please, don’t buy me a shiny new thingamajig for Christmas. Like the British ambassador who in a possibly apocryphal story was asked by a Washington radio station what his fervent wish was for the festive season, I would prefer a box of crystallised fruits. Failing that, the choice of most of his colleagues, world peace, will also do nicely.

Rory Cellan-Jones is a guest columnist for Which? Computing magazine.

Were you considering buying a loved one a tech-related gift this Christmas? Do you agree with Rory that it might not be the best idea? Let us know in the comments.