We will have to step back and take a look at what great new value these devices are adding to our li

We'll have to step back and take a look at what great new value these devices are adding to our lives.

Is one computer enough? Do you need one on your desk, one at home, and one for the road as well? Does your cellphone do enough, or do you need more smart devices? Do  you want a server in your home to keep all your photos and videos safe? If you’re even slightly influenced by today’s advertising and popular media, you almost believe you need a separate device for each hour of the day!

New form factors are proliferating, and high performance features are trickling down into ever tinier devices. A little while ago smartphones were supposed to liberate us from our heavy laptops, and then netbooks were the ideal secondary companion PCs. Now we have tablets, which are apparently not the easiest to hold and type on, but perfect for lounging with in bed. The flexibility and options we have available to us are more than welcome, but we need to make sure that each one has a clear, defined purpose and won’t lie unused after its novelty wears off. There’s nothing wrong with spending thirty thousand rupees on a gadget to surf the Web and play games on if you know it’s going to save your time, reduce your burden or increase your productivity. Similarly, if you’re going to exploit the full potential of a home theater PC and you know you want a separate, stylish computer in the bedroom, then by all means go ahead and invest in these two overlapping but complementary products. In fact, make sure you also get all the accessories you need to help them work together.

But it’s important to keep things in check. Data could easily wind up fragmented in many places, and it’ll be easy to forget where we’ve saved any of it. Then we’ll really need cloud computing and centralized storage to come to the rescue! Of course that’s not the only flipside to gadget indulgence. Our wallets will hardly be able to forgive us, we’ll have more chargers to worry about forgetting, we’ll feel worse as more things get obsolete, we’ll have to pay more and more bills for Internet connections and service subscriptions, and finally—unless we become super adept at switching between keyboards, mice, trackpads and touchscreens—we won’t know what to do with all of them after a point! We’ll have to simplify our lives. And at that point, we'll have to step back and really take a look at what great new value these devices are adding to our lives that we didn't know we couldn't live without.