Consumer electronic devices are ubiquitous in western society today. You can not go anywhere without seeing someone using their mobile phone or staring blankly into a portable games machine. I recently went on a holiday to the beautiful island of Rugen in Germany, and as well as the beaches and other natural landscapes that I saw, there was also lots of consumer technology almost everywhere I looked. Consumer electronics is quite a broad term, and there are a number of common devices that fit under this definition. While most of these devices did not even exist a few years ago, it seems like some people today can not live without them.

I checked into my Baltic Sea Hotel at about 2.30 in the afternoon, and was looking forward to a couple of hours doing nothing as I relaxed from my long drive over to the island. This is where I saw my first gadget, a family of English people waiting in the lobby, the teenage son busily playing on his game-boy, or his Nintendo, or another make entirely – I don’t know any more, there are so many of them out there. This was a fairly common occurrence, but did seem a touch out of place here in Rugen. This did not prepare me for what I saw later on the next day however, and the scene which really inspired me to write this little rant.

First I have to make it clear that I am not against consumer electronics, in fact it is quite the opposite. My job is as a developer for an international electronics company based here in Germany, and I know just how amazing these devices can be. On my second day in Rügen though, after waking at my hotel auf rügen and deciding to go for a nice long walk on the beach – I was a little shocked by what I saw. There I was in a fantastic natural environment, really feeling the calmness that seemed to permeate such places, that I came across a group of four young women.

I am not kidding when I tell you that each and every one of these four was using one of their gadgets when I first saw them. The first girl was talking on her phone, the second was staring into a portable computer of some sort and the other two were taking turns listening to an MP3 player – I was truly astounded. I had seen this scene so many times before in the city, but something about it happening here really had an impact on me. While consumer electronics are without a doubt wonderful things, I think it is important that we don’t rely on them at the expense of the other equally wonderful things that are all around us.