Gadgets Blog: Unusual Gift Ideas

What exactly qualifies as a gadget?

A recent discussion between two of our Gadgeteers had over a recent ‘Executive Lunch’ looked for answers to the question “What is a gadget?” The dictionary definition of Gadget is – “a device or control that is very useful for a particular job.”

So this means that anything that serves a purpose classifies as a gadget. Doesn’t it? Well following this logic a cardboard box is a gadget, it’s a device that is very useful for storing and transporting things. For me this doesn’t quite fit what we think of as Gadgets here at Gadgets Towers. My personal opinion is that a gadget is something that instils a certain sense of excitement.Yes, we all know how small children are far more interested by the large box the washing machine came in than the ridiculously expensive Christmas/Birthday gift they were bought, but as an adult (at least in age) I don’t get that sense of excitement from these anymore. I think this is where the ambiguity of the term gadget comes from, in that we all have a different sense of what excites us.

There are those of us who are excited by cutting edge technology with a vast array of buttons, and dials to be fiddled with. There are those of us who aren’t too fussed by the technology as long as the article in question serves a use, whether it be a flying car or a sink plunger. There are those who are excited by kitchenalia, gardening devices, I could go on, but I feel you get the point. It would appear that the less than tangible quality of ‘gadgety-ness’ is very difficult to quantify, and leaves it like beauty, and so many other things as in the eye of the beholder, so maybe the question we are asking should really be “How would you define what a gadget is?”