We’re Tangled Up in Cord Technology

What’s up with all the stuff we need just to make things work?

I have cords of every kind all over the place but never the one I need. Extension cords of many lengths, computer cables that all look alike except for their tiny connectors. And they’re all tangled together like Christmas lights. Our electric cars share a large charging cable which is just a big fat cord.

Don’t want to buy a new cord for every situation? Buy adapters. For every cord there are usually many adapters to allow it to work with something with a different connector. And every time you buy a device that requires you to buy a new cord of some type, there’s almost a certainty you will do this again the next time you replace the device. Where’s Radio Shack when you need them?

Here’s a hint from experience: any time you consider buying a new device that’s on sale, make sure that it’s not a leftover model with out-of-favor connectors.

The best examples of cord-hungry devices are laptops, smartphones, tablets and TVs. Laptops come with as few as one or two device connections. You are expected to buy a “hub” that connects your external devices like storage and input devices to the laptop. And it needs to match the types of cables you use. I have a hand-drawn diagram of all the connections for Catherine’s computer hub. I should probably store it in a safe.

Adapting to Adapters

We have several adapters for charging our electric cars – one for our connection to 240-volt service in the garage and several others for the various types of commercial chargers we encounter on the road. We can even charge from a standard outlet as a last resort.

It’s good to be prepared for any situation. The good news is that there’s a standard connector rising to the top. The best news is that I’m paying about one dollar a gallon equivalent for electricity instead of four dollars a gallon for gas.

I seriously hope I never need to mess with any of the cables connected to my new large-screen TV. That’s because a TV is now more of an appliance that provides audio-visual playback for devices you attach to it. With cords.

Those cords connect to a historical smorgasbord of connection options on the back. If you recognize the obsolete ones, you’re old.

To reach them without requiring three sturdy men to remove the TV from the wall, you need a cartoon arm that can wiggle around tiny areas. Even the removable power cord has one of those impossible side-mount connectors to save space.

Deviceless Youth

We didn’t have all these problems when I was young because we didn’t have all these devices. I had an AM transistor radio. That was it. Remember when a TV had a two-wire connection for the antenna, a permanent power cord and was not mounted on a wall?

Back when we washed our dirty hands with Boraxo you could almost survive on a hammer, a few screwdrivers and several cheater plugs. We didn’t have duct tape, WD-40 or paper towels yet. We had some old two-wire extension cords and several antique lamp cords with cracks in the insulation that revealed the copper wire. Well, we didn’t have much stuff to plug in anyway. Power strips didn’t rescue us from one-outlet rooms until the 1970s.

There were no circuit breakers. If a fuse blew in the 60-amp service and the lights went out, we had to find our way to the first drawer of the pantry where there was supposed to be a working flashlight, a candle with matches and spare screw-in fuses. If there were no fuses, we prayed there were some by the fuse box.

I’m glad we don’t have to live that way anymore. But could we live without smartphones or digital TVs? They all need upkeep and some need cords. Some devices now connect to a network of devices wirelessly. However, the network the system “talks” to has wire and cords. You can’t entirely get away from them. And you can’t get away from the batteries they need if you want them to be truly portable.

I like having labor-saving devices that help simplify my retirement. It’s just that now they each need a smartphone app installed to hound me relentlessly until I do something for it. I guess that’s progress.

At least there are no cords involved.