GADGET OVERLOAD

NEW YORK – Kira Marchenese works in online communications, and so she arrived on a business trip to New York earlier this week equipped with all the gadgets you might expect: personal smart phone, work smart phone, laptop, iPod Touch.

Problem is, her hotel room didn’t have enough outlets to keep the darned devices charged. “I unplugged the lamp and still couldn’t do it,” she noted ruefully. “At least half the things I’m carrying right now are just dead hunks of metal.”

And so, though communications is her world, Marchenese has no plans to rush out and buy the iPad, Apple’s new tablet device unveiled with much fanfare on Wednesday. She just doesn’t see the need for yet another gadget.

Nor does Ray Bowman, a self-described “techno-junkie” who lives on a farm in Kentucky, raising sheep some 60 miles from the two nearest Apple stores.

Bowman spent Wednesday eagerly following the news of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ presentation, via Twitter, Facebook and wherever else he could find it. “I can’t wait to see what this puppy is capable of,” he enthused beforehand.

And yet by Thursday, he’d decided not to jump in, even though he still plans to swing by the Louisville store when the iPad is in, just to examine it in his own hands.

“I’ve seen the hype and the afterhype,” said Bowman, 58, executive director of an agriculture-oriented nonprofit organization. “I’ll stick with my netbook. Right now, I can’t see making the switch.”

Marchenese and Bowman use at least seven devices between them. Are they indicative of a cultural tipping point, a sense of general gadget overload? Steve Jones, a historian of communication technology, has seen signs of it and believes it’s at least partially connected to the state of the economy.

“I think we’re at the point where we’re getting a little more mileage out of our old gadgets, being a little more budget-conscious,” says Jones, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“There’s a significantly growing culture of people tweaking their old technology to keep it useful,” Jones says. “For some, it’s actually a point of status now to get more mileage out of their gadgets.”

How many gadgets do we own, anyway? The average teen has 3.5, according to figures compiled in September by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and provided to the Associated Press. Adults between 18 and 29 averaged nearly four gadgets and those between 30 and 64 just under three.

Seen from another vantage point, the average household owns about 24 electronic gadgets, according to the Consumer Electronics Association – a figure that includes TVs, mobile phones, computers and home receivers.

For others, it’s also a matter of scarcity, not of money but of time – time to set up and really learn how the things work.

“Every new device is an investment in time,” says Marchenese, 36. “The whole power of the device is that you can set up all these apps – but that doesn’t happen by itself. And if you’re not going to make the most of it, why have it?”