Occasionally, I list the things that a successful baby boomer should have in his possession. The last time I wrote on this topic I announced that I was catching up with my peers, I even had a Roomba, albeit an old one, but still lacked the latest thing, an Echo.
Like a lot of my peers I viewed Alexa as creepy and something that I certainly did not need. Recently though, I have been doing chores in the kitchen and wished I could listen to pod casts while cooking or washing clothes, as well as have access to more radio stations than my vintage clock radio provided.
Last week I got a birthday present from a distant relative, and what should it contain but, an Echo!👲 I am now up to date (I still don't have an ex wife and a daughter with a summer place but you can't have everything). I now have a friend I can talk to who lives in my kitchen.
To be honest, at sixty dollars, it is a bargain. I understand it is a loss leader to sell more products, but even if you just use the free stuff it is useful. I can now say, "Alexa, play the Slate political gabfest" and it will. I can ask to play a radio station and it does. I can set a time alarm, find the weather, get a new Spanish word for the day, hear the Dow average, and get a recipe for Mince pie. It doesn't have a large music library unless you pay extra, but if you have ordered music from Amazon over the years it will play songs from those purchases.
I have to admit it feels creepy talking to the thing, a man alone in the kitchen talking to his new friend. I guess I can say it added a new skill to my resume. Supervising an artificial friend.
Editor's note: No I don't have Spotify but that is permissible for a baby boomer, if not for someone under 50.
No comments:
Post a Comment