Too much of a good thing

July 18, 2012 by Wendy Smolen

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier. But between tweets, pins, pings, and beeps, I’m becoming a little overwhelmed.  So I welcomed the chance to cruise through the CEA line shows as part of the Mom Bloggers’ tour led by Suzanne Kantra, Founder of Techlicious.  An edited version of CES, CEA still packs in product like a Lower East Side tenement and barkers hawk their latest and greatest to anyone who momentarily hesitates in front of a booth.  But I put on my blinders and focused specifically on mom-friendly devices.

Several assumptions about today’s Moms were made prior to pinpointing the products:

1. All moms have a smartphone. Be it an iPhone, Android, or anything else, moms are no dummies when it comes to keeping in touch.

2. Moms also have multiple other devices – iPads, Kindles, laptops – sometimes all three – plus kids’ tablets, handhelds and iPods. And they often carry them all, at all times.

3. Moms are still the ones that organize the family: keep the schedules, make the scrapbooks, and know where the keys are.

And herein lies my argument. Technology hasn’t really made moms’ lives easier. It just lets us do more things at once. More effectively. More fashionably. More effortlessly. But the operative word is still MORE.

For example, Kaboo makes trendy handbags that hold and cushion every tablet, phone, and laptop that we’ll ever need. They’re really pretty, fashionable, and practical. In fact, a hip mom could look like she’s carrying a Birkin bag, instead of a techno-cushioned laptop case. Inside, there are lots of extra pockets and places to stow stuff. So she can carry even MORE things. Which leads to the next must-have: when moms need to recharge all those devices.  MyCharge makes lightweight battery chargers to keep them powered up on-the-go. The Power Bank 6000 has sufficient energy to charge the average Smartphone four times – MORE than enough to get through a day without plugs.

Of course, a smartphone needs to look…smart. So instead of just slipping it into a run-of-the-mill case, a crafty mom can design her own using the Case-Mate DIY website to completely personalize a cover. But first she’ll have to choose a photo from a site such as Facebook or Instagram, then decide on a layout, rotation, color, size, etc., etc.  Yippee! MORE fun!  Of course, she could skip the Facebook photos altogether, and go straight to Woven, a free app that will aggregate pix from her multiple photo accounts to one master album.  It works on most phones, tablets, and e-readers, including the Kindle Fire and Nook.  And it gives new meaning to “less is MORE.” But what happens if a busy mom looks away from her devices for a moment (maybe playing with her child, for instance)? Oh no! She’s misplaced her phone! The Cobra Tag Universal is a sleek key fob and app that sets off an alarm when she’s about to leave without her stuff. No MORE worries!

If all these great ideas are giving you anxiety, welcome to my world.  Tell me MORE about it at wendy@sandboxsummit.org.