It was comforting to learn from a story in one of the country’s most prestigious newspapers that I’m not the only guy out there who has trouble keeping up with those wireless AirPod things.
The Wall Street Journal ran a front page piece recently about how many people lose the sleek Apple earbuds that miraculously let folks listen to things on their iPhones with no wires in the way.
More than 50 million people are expected to buy AirPods this year. That’s a huge increase over the 28 million sold in 2018. One reason for the increase is that so many people are losing the devices.
Regina bought wireless earbuds when they came out three years ago and talked me into getting some last year. I had been satisfied for a long time with my old-fashioned earpieces, wires and all.
They got lost or misplaced once in a while, but another set didn’t cost much more than a hamburger and fries. The new AirPods sell for about $150.
There’s no doubt the wireless earbuds are more convenient than other kinds. You don’t get the wires tangled up in your clothes, bicycle handlebars and workout machines or damage your ears when you accidentally yank them out.
Now I’m hooked on them, but I’m already on my second pair. The first ones disappeared without a trace. That’s not supposed to happen with the Bluetooth tracking system that Regina had installed to help me keep up with the earbuds.
All that technological stuff is beyond my comprehension. All I know is the AirPods were never found at the locations where the tracking system said they should be.
Losing that first pair has made me a little skittish about using the wireless earbuds. I lie awake some nights wondering if I got them back into their charging case safely or if they have vanished again.
The AirPods have become almost indispensable to me. I listen to Merle, Willie and Johnny Cash some days when I walk and ride my bike and enjoy audiobooks a lot of other times.
Is has been especially nice to listen to books while walking, biking or at the gym. Before I started doing that, I suffered several minor injuries when I drifted off reading and a book fell on my face.
But I still have anxieties about losing the AirPods, especially after reading the newspaper story about how many other people have lost them. An executive at an investment firm has lost nine pair.
I can’t imagine that, because Regina and I spent hours searching for that first set I lost. We kept going to sites where the tracking system sent us and found no sign of the earbuds. Then we had to come up with a lot of money to replace them.
Sociologists, economists and other folks who do research on that kind of thing say it is pretty common for people in this country to lose things, waste hours looking for them and spend tons of money replacing them.
Experts say the average person misplaces nine items a day and spends a total of 2.5 days a year looking for those various things that they put somewhere and forgot where they left them.
Researchers who focus on the economy estimate that $2.7 billion is spent in America every year to replace things that go missing. It would not take many lost AirPods to cost that much to replace.
The one item that people misplace most often according to all this research is the remote control for their television. After our grandchildren visited once, we found ours in the potato bin of a kitchen cabinet.
Other things we misplace a lot besides AirPods and TV remote controls are car keys, glasses, umbrellas, cell phones, purses, wallets and ballpoint pens. I found my sunglasses once in the refrigerator.
People seem to be going to extremes to keep up with their ballpoint pens. I have been to offices lately where the ballpoint pens had big plastic flowers and things like that attached to the top of them. One secretary told me it cuts down on theft.
It’s not a bad idea. I’m thinking about sticking some plastic daffodils on my AirPods. Those fake flowers might look funny hanging from my ears, but they would be a lot cheaper than replacing some lost earbuds.
REPRINTED FROM THE NATCHITOCHES TIMES