iPod!

Well, I finally did it. I bought an iPod. Engraved on the back and everything. That probably puts me in the late adopter category. Some of the early adopters out there would look down upon me as a band wagon fan, finally getting on board after everyone else is doing it. Some might even be a bit more snobbish, saying I’m just buying the latest gadget because everyone else has one and I want to be cool.

Both perspectives would be wrong. I’ve wanted an iPod since the first one hit the market back around 2000. I remember Christmas of 1999. MP3 players were just hitting the scene. Most had 256 MB capacity. I considered buying one. Then Apple announced the iPod. Whoa, its capacity was huge – 5 MB I think. So was its price tag. The price tag and hardware requirements kept me from buying one. My grape iMac did not have the necessary port, and since that machine was less than a year old, I was not about to replace it, just so I could buy an iPod.

I’ve since had access to computers that would enable me to use an iPod, but I have held out on buying one till now. Why? Because I knew the price would go down and the capacity would go up. Now that I have taken the plunge, I’m sure that within four months Apple will upgrade again and for the same price or less I will be able to store twice as many songs, video, or photos. Heck, they will probably enable it to play video games as well. For me, adoption of the latest technology is not about understanding or lack of vision. I’m as big a gadget freak as the next male. I get excited about technology and all its uses. It’s about economics. I still have that grape iMac, only because I can’t afford to buy another machine. When I count the financial cost, it almost always becomes prohibitive.

When I think about my faith journey, I don’t know if I would be considered an early or a late adopter. I grew up in church. Went almost every Sunday. I would not say that I came from a particularly religious family, but I went to church enough to understand what was going on and all the implications it had for my soul. During the spring of my senior year of high school, right before my seventeenth birthday, I took the faith plunge. I had my official “conversion experience”. All my friends had made similar decisions throughout the previous year. I kept holding out because there were certain sins I wanted to commit before pledging to live a life of holiness.

Looking at all this from an adoption perspective, some might consider me an early adopter because of my age. Some might categorize me as a “early” late adopter because most people who make such decisions do so before the age of 14. Another group would argue I only did it to keep up with my friends, therefore I was a late adopter.

I wonder how others feel as they go through their own faith journey, especially those who already are or will be late adopters. What do they really want and why? Do they feel the snobbish glances from the long-time Christians who wonder when all the sinners around them are going to finally straighten out? What is the cost analysis taking place in the late adopters' hearts and minds that keeps pushing the decision back? Let’s not forget the early adopters and their journeys. What caused them to make such an early decision as to pursue a life of Christian faith?

Oh well. I can’t wait for my iPod to get here. I’m excited about all the ways it will change my life. Just a thought.