The shop assistant looked aghast at me, "No, we don't have that hands-free kit, the phone is old," she told me. Old? I thought, but I've only had it for a year. Admittedly, perhaps it wasn't that year's model when I bought it, so how would I be able to fix it or replace accessories? And since when was a one-year-old phone considered "old"? It's not like I'd asked for a replacement Amstrad CPC monitor (if you remember them, it's a sign of your age).

I dutifully searched the internet, looking for a used hands-free kit to fit my "old" phone, finding a huge total of none. Maybe people just liked their hands-free kits, I thought, or maybe they'd done away with their "old" phones as well.

This got me thinking about the rapid pace at which consumer goods (increasingly "fast-moving") are leaping ahead, leaving people behind.

The first mobile phone I had weighed a tonne, had a pull-out aerial, the battery became boiling hot after 10 minutes' use, it didn't have a text message service and was only meant for emergencies. This was when not everyone had a mobile phone and pagers were just beginning to emerge as new-fangled technology.

Before this amazing appliance of science was mine, I would ring a friend on my mother's land line before leaving the house, to arrange meeting up. Then perhaps they'd ring her after I'd left, to double-check what time to meet me. If someone was late, you had to wait. If someone missed the bus and didn't meet you when they said they would, you had to just wait where you had arranged to meet.

Growing up in the countryside, the phone reception in the area was dodgy anyway (and still is, actually), peppered with so-called black spots. Fat lot of good the phone would have actually been in an emergency, as there was only one lay-by between my village and the nearest town (half an hour's drive away) where the reception worked. I just hoped and prayed that if I did break down in my rusty 1989 Volkswagen Polo, it was near the only "hot spot"!

Those days seem far away now and I often think back to them while I'm twittering on my BlackBerry. Fast-moving consumer goods are moving fast indeed, but too fast? Surely I should be able to use a modern push-email device for more than one year?

Behind the times

For the first time ever, I felt like I was behind the times with technology. Just one generation above mine weren't brought up with computers and modern technology. My mother has still never used a computer, refuses to buy a mobile phone and I had to show her how to use the cash "computer". I'd never thought of a cash point as a computer before then.

So perhaps now I'm the next generation of my parents' generation. Will technology eventually overtake me? Will I become one of the next generation of silver surfers?

To me, electronic goods (including mobile phones) should last longer than a year. Sure, some people like to change their hand-helds as soon as the newest version comes out. But that's a fashion statement. It's great to have lots of gizmos and gadgets on your phone, but replacing it every year for the sake of a new application or increased features? I don't think so.

I still use the hair dryer that I got for my 15th birthday. It still dries hair and the hot/cold settings haven't failed me yet. A few replacement fuses in the plug is all that has been needed to keep it going.

Maybe the older generation is right, "they just don't make them like they used to".