18 Dec 2011, 05:07
I'm hooked! 
Nice photo (nice watch too!). I like how the displays on these Hughes modules are made up of little square dots / pixels.
These sorts of forum posts always seem a bit like an introduction at an AA meeting: "Hi, my name is __ and I'm addicted to LED watches." Welcome to the group. It's a completely ridiculous obsession, you must admit. I mean, LED watches don't actually DO a whole lot and they're not even available on all that many styles or colors. However, some people seem inexplicably drawn to them. There are two main competing theories as to the cause: nature and nurture.
1) Nature: the "magpie" effect
You may be able to blame your obsession on biology. Are you easily distracted by bright, shiny things? Were you obsessed with Christmas lights, lasers, etc. as a child? You are probably prone to the so-called "magpie effect" - the tendency for certain birds (and humans) to be helplessly attracted to shiny things. For example, many birds will incorporate tinsel into a nest if they run across it or peck endlessly at shiny objects. The phrase "magpie effect" has also come to mean a tendency to hoard small objects, but I have always understood it to refer specifically to bright, shiny things.
2) Nurture / Nostalgia:
If you are 40 something years old or thereabouts, then you may have been given an LED watch as a child, most likely a plastic watch from Texas Instruments. For this population, the bright red digits evokes a feeling of childhood and the associated optimism of the future that came from growing up in the post Apollo years, watching Star Trek, waiting with anticipation for your turn to ride on the Space Shuttle and generally dreaming about how awesome the future would be.
So, yeah, it's a silly infatuation, collecting these shiny little gadgets, but you might as well embrace it rather than trying to justify or make sense of it.
-abe.
