Huddersfield poet Simon Armitage asks why we’re so obsessed with gadgets

Sep 28 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

YOU might associate him more with stanzas than satellite dishes.

But Huddersfield poet Simon Armitage is very much a 21st century man.

And his fascination with technology forms the basis for a one-hour film on BBC television tonight.

Upgrade Me, on BBC Four at 9pm, explores people’s obsession with upgrading to the latest technological gadgetry.

Simon said: “It’s a philosophical inquiry about why we feel the need to buy all this new stuff and whether that’s a good thing or not.

“I grew up in an age of analogue and mechanical machinery and we moved very quickly to the digital age.

“I’ve got draws full of stuff I thought I needed that I’ll probably never use again.”

The two-week filming process involved taking some footage on the moors near Marsden.

It also took him from Seoul in South Korea – the “gadget capital of the world” – to South Wales, where he met a woman who had shunned all technology to live a very basic life.

Simon said: “Is she better off? A lot of people would think she was mad, but she seems blissfully happy and she would think the rest of us are mad.”