IF YOU’VE NEVER seen a tinkering video, picture a middle-aged bloke in a shed, unctuously dismantling an old Walkman, and then, "just for fun", putting it back together. The vibe is essentially an anoraky edition of The Repair Shop, but filmed on a smartphone, that for half its duration is solely a close-up of a hook spring.
I’ve met tinkering-type guys before: handing out flyers at antiques fairs, manning miniature railways, volunteering at community radio stations…they’re amiable enough chaps, but I am not one of them. I’m neither intrinsically intrigued by how things work, nor worry that the world is moving so quickly I must retreat to my mancave, surrounded only by objects that can be mended with a screwdriver.
I embrace technology. I prefer contactless payment to cash, streaming music to owning music, and Beyond Burger to Big Macs. And yet, after a few hours in the virtual company of tinkerers, I found myself becoming increasingly drawn in.
Partly, I suspect, this is because the items typically featured in the videos are so relatable: a battered control for a Nintendo Wii, a junked cast iron pan, an Epson dot matrix printer. This isn’t restoring a Rembrandt; this is the stuff we all have in our attics.
Bu hikaye Reader's Digest UK dergisinin September 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Reader's Digest UK dergisinin September 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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