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$68,000 AirPods and 10 Other Terrible Gift Ideas for Tech Lovers

Stop the waste! Make better choices!

Angela Lashbrook
OneZero
Published in
6 min readDec 4, 2019

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Photo: Caviar

TThe amount of junk out there is an honest-to-god tragedy. And it’s worse around the holidays when Americans produce 25% more trash than normal. Much of that is wrapping paper, ribbons, and so on, but there’s also a lot of worthless crap many of us give and receive as gifts that ends up in a landfill.

We are, nevertheless, encouraged to buy our friends and family unwanted rubbish as a way to show them our love and appreciation every holiday season. And electronic waste may be the worst of all — it’s difficult to responsibly dispose of and is sometimes toxic. So, if you’re going to gift a gadget, at least make it a good one.

Below, I’ve gathered up some of the worst holiday gift ideas that your loved ones will almost surely stifle a laugh at after tearing off the wrapping paper before discreetly throwing it away. Save yourself the money, the grief, and your local landfill.

Owlet Smart Sock: $300

“The Smart Sock comfortably wraps around your baby’s foot to track heart rate, oxygen levels, and sleep using clinically-proven pulse oximetry,” the company says.

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Angela Lashbrook
OneZero

I’m a columnist for OneZero, where I write about the intersection of health & tech. Also seen at Elemental, The Atlantic, VICE, and Vox. Brooklyn, NY.