Our essential technology

It has been weeks since the coronavirus brought our lives to a halt, shutting down schools, offices and gyms. Stuck at home, we have had nothing but time to reflect on the things that matter. Consumer technology — most of it, anyway — is low on the list.

That’s right. I’m admitting that many of the high-tech innovations I regularly cover in this column — from foldable smartphones to doorbell cameras — are excessive, even if they are kind of neat. In a crisis, our most important tech — what we have turned to again and again — has boiled down to a few basic items and services: