Smashing gadgets--social experiment or society crumbling?

In this world of geeks and nerds (ourselves included), we can count on this rule of thumb: For every hyped gadget made and brought to market, there's always someone, if not many, who rush to buy it only to take it apart. It's often a carefully for information about how something works.

Not the case, however, in the latest gadget-destruction trend--. "SmashMyiPod.com," and now "" are about getting donations to buy the popular products, and then smashing them on film. The stunts have led to the creation of the umbrella "SmashOurStuff.com," which also hosts "SmashMyPs3.com" and "SmashMyRevolution.com."

While the Toronto-based sites' creators say they are conducting a "social experiment" for entertainment's sake, some bloggers argue that they are merely hooligans who are bored and wasting money. Perhaps it's consumer backlash against overhyped products this holiday season, but the smashing of the much-coveting xBox 360 (see photos and video)--which some report has been malfunctioning--has received a lot of attention in the blogosphere.

Blog community response:

"This is not harmless fun, it is pure poison. Their enjoyment comes not from the achievement of values, but from the destruction of the values of others. Their response to the phenomenon a happy man, is to take his happiness and mangle it. This is what Ayn Rand so eloquently identified as, 'hatred of the good for being good.'"
--The Benjo Blog

"I have to say that I can in some ways, admire these guys. I don't know them, and am not speaking on their behalf but I think it is funny. The humor or having all the others watch in terror while they see a perfectly good (although that could be debated once booted) Xbox smashed to pieces. All those that say these guys are stupid for doing this miss the point...They are making a point that the mindless spending of money to buy this material item from the big corporations is, in their opinion, a waste."
--Jp Flatt on CNET News.com Talkback

"Some guys decided they would raise money, buy a 360, get it on the first day and take it outside to smash in front of all the kids who couldn't get one...Ah I love AmericaÂ…oops, cept that was in Canada!"
--TC 840 Foundations of Digital Media

"Now we could argue that this is a complete waste of money and that the money could have been better off going to a charity but a small part of me finds it quiet entertaining--I think its the fact that he has managed to piss off a lot of people!"
--Marky P