For me it was the hula hoop followed by the transistor radio. I grew up during the 50s/60s. I was told we were one of the first on our block to have a television but I was a toddler and don't remember ever not having TV.

I enjoyed the advent of color TV, but at the time I was very busy working on my college degree and did not have time for much TV.

The first biggie for me was getting access to a computer. That happened during my 3rd yr of employment (after degree). The next really big thing for me was the pocket calculator with engineering functions. Holy Cow! That was a marvel. I could have used that thing much earlier and it became my companion for the reminder of my working career. I put my trusty slide rule away and never used it again. (I still have it somewhere.)

The next item was a bunch of electronic devices that invaded the engine bay of my autos. In my earlier life, I could not have envisioned this happening. It brought good along with the bad, and life got more complicated under the hood.

Auto electronics was soon followed by the internet - what an invention! The internet is still making changes in my life, and most are good.

Along the way, there have been many advances in the medical field: CAT scans, MRI, Digital dental X-ray, and endo-scopes to mention a few.

Oh, let's not forget the digital camera and cell phones.

One advance affected me and that was lab produced insulin similar. Originally, insulin was harvested from animals. Lab produced insulin lowered the cost and hazards, and increased availability.

That's a lot of change to adsorb in one lifetime!

Just a picky ticky point because it's a personal bugaboo -- It's the Tournament of Roses or Rose Parade. The Rose Bowl game was added as something to do after the parade, probably because it was safer than the chariot races they used to have. It's not, and never was, a parade for the football game.

B&W to color TV is incremental, and I can't choose among that type of thing because there have been so many! I think the first one that had a real impact on my life was an electronic calculator. The first one we had was made by an aerospace company and the size of a paperback of Gone With the Wind. I learned how to calculate logarithms and cube roots by hand, and could use a slide rule, but the portable calculator was sooooo cool. (Cross posted with Jemdandy. Glad you agree, J!)

Not to nit pick but I thought the question was the first new invention in memory, not the favorite.

I can remember when my aunt & uncle bought an air conditioner. They lived in Los Angeles and had money. When they got the air conditioner the whole neighborhood came to experience it. same experience when they got a color TV. Funny when you think back on those times lol.

Watchmelol,

If you meant me, what I meant by I couldn't choose among the incremental ones is that they're all a blur, and I don't remember anything standing out. I mean I remember being fascinated by the kitchen light switch and how the electricity went on and off, but that wasn't a new invention. I was just a little kid reveling in the magic. The calculator was the first one can think of as being something super--thus the first memory.

LOL plllog. No. I don't know your age so it is perhaps quite practical for the calculator to be yours. Jemdandy talked about memories of things at the time he/she was in college. Perhaps I misinterpreted the poster but I thought What is the first gadget or new appliance you remember being invented? meant one's first memory of something new, not necessarily something even liked or personally used. I thought she was seeking a generational answer going back to our individual eras. The hula hoop (the US toy version) was invented when when I was a child (1958) hence my first memory of something brand new.

Color tv's and calculators were already around when I was born and so was colored film and photos although my parents still took some pictures in black and white. A big change for us was the microwave and then the VCR.

I actually didn't know that about the Parade, but now that you mention it, the introduction of the Tournament of Roses comes to mind. I remember my older sister got to go help decorate a float once and see the parade. I was really very jealous. We lived in OC and were close enough to go see the parade but never did as a family.

For me it was T.V. period! Loved that black and white. After that, it would b the garage door opener.

As a child the television was my first memory. Our first was a huge container with a tiny screen and was, of course, black and white. I don't remember when color was invented but I'm sure we hurried to get one. The next life changing invention that I remember was the microwave in the early 70's. It was a heavy monstrosity for which we paid over $500!. While checking Wikipedia, automobile air conditioning was available in the early 50's but generally unaffordable until the 60's.

The dial telephone; no more opening the connection and hearing a live person ask, "Number, please."

Power steering. Have you driven a car without it lately? Hard work. Also families with more than one vehicle! )

Coaxial cable. Live TV broadcast from coast to coast.

Passenger jets -- and the lamented Concord. I never got to fly on one of those.

Transistor radios.

Salk vaccine; DH and I have friends crippled by polio and remember the fear. Antibiotics were even bigger, but first widespread use predates my memory.

TV -- and then color TV -- and then digital TV. The Watchman (not lamented). Personal video recorders -- lugging huge, heavy 'suitcases' along with a big camera, now the size of your fist or even short bits you can record on your cell phone.

The cell phone -- big as a shoebox, with an extendable antenna and limited service. Look what that turned into!

Swanson's TV dinner. (Tell me TV didn't lower standards!)

The personal computer, then the laptop, now tablets and cell phones.

The end of constricting clothing for women and the girdles, garters, and hose they required. Permission to wear non-hobbling footwear.

Home appliances -- so many labor-saving devices, and permanent-press fabrics.

Comprehensive bank credit for everyday use: Credit cards. (Creating a questionable benefit where few people actually own much outright.)

Radio - the box that talked!

ole joyful

The microwave oven. Beta & VHS video. DVD's. CD's. The computer. The internet. Car phones, cell phones, ipads. Ear buds. Air & gel in shoes.

you tell me..i was born in 1946....in our family, my dad was in the elevator industry...so the changes have been dramatic, to say the least...from operator in all the larger buildings, to one dh just sold, that was entirely of glass (including the floor!)

We've heard of at least one of the rules that is to govern folks who live in glass houses ... but I haven't heard any rules regarding appropriate decorum related to glass elevators.

ole joyful

VCR's and cordless phones. Can't remember which came first really but I remember thinking they were amazing!

About the first thing I remember being invented/brought out kind of crosses the border between appliance and gadget. It was the Veg-O-Matic. It slices, it dices and it even makes julienne fries! We bought one for my mother as a gift and even got the option wedge slicer since we thought so highly of her. Don't remember where we bought it or how we got it. My first experience with a disappointing "as seen on tv" item too!

Early -- I remember when my mother got a fully automatic clothes washer (prior to that, it was a wringer/washer that had to be emptied, clothes wrung out through the rollers, and refilled between wash and rinse IIRC). Seat belts. Stereo record players with automatic changers. Self defrosting freezers. Central air conditioning (somewhat later!) And Direct Dial long distance.

I remember the thrill of the freezer with its own door along the top of the refrigerator, instead of a little open box inside it. My dad was thrilled that he could have ice cream any time he wanted it. Prior to that, the milkman would deliver ice cream in quart containers with a dry ice slab attached to the box. Hopefully, it stayed frozen till dinner sitting on top of the ice trays. But sometimes, the little attached box had more dry ice in it that mom expected, and it would freeze the eggs stored in the refrigerator accidentally.