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For some reason I save the boxes of most of my consumer tech gadgets. Looking in the closet where I keep them makes feel sort of sick. At myself. And yet I wan

by theNJR 8y ago

For some reason I save the boxes of most of my consumer tech gadgets. Looking in the closet where I keep them makes feel sort of sick. At myself. And yet I want this lamp. Technology addiction. As a caffeine addict, I've 'gone off' it before, and for three days it's terrible. There is a very physical withdrawal. With technology, the addiction manifests as a light, ever present anxiety. Both in the use and acquisition of such products. I don't know where this all goes.

djsumdog 8y ago
What really made me sick was living in an apartment building and seeing the piles of Amazon boxes in the basement/recycling area. General consumption is a problem far worse that CO2 emissions. Our e-waste is destroying water supplies in the African nations it's all shipped to, where kids dig through old products for any salvageable metals and components. Resist the urge to buy useless stuff.
- CamperBob2 8y ago
  What entitles you to proclaim that your neighbors are buying "useless stuff?" You'll see a lot of Amazon boxes in my recycling as well, but they all contained things I would have purchased anyway after driving to a store someplace.
- magduf 8y ago
  Are those Amazon boxes really that wasteful? The alternative is probably people driving to various brick-and-mortar stores to buy these things. How much carbon emission was avoided by having these people buy from Amazon and have it all delivered on one truck? Amazon doesn't just sell unnecessary trinkets, they sell everything, including everyday items you'd probably buy at Walmart/Target/the mall/etc.
lm28469 8y ago
"In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption. The dictatorship of consumer goods has finally destroyed the barriers of blood, lineage and race; this would be good cause for celebration were it not that consumption, by its logic of things, forbids all qualitative difference and recognizes only differences of quantity between values and between men." - Raoul Vaneigem
everyone 8y ago
For me I've found logic, pragmatism and the seeking for and analysis of any facts or data I can find has cured some mental problems for me* All of these gadgets provide utility, but with a cost, in money, time, having to remember to charge it, the weight of carrying it around, the space it takes up in your house, the mental resources it uses having to learn how to use it and think about it etc. Its like, in the 90's I could have had a PDA, personal digital assistant, it has so much functionality, calendar, clock, track your appointments etc. But its another thing u need to carry, you need to periodically buy batteries for it, you also have to enter the your appointments into it. A small notebook and pencil was just a better overall solution when you do a cost/benefit analysis of it holistically. I think you could easily rate your existing stuff, eg. (If its not a tool) and you havent used it in the last month then its basically useless and you can get rid of it. Also for prospective stuff, you could ask, will this save me time? Will it save as much time as I spent working in order to earn the money to buy it? *my example is anxiety, I would be anxious that I'm having a heart attack or a stroke or something is medically wrong with me. So I looked up the actual symptoms of those things, which are like fainting, nausea, dizzyness, blurred vision etc. If I ever felt anxious I would go through the list and determine if I actually was really experiencing any of those symptoms. The answer was inevitably no, 'feeling a bit weird' was not one of the symptoms. This helped each time, and after a while I stopped feeling anxious altogether.
- frosted-flakes 8y ago
  Ahh, the hidden cost of stuff. Everything comes with a bit of baggage. Where to keep it, how to maintain and repair it, how to find it amongst your other stuff, and how to get rid of it once served its purpose. It gives me a bit of anxiety just thinking about it.

by theNJR 8y ago

djsumdog 8y ago

What really made me sick was living in an apartment building and seeing the piles of Amazon boxes in the basement/recycling area. General consumption is a problem far worse that CO2 emissions. Our e-waste is destroying water supplies in the African nations it's all shipped to, where kids dig through old products for any salvageable metals and components. Resist the urge to buy useless stuff.

CamperBob2 8y ago
What entitles you to proclaim that your neighbors are buying "useless stuff?" You'll see a lot of Amazon boxes in my recycling as well, but they all contained things I would have purchased anyway after driving to a store someplace.
magduf 8y ago
Are those Amazon boxes really that wasteful? The alternative is probably people driving to various brick-and-mortar stores to buy these things. How much carbon emission was avoided by having these people buy from Amazon and have it all delivered on one truck? Amazon doesn't just sell unnecessary trinkets, they sell everything, including everyday items you'd probably buy at Walmart/Target/the mall/etc.

lm28469 8y ago

"In the kingdom of consumption the citizen is king. A democratic monarchy: equality before consumption, fraternity in consumption, and freedom through consumption. The dictatorship of consumer goods has finally destroyed the barriers of blood, lineage and race; this would be good cause for celebration were it not that consumption, by its logic of things, forbids all qualitative difference and recognizes only differences of quantity between values and between men." - Raoul Vaneigem

everyone 8y ago

For me I've found logic, pragmatism and the seeking for and analysis of any facts or data I can find has cured some mental problems for me* All of these gadgets provide utility, but with a cost, in money, time, having to remember to charge it, the weight of carrying it around, the space it takes up in your house, the mental resources it uses having to learn how to use it and think about it etc. Its like, in the 90's I could have had a PDA, personal digital assistant, it has so much functionality, calendar, clock, track your appointments etc. But its another thing u need to carry, you need to periodically buy batteries for it, you also have to enter the your appointments into it. A small notebook and pencil was just a better overall solution when you do a cost/benefit analysis of it holistically. I think you could easily rate your existing stuff, eg. (If its not a tool) and you havent used it in the last month then its basically useless and you can get rid of it. Also for prospective stuff, you could ask, will this save me time? Will it save as much time as I spent working in order to earn the money to buy it? *my example is anxiety, I would be anxious that I'm having a heart attack or a stroke or something is medically wrong with me. So I looked up the actual symptoms of those things, which are like fainting, nausea, dizzyness, blurred vision etc. If I ever felt anxious I would go through the list and determine if I actually was really experiencing any of those symptoms. The answer was inevitably no, 'feeling a bit weird' was not one of the symptoms. This helped each time, and after a while I stopped feeling anxious altogether.

frosted-flakes 8y ago
Ahh, the hidden cost of stuff. Everything comes with a bit of baggage. Where to keep it, how to maintain and repair it, how to find it amongst your other stuff, and how to get rid of it once served its purpose. It gives me a bit of anxiety just thinking about it.