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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Thinking About: Stuff

Sometimes I feel that I’m drowning in stuff. I have hundreds of CDs and DVDs and, of course, thousands of books. I have computers and a big screen TV and lots of other gadgets picked up along the way but I am at least glad that I don’t feel driven to accumulate more stuff just for the sake of it. I am not the kind of person who needs the latest thing or the best of a particular item. I have never understood the appeal of designer brands or the desire to own an expensive item – like a watch – where a cheaper version will do as well. I have never understood the idea of fashion where perfectly good clothes are replaced for others of a different colour or cut.

Maybe the origin of this lack of consumer angst is the fact that I grew up in relatively poor circumstance where much of the designer lifestyle was simply beyond our reach. Maybe I was simply too lazy to work my butt off getting the money together to buy something that I’d have to discard months later when a different fashion swept through the neighbourhood. Maybe it was simply that mother just didn’t raise no fools. Of course when I got my first job back in the 80’s I found that I had a lot more disposable income than ever before – despite being fairly low paid and working in London. Naturally I disposed of it almost as soon as it hit my bank account. But after buying things I’d always wanted – like a leather jacket I hardly wear and a denim jacket I wore to death – I fairly quickly ran out of things to buy. Strangely though I continued buying, feeling almost compelled to spend money on things I sometimes couldn’t remember buying. It was all rather weird. Pretty soon I got into the habit of asking myself why I wanted the shiny new object in front of me, where was I going to put it, when was I going to wear it. Inevitably my accumulation of useless stuff decreased and the size of my bank balance increased.

Of course I still buy things, some of which I regret later, but on the whole I can walk past the stacks of the latest ‘must-have’ item and find the majority of advertising amusing at best or deeply irritating at worst. Most advertising is designed to make you feel inadequate unless you’re in possession of ‘X’ – only to say in a year or so that ‘X’ is actually inferior to ‘X plus’ and that hanging onto ‘X’ just makes you look a sad failure. Well, I stopped listening to that bullshit years ago! Fashion and me only intersect when something retro happens and I’m still wearing the same footwear or some-such I was wearing ten years ago. For a vanishing brief period I am fashionable – until the next wave sweeps through and I’m just me again.

Whilst not exactly part of the make-do and mean generation (having never darned a sock in my life) I have had countless pairs of shoes re-souled and re-healed in my time and my mother spent countless hours on her sewing machine patching my jeans throughout my teenage years – I actually still can’t bring myself to throw away a pair of jeans just because they’re ripped somewhere (and I’m fashionable yet again!). I use things – be they shoes, kettles or computers – until they become unusable for one reason or another. I’m still wearing T-shirts I bought ten years ago and I used a kettle today that I bought for my new house over fourteen years ago. When I used to wear shirts and ties to work I even, for a short while, wore I shirt I’d worn in school – obviously before the middle-age spread hit.

So maybe I’m not in such bad shape as I thought I was. I have disposable income but little I want to dispose it on. Maybe after almost 50 years of accumulation I have simply run out of stuff that I want or the space to store it all. It explains the difficulty I have in buying myself birthday and Christmas presents (yes, I do that). I do have an extensive Amazon Wish List – just under 300 items – but it’s a list made up of nice-to-haves rather than needs or even wants. I’m just not a very good consumer I guess. Although I can think of much better things to be – like a thinking human being.

9 comments:

CRL said...

Oh no! The economy will die without your stimulation.

Scott said...

Getting religious on us CK? This whole post was almost word for word the message at our church last week. Except there was most give to the poor type stuff in it.

CyberKitten said...

CRL said: The economy will die without your stimulation.

I know [hangs head in shame]

scott said: Getting religious on us CK? This whole post was almost word for word the message at our church last week.

[laughs] Hardly!

Is not giving in to consumerist nonsense a religious attitude then? I just thought it was common sense.... [grin]

scott said: Except there was most give to the poor type stuff in it.

Well, I do give to various charities on a regular basis.....

Stephen said...

Consumerism is the religion, not the rejection of it. ;)

Scott said...

"Is not giving in to consumerist nonsense a religious attitude then?"


Oh you know, self denial is one of the long standing tenants of the Christian religion.

dbackdad said...

I'm with you. Consumerism is one of my all-time pet peeves. I don't buy much: books (entirely too many), music sometimes, and clothes (when I have to).

Advertising is really wasted on someone like me.

Good post.

CyberKitten said...

sc said: Consumerism is the religion, not the rejection of it.

Indeed.

scott said: Oh you know, self denial is one of the long standing tenants of the Christian religion.

...and of many of the Ancient Greek philosophers. Or are you saying that as an atheist I should consume *more* to prove my credentials? [grin]

dbackdad said: Advertising is really wasted on someone like me.

Ditto - though I do sometimes enjoy the technical aspects of it. Mostly I just get a good laugh out of the whole thing.

Scott said...

"...and of many of the Ancient Greek philosophers. Or are you saying that as an atheist I should consume *more* to prove my credentials? [grin]"

erm, no. I'm not really saying anything I guess. Just observing the similarities between your pride in not buying "too much" stuff and a typical christian's pride in not doing such and such (and in the case of this past week buying "too much" stuff).

Personally I find the idea of buying stuff being an "ism" as kinda silly.

VV said...

I love to look at catalogs that come in the mail and "wish" for things. I never get them of course, and the catalogs eventually go to the recycling bin. I've never had much disposable income ever in my life. When I was young and unencumbered, I made too little to spend on anything but the necessities. Then when money wasn't so tight, I had children with lots of needs, so mine took a back seat. Now that the last child is about to go off to college, I'm still paying off my own college debt and will be paying toward both of my kids' college expenses so they don't come out with a lifetime of debt like me. :-)