Title: On Consumerism
Slug: On-Consumerism
Date: 2014-10-05 16:37:00
Author: Kartones
Lang: en
Tags: Offtopic
Description: My personal efforts to resist consumerism, particularly in the tech industry, by making more rational purchasing decisions and questioning the necessity of certain products.

<p>Offtopic rants about how I see consumerism and try to fight it. Instead of vague advices, real brand names and real numbers (in Euros, current prices at Spain).</p> <p> </p> <p>Consumerism is the way capitalism tries to counterattack the fact that we could have many goods last for a lot more than before, being much better and for a fraction of the original price, but tricking us into constantly buying new "versions" of things, no matter if is a real need or not.</p> <p>This are just a few tech-related examples of how I recently (last months) triend to be a bit more rational:</p> <ul> <li>I now pay almost half of what I paid for a DSL line. In a world where you suck if you don't have optical fiber and the best speed, I'd rather pay the lowest DSL rate (with a provider that has good reputation) than pay twice or more for something I'm not going to use at full capacity.  </li><li>I dropped the house landline, despite the provider giving it for free to me "if I stayed". It was just a source of phone spam, so let's be lean and "elimitate waste", if I don't need it, out of the equation. </li><li>I pay the lowest data plan for my mobile line with Pepephone because I almost never make calls. I have no push notifications except for Whatsapp (and no lock screen notifications except a green Android "notifier light"), I don't need "audio tethering" as I have my old beloved MP3s which I can just copy in the phone's memory, so I'm far from consuming not even half of my data plan (1.2GB).  </li><li>I gave my iPhone 4 to my girlfriend after almost 4 years of using it and bought a cheap bq Android phone (Aquaris 4.5E model). It's faster than my old iDevice and I charge it <em>twice a week</em>, plus is way more open for development if I want to dig into. I could also destroy 4 of this phones and still be cheaper than a the cheapest current iPhone. </li><li>I sold my XBox 360 &amp; games [1] and used that money and a bit more to buy a PS3 and 21 games for about the price a PS4 costs. The console and a few games are new, others are 2nd hand. For me the quality or interest of a console is the sum of its games, not some hardware specs.  </li><li>I used to buy tons of Steam games and Kickstarters (dozens of backed projects, although including boardgames). As my time is quite limited, I now wait and think twice before shopping or directly wait for sales/offers, as I already have lots and lots of "pending entertainment".  </li><li>I dislike Macs (except their trackpads which are awesome), so when I switched my laptop a year ago (after ~5 years of service of last one) I chose a Dell XPS 12.5" ultrabook. 4th gen i7, SSD, 8GB RAM, 8h of battery and FullHD "pseudo-retina" screen for less than a MacBook Pro. And a touch screen that I disabled the first day and never used again.</li></ul> <p> </p>
<p>With all this I am not saying "<em>I rock, you suck</em>", I am just asking "<em>are you sure you really need that?</em>". </p> <p>Consumerism will always reply "<em>yes, don't think and just do it!</em>". I'd rather spend more money in buying better organic food and having the pleasure of tasty meals, than in the latest tech [2]. And I love my tech-related job.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
<p>[1] The collector inside me is strong, but I no longer get so attached to physical consoles and games. I already have lots of consoles and games like a perfectly working original Game Boy, but I prefer to "exchange" consoles and play more titles than pile up games I've finished and might not get back to ever again.</p>
<p>[2] I know a lot of people who prefers to save on food (eat worse &amp; cheaper) than cut on technology.</p>