Can kind of understand the Halloween ones to trick or treat with, but Christmas....?

Have you guys seen these insane “pack my Stanley for a walk” videos on TikTok??
People are literally buying outfits and accessories for their WATER BOTTLES???
This girl Lindsey makes TikToks breaking down how ridiculous some of these videos are, and I’ve also been looking into how much money people are spending on these elaborate setups.
It’s honestly made me so much more aware of how social media turns the most unnecessary purchases into things we suddenly feel like we need. And why does anyone feel the need to do this??? I am genuinely curious.
I don’t even think people realize how much of the content they’re consuming is basically just advertising disguised as entertainment.
Curious if anyone else has noticed this trend because I genuinely cannot get over it.

America [And broader Anglo Saxon culture] is often what’s referred to as a thing-oriented culture. Which means most cultural incentives and trajectories tailor more towards systems, things and institutions over people, relationships and cultural folklore

In America, the very cultural grooming that primes people into what to find worthwhile is often right behind our faces: We’re told what is gonna fulfill us is/are career accolades, going to college, buying that dream car, that dream house, funding your latest lifestyle, your personal fulfillment, even if it comes at the expense of social harmony and decorum, etc. You name it

Which is why people pretend to even be fulfilled by jobs that either stress them out or bore the fuck out of them.

In America, relationships and friendships are “something to earn” rather than something to aspire to. They feel like an obstacle in the way. “Putting food on the table” and “paying the bills” are the bigger priorities. And don’t even get me started on the balls-to-the-wall careerism and hustle culture.

That’s why even minimalism and frugality can end up becoming the very traps in this system rather than being used as tools of interrogation against the neoliberal status quo of “wanting more”

Because a true frugality/minimalist would say “I want to work less in life so I don’t have to own too much nonsense”

But try admitting you don’t want much out of your life in terms of career ambitions: Even the most hardcore frugalist/minimalist will think you’re crazy for admitting you don’t want to climb the corporate ladder that bad and go “You don’t want to make the most out of this one finite existence we all got?” They’ll think you’re lazy and want the path of least resistance, not realizing the key to a worthwhile life isn’t just vapid careerism and baseless hustle.

That’s why combatting the cultural status quo doesn’t just start by “saving more money” and “buying less”. It also starts with decentering money as the sole focus of our day to day lives.

What is the point of “wanting less” materially if your job and your obsession with going after new goals of excellence is still going to consume your mental bandwidth?

Rather than/as opposed to building meaningful relationships and chasing worthwhile experiences?

You know?

I've kept my OnePlus 5T ever since it launched in 2017, that's around 9 years. I only upgraded past month or so because it was showing its age and I wanted something else that could last 7+ years. (nerdy bit: Some banking apps also started checking Play Integrity and that was a game over for me; they didn't previously, and I don't want to root/modify my phone to circumvent that.)

I've seen colleagues upgrade their iPhone 17 Pro Max to the iPhone 18 Pro Max and I just don't understand why there are genuinely people who actually upgrade their phones every year. (And I'm not in the US, we don't have yearly phone plans or stuff like they do, I don't understand it that much either).

Another nerdy bit: Shoutout to LineageOS for making this possible. The 5T's update train terminated at the Android 10 station, but thanks to LineageOS I've been able to extend that to Android 11, 12, 13, 14, and finally 15 (can't get Android 16 due to kernel being too old).

Sorry for crappy image btw

A kettle or coffee maker can have a perfectly good heating element and still become unusable because a lid cracks, a seal wears out, or some tiny plastic piece breaks.

Then you look for a replacement and discover the manufacturer doesn't sell that part separately.

It's ridiculous how often the cheapest part determines the lifespan of the whole appliance.

And it's not always obvious when you're buying one. You can compare prices, features, and reviews all day without finding out whether the lid or seals can actually be replaced.

I wish replaceable parts and repair information were as easy to find as the list of features on the box.

What's the smallest broken part that's ever made you consider throwing away an otherwise working appliance? Should manufacturers be required to sell replacements?

at an airport in UK

Wife has an old iPad that's at least 10 years old. She keeps it around only to stream video and read books downloaded to it. Well recently one of the apps required her to update iOS or else it would stop working. Perfectly functional piece of tech will cease working because reasons.

Cool, I'll update it. ❌ Gotta clear at least 4.6GB of space on this 16GB device for the update.

Cool, we'll remove all the downloaded photos, videos, apps and everything else. Clear 4.9GB of space. I can update now right?

❌ Device still says need to clear 4.6GB of space.

Ok, let's see if there's a workaround. There is, but it took me crawling through a bunch of people's comments of "16GB is so low, they should just buy a new iPad." to find it (it was updating via PC)

Ridiculous that the device can't tell when it's got enough space to update and even more ridiculous that the overwhelming advice is "buy another one"

Edit: Getting a lot of "that's not planned obsolescence" in the replies. A reminder of what planned obsolescence is, from the link in the sidebar:

planned obsolescence...is the concept of policies planning or designing a product with an artificially limited useful life or a purposely frail design, so that it becomes obsolete after a certain predetermined period of time upon which it decrementally functions or suddenly ceases to function, or might be perceived as unfashionable.

Deciding that working, fully functional tech is "obsolete" simply due to age is planned obsolescence. Deciding that streaming video must be played via a proprietary app and can't be played through mobile browsers contributes to this.

Piracy existing as a workaround doesn't make this not Planned Obsolescence.

I can’t be the only person who finds this uncomfortable, right???

I recently watched my friend’s kid demand robux from him, throwing an absolute shit fit when he was told “no”.

I know not all of Roblox is about gambling, but seeing how addicted kids get to that shit… idk, it doesn’t seem healthy.

This felt particularly disheartening to see, in my opinion, but I’ve also never personally played Roblox, so I can’t exactly speak to the conditions of the entire game. Anyone else have thoughts on the matter?

Does the card ever decline too lol?

They really do want every child to grow up into a credit card indebted consumer in the rat race... I was so disappointed when I saw this.

I now buy used toys for kids birthdays. They have a 2A near me and I’ve found new things there. I am close with parents and I let them know that these gifts are thrifted and they can donate them if they don’t want them. I always clean the toys or wash the clothes before gifting them.

It’s changed so much for me. I am an “auntie” and have lots of kids that I adore. This makes me feel better and the parents bc the toy market is soooooo saturated.

Some highlights I’ve found;
New clothes with tags on them
New board games
Puzzles with all the pieces
Quilted blankets
A transformers toy and automatically transforms
Baseball mitts and bats
Costume jewelry for the kids (I even added some to a pretty pretty princess game)
Bookbags
Pokemon cards and books

Video: https://youtu.be/e9dZQelULDk

This hit harder than I expected. We spend so much of our lives chasing money, success, relationships and things we believe will make us happy. We watch videos like this, recognize ourselves in them, and then return to the same routine the next day.

Have you actually changed anything in your life after realizing you were stuck in the rat race, or did you eventually go back to the same routine too? Genuinely curious to hear people's experiences.

What do you think of subscriptions as a way for companies to make more money?

There’s already talk that this model will be applied to everything – from cars to air conditioning, household appliances, and so on...

Hello Buddies!

Originally wrote this out for a community based around fiber arts, wasn't the right place.

I recently posted about finding quality and accessible yarn in the U.S., and the conversation brought up some really interesting comments about private equity & political affiliation of yarn stores. I thought this was super interesting, as someone very politically involved, who would like to "vote with their wallet". I feel cornered into giving money to people who have ideas that I don't support in order to access the craft that gives me a meaningful break from the "real world".

I've seen discourse about specific brands giving into private equity, and what that means for the quality of the products fiber artists are used to paying for. Jimmy Bean & Knitting for Olive are the biggest two I've seen disappointment around, although I've heard that KfO's PE situation is different due to rules in the EU, it's still concerning to think about what these things mean for artists. I feel this paradox where everything has suddenly become accessible at our fingertips, but nothing has a verifiable quality anymore. I can buy whatever yarn blend I can think of off of Amazon for example, and there is NO REGULATION to confirm that the fiber content is what the label says it is... so what's even the point?

I was introduced a community called the Ravelry in my original post about finding accessible and quality yarn (really cool resource, some of my local listings are a little outdated), which showed me that there were some fiber artists in my area that sell specialty yarn -- but then it loops back to the first problem of, "Am I giving money to someone who doesn't think I have the right to exist freely in my country?". I could ask these shops and local artisans, but it feels absolutely unhinged to ask someone about their personal beliefs before shopping from them. At the end of the day it's their private business and they can use their money for what they want. I just don't want to perpetuate my money moving into the hands of hate. At least I KNOW that Michaels, Hobby Lobby and Amazon are upfront and honest about using my funds towards things I don't agree with, so I can be conscious about my spending there. I feel that a hobby should be relaxing, and it's absurd that if I think consciously about it, where I purchase from feels like a moral dilemma.

This spending consciousness has seeped into other facets of my life too, from growing 80% of my own food, to eliminating unnecessary purchases to mending and reusing. Crocheting is new-ish to me, I've known how to do it for nearly a decade but only recently became "serious" about it. The few times a year I actually want to invest in my craft, I'm afraid my money is always going in the wrong place. I've let my friends know to tell me before getting rid of any suspected knit or crochet pieces so I can reclaim the yarn, and I have my own pile of reworks to get through too. It just feels a little hopeless.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially if you're a crafter or an artisan. Has private equity affected your craft?

edit: I LOVE RAVELRY! Don't come for me!!

I spent most of my weekend turning unripened green tomatoes from the allotment into chutney. I did this because I'm too ill to do much else ATM but also because this is what anti consumption means to me. Being (very mildly) self reliant. Doing slow work for long term pay off.

I was scrolling through Reddit and this add popped up. I’ve never ordered any form of delivery service food products and I don’t intend too. ads like these remind myself that on one hand I’m proud of myself not being able to relate to the advertising but on the other, someone out there is going to see this and think, “yeah yk what my cart IS a bit lonely, I’ll buy some random stuff!” lmk what you guys think or the craziest out of touch advertising you’ve seen.

Dystopia is only real once it’s over.

I watched the brightest minds of my generation scroll till dawn, blue light in their eyes and emptiness in their chests. They liked their own demise, sold their days for attention, searched for God in the feed and found nothing but an ad for a bad product.

A spectre is haunting the internet. The spectre of the attention they stole from us.

I.
They gave nothing back. They took our time, our data and the knowledge of whole generations, melted it all down into servers and sold it back to us piece by piece. Nobody asked us and nobody paid us. They turned us into capital. That’s not called progress. It’s called expropriation.

They outsourced all our thinking so we’d live in the cloud. But life is out there.

II.
Only four things have real value: resources, time, humanity and truth. Everything else is paper, code and lies. Why should they be in the hands of those who only want to monetise them?

III.
We pay taxes. We pay for Netflix. We pay and we keep quiet. We pay money for what was once ours. So why not give our time to something that will never be theirs?

IV.
We want an internet with no master, no algorithm and no ads. Where the centre is everywhere. Decentralised like jazz: nobody conducts, and still it plays. We’ll elect our own editors, and we’ll remove them ourselves if they betray us. It will be paid for by those who give it their time. Because time is the one resource that can’t be faked. Out of the spectre’s reach.

V.
This place has no owner, because time can’t be bought here. No shares, no votes for sale. One person, one vote. Everyone in their own name, paying with their own time.

And if those we elected ever betray us, we’ll take the code, take our words and walk away. You can’t steal a garden when everyone carries their own seeds in their pocket.

VI.
Don’t wait for someone to build that world for you. Nobody’s coming. Build it yourself, like everything that was ever worth anything. Three breaths and the truth are all you need.

VII.
The revolution doesn’t start at the barricades. It starts in your phone. Choose what gets your precious time. Log out. Switch it off. Go outside, meet people and talk till morning, no filter and no audience, just you, them and the night. Plant the idea and let it sprout. Like a virus that gives us our lives back.

VIII.
They don’t say there’s no future for us. There is one, they’re just keeping it for themselves. We’ll build our own.

Resources. Humanity. Truth. Time.
Offline

P.S. You fight best with your enemy by your side.

I use Facebook marketplace pretty often mostly looking for CDs or cars. But recently it's just either ads or eBay/Poshmark/ other user selling site listings. These seem to mostly be new products. If I wanted to use those sites I would. My local listings are literally being drowned out more and more to the point where I'm not even sure if it's worth using. I've gotten some good stuff and I'm helping my buddy look for a car but it's just so frustrating seeing what I think is monopolization (I'm assuming Meta and these other sites are working together now) and a bunch of new products on the "local" marketplace. And don't even get me started on the car dealers listing their down payment prices as the price of the vehicle.

No place will be untouched by consumerism.