you know – this is always represented in the news/etc as ‘a starbucks a day’ but i mean moreso a gadget or a shirt. i’m splurging on deodorant right now. is that immoral? are you meant to have a mostly austere budget until you’re a boomer with a house and a fence?
so uhh what’s the last little thing you bought to not go insane?
I am fully disconnected from that mentality and do not miss it. I used to waste a lot of time around shopping for needless and pointless nonsense.
I will spend a whole lot more on things I really need or want, but I don’t feel like I am a target for marketing in any way now. My last major purchase was an AI capable computer which was likely due to YT and Reddit manipulated suggestions and visibility. I don’t regret that one. Since I quit reddit in June, I have also pulled way back with YT. I’m on Linux/Graphene and my primary network connection is though a whitelist firewall. That seems to be just enough to stop the subconscious motivations and desires for stuff I don’t actually care anything about like this.
It may be an unpopular opinion, but the best and brightest psych majors are going into advertising for a damn good reason, and it ain’t making prettier HTML banner ads like it’s 1999.
I recommend having a long think about that whole buying little things makes an emotion paradigm and start asking yourself what could be the causes of such behaviors and how they might have been intentional manipulation across platforms and information spaces. There is a reason why data stalking companies are so pervasive and everyone wants you to use an app where they have constant sensor data from your device.
That was an excellent thing to start my day with - cheers. I’m probably more like OP, but I like this perspective and am trying to move towards it. One habit that has helped is swapping phone time for book time. Even if there is still some phone time, any book time is a win: I learn stuff from sources I can trust, and there are no ads.
Feel free to start posting in Word of the Day [email protected]
I created it a few days ago for my own motivation to do more book time and start pulling a bit more out of what I am reading at the same time. You’ll probably need to add it by searching manually and doing a pending subscription until the transport bots sync across instances because it is new.
Exactly. Buying gives you a small dopamine bump, but it doesn’t last very long. The downside is that you spent money that could be better used elsewhere, got another trinket to crowd you out of your house, and probably distracts you from healthier or more fulfilling activities.