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Deconstructing your consumption
Rob Walker
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KAI RYSSDAL: So, consumers are feeling better. Great. Maybe now we'll all start buying more stuff, the economy will turn around, and by springtime this whole mess is a distant memory. . . . Or maybe not.
But either way, commentator Rob Walker says now's a good time for us to take a hard look at our habits. Not just what we consume, but how.
ROB WALKER: Lots of us are having second thoughts at the point of purchase these days. But if the economy has you feeling like you want to change your shopping habits, don't just think about it when you're standing in front of the cash register. Think about it when you're standing in front of your stuff.
The ads and the sales promotions we're bombarded with all point us to the moment of purchase, and admit it, that's the part of shopping we focus on, too. It feels good to get the latest tech toy, or the new pair of premium denim jeans, or the great deal on 400-thread-count sheets.
That's the consumption climax, but isn't the end of the story. That comes on the inevitable day when whatever you bought is used up, obsolete, or found neglected in the back of the closet. We go to one store or another every week for new stuff, but we don't spend a lot of time dwelling on our old stuff. Instead we put that off, maybe because it can be an uncomfortable moment of truth: Where did I get all this stuff?
Actually, that's exactly why you shouldn't avoid such moments. For starters, it's worth trying to wring some satisfaction out of how we get rid of things -- how we unconsume. Just replaced that perfectly good tech toy with a newer one? Well, finding your unconsumed possessions a new home through Freecycle, Craig's List or even Goodwill feels better than throwing them out in a big purge before you move.
But the more lasting payoff is that embracing unconsumption moments, instead of avoiding them, offers a whole other way of evaluating your consumption habits -- for better and for worse. Those premium jeans went out of style way before the denim wore out. But those sheets were actually worth the money. You'll learn a lot more from your own stuff than you will from the latest sales promotions. And it might just change the way you shop.
RYSSDAL: Rob Walker writes the "Consumed" column for The New York Times Magazine. His latest book is "Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are."
After spending 4 months renovating a new home, the old home and moving a family of five, your commentary resonates with my experience.
The deconsumption exercise isn't just good advice, it seems requisite for truly simplifying your life.
And, Just in time for Xmas, I have spent several hours each week this fall reconditioning and donating all the old items that 19 years in one house offered up as we peeled thru the storage layers.
While I enjoyed revisiting my stuff (crap) I'm now a reformed consumptionista, having discovered the thrill of the chase was more fun than owning (and storing) the "toys."
I was listening again to Friday's Marketplace, where you had the comments from Rob Walker about "unconsuming". This idea echoes one that I embraced a few years ago, during the (previous) economic downturn. I was not working, and thus had reeled in my consumption, and did that survey of my stuff that Rob recommended to people (as do I).
As I looked over all the books I hadn't read, the DVD's I hadn't watched, that telescope that I'd bought 5 years before, but still didn't really know how to use well, I decided that the time had come to stop mindlessly consuming, and to start "digesting" all the things I'd accumulated in the times when I'd been making money, but spending time at work.
Since I now had time, and was watching my money, I started working through some of those DVDs and books, learning to paint & draw, cooking, projects, and yes, even learning how to use that telescope!
As a culture, we're all into consuming, and as you can see by our collective waistlines, we're very good at that. Perhaps now, with all the talk of belt-tightening that we're hearing, a bit of focus should be spent on *digesting* those things we've already consumed. We just need to shift our gears into a different mode, and not panic so much about not being able to shop for new stuff.
There's a lot of nutrition in there that will carry us through the leaner times. Some of it (like learning new things) will even make the process fun!
Pat
Mr. Walker's "consumption" comments --excellent. Are most U.S. residents willing to acknowledge that we in particular are consumed by consuming? Continue offering such commentaries and discussion. Does Paul Krugman (or other economists) offer a vision of economic models that sustain but avoid excessive consumer-based growth?
AND -- I miss David Johnson. What / Where? Thank you, LS Foster
