I don't like to pick on my little brother. I harassed him enough when he was a child -- now that he is a grown, married man I've tried my best to stop teasing him mercilessly.
It's hard.
This Thanksgiving he bought a brand new cell phone, although his old cell phone works perfectly. His old phone? Not the coolest on the market, not bluetooth compatible, not an MP3 player, but 100% functional.
I wanted to give him a hard time, but I said nothing. I even had to agree with him on the quality of the new phone's camera. It's top notch.
But, it did get me thinking about how often we (as in most people) buy things to replace other things that are in fine working order.
I, for instance, want a new television. Mine is small and old. I won't buy one ... not until this one has died of old age, but that doesn't mean that, in the past, I haven't done just what my brother did last weekend.
We buy things we don't need. We buy duplicates of things we don't need and then toss the first thing we didn't need into the trash.
So, I'm promising myself (especially during the holiday season -- as all my friends and family ask me "What do you want for Christmas?") -- that I'm going to think long and hard about what I truly need. And try even harder to be happy with what I've got.
Image: Via cingular.com
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Very well-said, Stephanie. I think considering wants vs. needs is one part of the season that can last all year.
I recently lost my 4 year old cell phone, which worked just fine. When I went to get the replacement, the store rep could NOT believe I had gone so long without swapping for a new one. He was stunned. "Did you know you've been eligible for a new phone for 3 years?!?!" He clearly doubted my sanity. It was amusing and disturbing, all at the same time.
Haha, sugar2s, I had a similar experience. My pets chewed my charger cord into oblivion, so I went into a T-Mobile store to have them charge my phone for me. The employee busted out laughing when she saw my dinosaur phone.
I eventually "upgraded" to a phone with fewer features, i.e. no camera. (Who actually uses phone cameras?)
Until a couple of years ago, I was still using my little sister's hand-me-down (up?) phone. I had it for 6 years and it was doing great until the battery pack started sliding off randomly. When I had to loan it to my boss and actually say, "you have to hold the battery on while you use it"--that was the moment I decided I had gone too far.
Maybe you could find or convince a family member that insists on giving you a gift to find a used newer TV?
I have a friend who is absolutely convinced I am missing out by not switching to an Apple iPhone.
All I need my cellphone for is making and receiving calls. Added bonus these days is storing phone numbers.
I went 1yr once with a broken screen on a cellphone because it still took incoming and outgoing calls and it was easy enough to keep phone numbers stored on a laptop or PDA.
Define "functional." If you only want a phone that you can dial a number into and make a call, then buying a new phone with other features doesn't make sense. If you have a tv that is small with a crappy picture, and that's fine with you, stick with it.
If, like me, you had a perfectly working phone that could make calls and texts, but you want access to email, internet, etc, then upgrading isn't a waste. I switched from a great little LG phone to a BB a few months ago and haven't looked back. (I did give my LG to my dad, whose Motorola was falling apart.)
And to that question of what I want for Christmas? The answer is always, always money. :-)
I won't buy replacements for anything unless it craps out or becomes harzardous to me and/or my pets.
I believe several cell phone providers and some charities have programs where you can donate used cellphones that are used for domestic victims in emergency situations (even if the phone is not in working order they can refurbish and/or recycle the parts). Our company donates used phones this way through Verizon's program called Hopeline.
PracticingMuse, that's what I did when I upgraded to a phone that had text messaging. I could donate my older phone right at the store (Sprint).
At Thanksgiving, my aunt brought my grandfather one of these emergency-only phones to keep in the car (he's 92 and diabetic, so it's nice to know he could call 911 if he were out and about and noticed his sugar going wonky). I think it's a great way to recycle older phones.
I love my old cell phone. I love that all it does is make phone calls and send the occasional text message. That's all I want. Nothing more. I am not looking forward to the day that it dies and I have to get a fancy-schmancy phone that takes pictures. I am all about doing what my family calls "making do". I'll only replace something if there's a seriously good reason for doing so, or if what I had dies for good.
Does anyone here notice the limited lifespan of cellphones of today vs those that we used to use 3-4 years ago? I still have some cellphones that had incredible battery life as well as their very sturdy rechargers and other accessories. To me, many of the cell carriers seem to be aiming to make their "free" or paid for offerings limited in usability. Even the battery life, as well as recharger continuously decrease their lifespan even with limited use. The Razr phones have a limited battery life that goes precipitously down after just 1 year of usage. Even the photo features, how many times do we get to keep and use these pictures from phones, unless we pay the carriers for the chance of keeping them as we need to send them electronically. Very few phones of today offer the straight forward opportunity to keep what we paid for in convenience.