Blogger James Shelley was recently reflecting on the difference between being consumeristic or materialistic. “We tend to think that consumerism is about doggedly clinging to our wealth, trinkets and toys. In actuality, however, the opposite is true: consumerism occurs as the result of not loving our stuff at all. We have so little attachment to our material goods that we dispose and replace them with ever increasing regularity. Consumerism, in this light, is the rampant disrespect of one’s physical property.” He comes to the conclusion that being materialistic can actually be a good trait where we appreciate what we have and care for it, rather than quickly moving on to the newest thing. Here are some ways to help you become more materialistic with your tech.
If you keep your tech around long enough it gets dirty over time. And although it isn’t always as easy as cleaning a dish, it is important not to neglect your expensive technology. We have help for your appliances , camera lenses , keyboards , bathrooms , and even task chair casters. For those gadgets that are being handled often, disinfecting them could be a good idea.
When you plan on keeping tech around for a while, it will be good to know whether or not that expensive upfront warranty will be worth the cost .
It is going to be important to keep your tech in tip-top shape if you plan on keeping it around for a while. First, you should know whether broken tech is worth fixing or if you should shell out the cash for a new one. This post will help you decide whether you should toss that old appliance or not. If want to repair your tech on your own it would be beneficial to check up on some resources as well as how to save money in the process. Sadly, not everything can be saved but we can help you there, too.
So take care of your tech and learn to love it! Sometimes the most rewarding purchases are the ones we keep around the longest, even if they're not the latest and greatest performance-wise. For after they've long out-lasted their usefulness, they can still be kept around for their sheer beauty or the memories they hold.
(Images: Flickr user Ben Dodson, and Jack Cheng under license from Creative Commons.)
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This is one of the things I love about the Thinkpad community - I'm typing this from an X41T right now: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:X41_Tablet
Released in 2006, making it about 5 years old, and it still runs Windows 7 like a champ. These things are simply built to last...
If you take a look at forums like thinkpad-forum.de, you can see that people with these devices really care about keeping them running for years and years and years on end. There are people on these forums running pre-PIII laptops for their day-to-day tasks...
I'd suspect Apple forums are similar...? Every now and then I see a worn-down old Titanium PowerBook that's aged beautifully, or that picture of the worn down original iPhone that was posted (here?) a few days back - beautiful.
Of course, it's not all up to the users - the devices need to withstand a little punishment. Hence why I probably won't be buying another HTC phone (or Motorola or Samsung, for that matter - looks like I'm SOL when my Desire dies)...
The problem when buying new tech these days is that you simply don't know if it's going to last - that brand new Thinkpad X220 I've been eyeing? Don't know if the bulid quality is anywhere near up to par, and the CPU gets insanely hot under load, so I might be buying an X200, simply because it's been beta tested for a few years by thousands of consumers, and there are no or hardly any reports of unexpected breakage or malfunctions.
Will that new Android phone last longer than a year? Who knows...
That being said, you know that guy in the bed will trade in his iPad2 for the iPad3 the day it comes out...
The hard drive on my 6-year old Dell laptop died the other week. Everything else works great, so I'll replace that and it will be like new. Also, I thought my 4th Gen iPod died last night since it was making clicky noises. After opening it up, it started working again. Hooray for old tech!
My thinkpad went to a friend when I was done with it. It got stolen. My last tablet was 5 years old and we're using it as a print server.
I prefer things to last since I wait a long time to pick and like to keep them as long as I can.
Apple, as a computer company, is interesting because they approach their devices from a more general consumer electronics company POV. They release less, don't chase specs etc. Combined with a bit of a price premium It actually results in people being less upgrade driven.
The durability of their cases and the materials, along with the above cycle, give their stuff a much longer life. All the people I know who do yearly upgrades do so in part because Apple stuff is insanely good at holding its resale value when compared to similar devices, which means even if they are upgrading the devices keep on trucking!