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In praise of "crap" technology
I visited my little brother, a dedicated minimalist, last month. In general, I think of myself as not particularly consumerist-y. But hanging out with somebody who is sooo much better at not consuming...
View ArticleLazy harp seal has no job
Good luck getting this song out of your head. Via Deep Sea News Video Link
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Stuff makes us sad, especially in America
In the Boston Globe, Beth Teitell discusses Life at Home in the Twenty-first Century: 32 Families Open their Doors, an accessible, illustrated text that summarizes the research of four archaeologists...
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PLAY: Santa vs Hallowe'en
Chris writes, "To parody the earlier and earlier onset of the holiday shopping season, Betabrand created a video game where St Nick sets out to conquer Halloween. Now that Christmas has overrun...
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Sears Xmas Wishbook '77: synthetic fabrics, expensive video games, digital...
Greg Maletic scanned the 1977 Sears Christmas Wishbook, "Amazon, printed out." He presents a guided tour of its highlights, starting with the nascent console game and handheld electronic game...
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The game consumption cycle
In the wake of spectacular trailers for forthcoming games at the E3 trade show this weekend (I'll have trouble resisting Skyrim: Fancy Edition) this graphic, by RamsesThePigeon, burned up the 'net. The...
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2017, year of top-shelf marijuana and accessories
Apothecarry is just one example of the commercialization of recreational marijuana. Now that it's legal in California (Hollyweed!), the green rush is on in the high-end/connoisseur market. In time,...
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Tony Futura's visual comments on consumerism
For kicks, Berlin-based designer Tony Futura cranks out simple iconic visual puns and comments on pop culture. Some are a little easy, but many are quite clever. (more…)
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Wrist-worn device for monitoring people's emotions during market research
MIT Media Lab spinoff company mPath has developed a wristwatch-like wearable that measures changes in skin conductance tied to stress, frustration, disinterest, or boredom. Combined with other data,...
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$375 M65 "Anarchy" jacket lets rich kids join the revolution
Want to join the revolution, but find the idea of customizing used or surplus clothing beneath your social station? Barneys of New York has just the jacket for you: a classic M65 with anarchist symbols...
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A visit to China's Commodity City, the world's biggest "shopping mall"
"Commodity City is an observational documentary exploring the daily lives of vendors who work in the largest wholesale consumer market in the world: the Yiwu Markets in China," says director Jessica...
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'Shut up and take my money,' the wallet
Mass consumer spending season is nearly upon us. The perfect time to load your hard-earned cash into this wallet by Etsy shop DangerRan. No extra charge for the interior Dick Butt. Shut up and take my...
View ArticleReceipt checkers aren't there to catch shoplifters
You're wheeling your haul out of Costco only to be accosted by the receipt-checker at the exit. You're fine, though, because you're not shoplifting anything. That slightly annoying feeling that the...
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Kickstarting "The Decline of Mall Civilization," a sequel to the...
Michael Galinsky's 2011 photo-book "Malls Across America" went out of print quickly and now sells for upwards of $1000/copy; Galinsky is now kickstarting a sequel, The Decline of Mall Civilization,...
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Tracking the Rise and Fall of the American middle class with shopping malls
One of the best parts of Wonder Woman 1984 was the present-day opening sequence, of our lasso'd heroine battling some petty crooks at a shopping mall, interspersed with clips of our villain-to-be,...
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Embrace consumerism with a "This Is Not A Fugazi T-Shirt" Mug
"You are not what you own." That's the refrain to the song "Merchandise" by the acclaimed and famously independent post-hardcore band Fugazi — a band which, among other stubbornly principled moves,...
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The worst thing about Theranos wasn't the hinky blood testing machines or the...
Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder who dressed up as Steve Jobs and wowed west-coast VCs and east-coast magazines with imaginary blood testing machines, is embarking on her long trial on fraud...
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The "specialness spiral" explains why you buy something and never use it
Ever bought an item of nice clothing or a fancy notebook and found it lying pristine and unused forever? The item has become (or always was) "special" and its specialness reinforces itself every time...
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Purse towers are shelves filled with containers that folks use to organize...
This week I learned about a new shopping/organizing trend, being spread via TikTok. Folks are taking videos of their "purse towers" and sharing them as inspiration for others. What's a purse tower?...
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Corporations, capitalism and conceptions of the self
What is capitalism? What is a corporation? What is the relationship between one's desires for consumption, capitalist notions of the individual self, and the power of corporations? The following...
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Judge says Walmart and CVS must face lawsuit for placing homeopathic nostrums...
Walmart and CVS stacked homeopathic products with scientifically-proven medicines, according to a lawsuit that claims this violated D.C.'s consumer protection laws, and a judge has decided the case can...
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The affects and effects of news consumption in the UK
The phrase, "I don't watch the news; it depresses me," is common. News makes us think and feel. Learning about a news event, the framing by the media, and the opinions often presented as facts affect...
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Rudolph the Red-Nosed reindeer's legacy
As wickedly dangerous weather smothers and destroys the infrastructure of a large swath of the US, it might be worth revisiting the stop-motion short film about Rudolph's red nose and the controversy...
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Behold the Gallery of Condiment Packets
I dislike condiment packets for all the obvious reasons–more packaging than product, packaging is immortal, etc–but somehow dozens if not hundreds of them have accumulated in my possession. Rather than...
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RFK Jr says Bill Gates is planning to turn us into "enslaved consumers" with...
RFK Jr's tall tale about Bill Gates' plans to control the populace with implanted chips sounds like something a middle-school student would write in 1985 after reading Neuromancer. Here's what he had...
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"Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste" is a free ebook of critical essays and...
If you're at all interested in (critical analyses of) capitalism, consumerism, environmental issues, or similar topics, go download this terrific, free, open access book that was recently published by...
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"Discard Studies" argues that "social, political, and economic systems...
Last month I wrote about Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste and I'm thrilled to share another terrific free book about the politics of (over)consumption, trash, waste, and consumer capitalism. It's called...
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Americans projected to spend record 12 billion dollars on Halloween
I love/hate looking at data showing how absolutely bonkers holiday spending in the United States has become, and the results from the National Retail Federation's 2023 annual Halloween survey don't...
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You can use your own mug at Starbucks for "nearly all orders"
One of my favorite entries in The Meaning of Liff, an exceedingly middle-class British book that assigns place names to shared experiences that there aren't words for, is Louth. LOUTH (n.) The sort of...
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