Tuesday, April 15, 2008

What Drives Consumption

Recently, I had come to the conclusion that the car I was leasing - yes, leasing - wasn't cutting it any longer. My wife and I moved to a small town this summer and I now commute every day on the highway or interstate, rather than simply driving local streets. I loved this car, but I was hardly ever hauling computers, almost always on the interstate with no cruise control and with kids and no side impact protection, and driving at least 4 hours every weekend. And my mileage was going to pot with no overdrive. If I'm paying for the pleasure of a car, I better damn well have a car that meets my needs.

So I took the car in and made a deal similar for the previous car for new car that meets the new requirements. My wife also used the opportunity to get rid of her !%$%^^& falling apart SUV traded in for something more efficient and cheaper. It's all good as much as it can be.

But the car has one little devil. An iPod jack. I've avoided the iPod mania with other non-proprietary media players that are usually much cheaper or have better features. But the iPod jack? It seductively calls to me. "Moooooore podcasts" "No moooore fumbling blindly" "No more thrown away CDs" "Your little MP3 player got stolen by your 9 year-old" "You never listen to anything but podcasts anymore"

Ack.

3 comments:

snark said...

We are so totally not gadget people. Both our cars are over seven years old. We still own only a single 27" CRT television. We listen to music off CD's. No cable TV. No satellite.

Both the wife and I have Blackberrys now but only because of professional requirements.

I do own an ipod. A purchase made because I really needed to shut myself off from having to hear the inane things people talk about with each other while commuting.

And tools. I love my tools.

I'd say a much larger portion of our disposable incomes goes to eating what we want whenever we want than to gadgets and stuff.

But yes, it does seem that the technological age has done wonders for linking each purchase to the next.

iamcoyote said...

I just don't listen to music much anymore, except classical, and I get that on the radio. Don't need the ipod, I don't even have a cell phone. There's no reason I need to be available 24/7. I do like gadgets, though, but don't buy them. It's fun to just look. I've never bought a tv in my life, always been given them, and they last forever. Which is probably why the dang corps are switching to digital, to force people to buy new equipment. Really, who needs to see the pores on Edward James Olmos' face?

snark said...

Really, who needs to see the pores on Edward James Olmos' face?

You can practically see those on radio!