December 07, 2004 04:40PM - Tis the season for buying...
To update on the AT&T/Cingular business, the phones have been returned and at this point I'm only out the $36 fee's for migrating my service. Although I haven't given up, I will continue to pursue this issue. I did find this bit in the news today.
Today I figured I'd bring up consumerism -after my friend linked me to the interview with Kalle Lasn on CNN about Buy Nothing Day. The official day has since past however, the message is strong. More importantly I would like to point out the anchor interviewing Kalle Lasn. I know as a reporter you sometimes contrast the person you are interviewing to try and make the point, she just seems to go a little far. For now, however, I'd like to contrast 'buying nothing'. Oh, and don't worry, I'll get back to the bitch interviewing Kalle Lasn.
For some reason I got to thinking about how much more 'nothing' we actually do buy. Ten years ago you wouldn't have even though that thousands of people online would be spending millions of dollars on nothing. By 'nothing', I'm actually referring to the bytes and bits of information your computer receives for purchasing subscription services and other Internet related activities, beit a online photo gallery, email, or good ol' porn.
During a recent conversation with a co-worker he brought up World of Warcraft, the most recent in the Warcraft series, and how he'll soon be selling some gold on ebay. Well this isn't real gold, its virtual gold which the players or characters use to purchase armor and other various things to make their character more powerful. There are plenty of people out there paying hundreds of dollars for this virtual booty. Why? Time is money and rather than spend their time playing, searching far and wide for this vital asset, its worth the money to just buy it from someone.
That might reach a little far for some people, so we'll get back to something simple, say something like an online subscription to whatever-it-may-be. I'm sure most everyone that uses the Internet daily has purchased a subscription to some web site for some reason or another. Your really not buying anything more than information, so what are you wasting then possibly a few bytes here an there? I mean most people pay for their Internet connection and it really doesn't constitute a physical object. So your buying information, data, bits, bytes, digits even. I don't think of that as being wasteful or a bad consumer.
Now if we want to follow the trail its nearly impossible for the money that is spent online not to end up being spent on physical goods, though thats just a fact of our economy. I'm sure in the years to come we will see even more money spent on the virtual items and our economy will continue to change, hopefully for the better (i.e. less waste).
Just give it a thought this Christmas, try purchasing a virtual gift for a friend, kid, dad, grandma, uncle or whom ever it may be. People grow tired of the things they have all of the time, and if they grow tired of an online subscription in 6 months, little is wasted. You haven't killed any animals, paid childs wage in a third world country, or shopped at Walmart. Just think of the time you won't have to spend inline at the stores. I would put money on Grandpa giving you a nice big woody hug after you showing him is pre-paid subscription to AssTraffic.com. Then you rest assured your Christmas gift was a good choice!
I will be out of town for the next week, so I probably won't have a chance to post anything new. However road trips make for good photo ops.
-Hap
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