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December 09, 2002
Consumerism
Since arriving back in Austin, I've found my feelings about my possessions, and buying more of them, have really intensified; it's not a pleasant thinh. After fifteen months away from most of our things, which hibernated in a storage unit in Austin, I realized that I just didn't want or need most of them. Sure, I found myself in Berlin thinking a book or two, or a CD that got left behind, but for the most part all our stuff turned out not to be that important. (The big exception is our wonderful real bed and excellent sets of comfy sheets. Better than anything you can sleep on in Germany.)
Maybe it's because I'm surrounded by my stuff again and I realize we need a new TV stand, or because we stayed a few days in our friends' gorgeous and impeccably-furnished new house, but I find myself wanting in a way that's suddenly unfamiliar to me. I want a new dining room table, a new stero, a Playstation2, new furniture, new stuff. I worried while we were in Berlin that part of the reason we decided not to stay longer was because our stuff is in Austin, which seems like the worst reason possible. Now I worry that we'll stay here and not go back to Europe because our stuff is in Austin and it's damn hard and expensive to move it there.
It doesn't help that US TV seems so much more consumption-oriented than I remember, in a really grating way (it is Christmastime, I suppose). German TV ads are almost uniformly insipid, chirpy idiocy, but they don't have the commanding tone US ads have.
Posted by Andrew at December 9, 2002 09:04 PM