Consumerism is heading for a virtual abyss Plenty of people seem happy to only own things virtually or just rent them these days. This seems to be the next stage from MP3s etc. where people never own a physical object. Like Kindle books that nobody ever owns, they simply rent them from Amazon (very expensively). I prefer actually having ownership of something but then I am considered very old fashioned. It is sad that consumer culture has moved on to the extent that ownership of something you buy is not considered essential. But if you leave one electronic ecosystem or a particular company goes bust then you have nothing, zilch, nada. Ironically, as electronics become more advanced the actual quality of the experience (books c/w ebooks) or quality of the product (MP3s c/w vinyl or DAB c/w FM radio) progressively gets worse. Even buying a DVD or Bluray recorder is getting harder these days as you are supposed to use hard disk storage instead. The problem? You cannot actually keep anything you record as transferring stuff off these machines is deliberately disabled by manufacturers. This contributes to creating a norm where consumers become ever more passive and ever more dependent on external agencies be they music companies, booksellers or software manufacturers. With software also moving towards an online rental model via "the cloud" this means businesses make consumers absolutely dependent on remote storage and support and independent control by the consumer is written out of the equation. This is passive consumption manipulated to enforce dependency where the consumer meets the needs of the virtual business model rather than manufacturers or creators meeting the needs of consumers.
Posted on: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 21:24:00 +0000
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