The Pleasures of the Obsolete
Sharon December 26th, 2008
Before you ask, no it isn’t quite done, but just about – now all that’s left is some editing and a final look over that I need to step away from it for a day or two to do effectively anyway. So close, and I’m officially reopening the blog in the meantime. Expect light posting over the next week as I finish up, take a bit of time off, and enjoy the season.
Karl Denninger points out today that part of the reason we’re not shopping is that we’ve all got plenty. He intersperses his call for a return to hugs and pumpkin pie with a discussion of the fact that most of what we’re being sold isn’t a radical leap forward in technology – that is, blu-ray isn’t that big an improvement on a dvd.
Can you name one product that is a “game changer” – that provides a quantum leap forward, and thus is truly a “must have”?
I can’t.
That’s a problem, when you get down to it; all retailers are really catering to is “the quantum of more”.
Now look around your house. Look at all the junk you have in your home. Quantify “junk” as anything that doesn’t provide you with a place to sit (or lay down), a way to keep you warm, a means to prepare (or consume) food or drink and a way to keep your premises livable (you gotta wash your clothes somehow, right?)
All the trinkets, the 47 computers, the three iPODs and the cell phones. The “new car” you bought over the last few years, for what – the “new car” smell? Does a used car – or even a clunker – get you to work?
Think about it – how much less would an inexpensive used car have cost you? Liability insurance only as opposed to “full coverage”, because if you wreck it you could replace it for a couple of grand in cash – no need for collision coverage, and if the transmission falls out you could junk and replace it for less than the cost of the repair! In a couple of years you’re way ahead, and even more so if you make a habit of smashing cars (since insurance gets verrry expensive for collision coverage if you wreck frequently!)
We as a nation have gotten used to deciding we want something and therefore we will have it, because the credit card hasn’t been declined (yet). When it was, we then went to the bank and pulled out our home equity, paid off the card – and charged it up again.
Now I’m going to have to take Denninger’s word for it, you see, I don’t have a 60″ tv (the size at which he notes you can really see the difference between blu-ray and a dvd). I’m trying to envision such a thing – that’s a tv as tall as my mother (and there’s a scary way to think about it - how many do you think they’d sell if that was used in the advertising campaign)! In fact I don’t have a 36″ tv either, on which he says he can’t tell. I’m not sure how big our tv screen is, actually, but it is pretty small – I can carry the whole thing, built in DVD player and all, under my arm.
And even that is a pretty big shift in our lives – it was only about 3 years ago that we managed to get something that played DVDs – until then, we had a VCR. We still have it, because when everyone else converted over to DVDs, videos got really, really cheap and it was a great opportunity to pick up the kind of favorite movies that you really want to watch more than once (as opposed to most movies) – so now we’ve got Butch and Sundance, Singing in the Rain, The Wizard of Oz and Bladerunner whenever we want them. Now according to Denninger, there’s a pretty big difference in the quality of picture between a video and a DVD, and I sort of see it, but then again, my tv screen is so small that I don’t notice it much. I’m just happy that I can show the boys the dancing up the walls bit in “Make ‘Em Laugh.” For that, we can see fine.
And then I think back to the tv we had when I was a kid – you see, I come from a family of late technology adopters. We didn’t have a tv a lot of my childhood, but when we did get one, it was a teeny, tiny black and white tv, which was the only option into the middle 1980s. But the thing I remember most from when we converted to color wasn’t this sudden revelation, a la the shift of Dorothy from Kansas to Oz. It was the opposite – you see, when you watch black and white long enough you become adept in the ways of shades of grey – it wasn’t that different. You could figure out roughly what the colors were supposed to be by the light and texture of the film. What really struck me was that when our new color set broke down a few months later, and we brought out the black and white, that I’d lost the ability to translate black and white into color – sure, the color was nice, but it also cost me something.
Perhaps that’s the origin of my taste for obsolete technologies. My husband and I chronic late adopters of technology – my guess is that we’re ten years from our first blu-ray acquisition, if ever. I still don’t have an Ipod, and we just broke down and bought our first cell phone in years – a tracphone with no camera, no internet. I recently replaced our cracked glass topped electric stove with an old style electric burner one, because you can’t can on the glass top stoves. Our one car is nearly twice as old as my oldest child, and even my bicycle can claim the same.
That’s not to say that I can’t see the virtue of some technological improvements – the big revelation this year was that the Chanukah fairy brought me wireless internet, something that until now has been impossible in my little rural hollow, away from any tower. And in many ways that is a huge improvement – I can listen to youtube music while I type and surfing runs a lot faster. On the other hand, I can already tell there’s a price too – I used to surf the web with a book on my lap, reading poetry or essays while I waited for pages to load. I have the odd feeling that I’m going to miss the justaposition of Frank O’Hara and the Oil Drum or John Donne with The Automatic Earth.
Of course, I’m famous for my claiming of even more obsolete technologies – I sew with a treadle machine, cook on a wood cookstove, grind my grain with a hand turned grinder, knead bread with my hands, not a bread machine, chop vegetables with a knife rather than a food processor. This might be just a kind of precious Little House on the Prairie Nostalgia, or so I’ve been accused.
But I have an electric sewing machine. I’ve used a bread machine. I have a food processor, and of course, and electric stove. I don’t use these things because it makes me feel cute and period – in a family with four kids, a farm, the writing, feeling cute falls to the realities. The truth is that in every case, I’ve decided that the older technology has advantages – or the modern one a price I don’t want to pay. I don’t like the bread machine because I don’t like the texture of the bread I get out of it – and because when I add in the time to clean all the parts, I don’t feel I’ve saved any time. The same is true with the food processor – I can cut more uniformly myself, and when you add in the time to clean it, I often can do the chopping faster. The cookstove warms my house while I cook. The treadle sewing machine is more fun to use and never goes through my fingers.
All of which for me, raises the question that Denninger doesn’t ask – he talks about how we’re pretty saturated on stuff, and that’s true. But when wasn’t that true for most of us. I can remember my Christmases in the 1970s, as a child, in a house with no VCR, no DVD player, no CD player. I remember sitting with my parents around a record player, singing along, watching the Wizard of Oz on its annual appearance on our staticky black and white tv. Did the static matter? Were the records in some way inferior? I didn’t think so then – is there a way to go back, to forget the monotone clarity of the CD, the perfect picture of the DVD, and accept what we had then?
No technological leap goes just one way – every gain has its price. Some of them are worth it, no question. The front-loader washing machine is in every way an improvement over my old top loader, and the price – its hefty price tag – is one I’m willing to pay to use less water, energy, detergent. But of the technological innovations I’ve had a taste of, few offer that big a step, and when they do, they often come with surprising costs. The most surprising one, is that they make our past uninhabitable to us. What I learned for the first time in my early teens going from black and white to color turns out to be true for most things. Once we accustom ourselves to the new level of technology, it gets harder and harder to go back to the past. If we do, we must accept the accusation that we are failing in some way, to live in the present. And there’s a truth in that – because in our society, the present is never “now” it is “what’s new” – and the only way to ever live there is to keep rushing forward, keep unfitting yourself for the now in favor of the future, to always be waiting for the next step.
I’m hopeless, I know. I’ll never get the full appreciation of the sound and visual quality available to me while the boys and I are watching Donald O’Conner on our tiny little screen. There are nuances that they may never know about. On the other hand, the 400 bucks that the blu-ray machine and the dvd would cost are still in our pockets. And if this is costing us so much, how come we’re all giggling so hard anyway?
BTW, since I now have decent internet, I can include a link to the scene on youtube – the feat of athleticism I mentioned above is at the very end of the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tp7LwQYT8U
Sharon
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- Comments(78)
Congrats on the book being almost finished! Nice to see a post from you.
wireless must be fund to have but I hope you can remember lots of us don’t have access to you tube/videos because of dial-up! I think they’d be great to view but I’m going for broadband just to get internet videos.
I love the time of year between christmas Day and just after New Year’s.
and by the way, I had christmas dinner with a friend and we made everything from scratch–almost anyway, I used a pie shell for the pumpkin pie.
A Happy New Year to you and your family and a Happy new Year to All of Us, every one.
cheers,
Shamba
We became owners of a 53″ High Def television just lately.
No, we didn’t buy it. We had friends who were TAKING IT TO THE DUMP because it was broken.
Husband did some internet research, bought a de-soldering iron and for about $20 in parts and several hours of enjoyable (?) learning, we have a new tv.
Watching the kids in life size from when they were babies is quite amusing!
Happy Holidays Miss Sharon.
I’m also glad to hear the book is almost done!
“The most surprising one, is that they make our past uninhabitable to us.” That is spot on! That really resonates with me. It’s so hard to go back, once you’ve gotten used to certain technologies.
I’ll never get blu-ray. I’m quite content with my 14 inch tv, vcr, and dvd. It’s unfortunate that the children nowadays are used to a certain amount of things, and the mass consumerism propaganda that they’re fed regularly through the media. I know my son misses some things, but on an intellectual level he knows it’s silly to be chasing after the latest stuff/junk. On an emotional level, however, it can be a bit hard for most people to not be a product of society (i.e., spend, spend, spend).
Congrats on your book going into the final rest (what I call the time between working on something and the “last” edit)! I was surprised at your post today – on my way home from work, my husband and I were just talking about how “society” insists that everything we have should be new and in perfect condition, when used and dinged up works just fine. He was raised by parents who kept things looking neat and new; I was raised on a farm with a family motto similar to the adage, “Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without.” It was very nice to be able to come home, read your blog, then read it to hubby — a much more eloquent way of saying what I was trying to explain on the 20 minute, snowy, lacking-fully-functioning-windshield-wipers journey home.
–Erika
I’ve had friends actually offer to BUY me an iphone because I use a 3 year old pay-as-you-go phone that I bought for $15. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the discussion that it’s not that I don’t have the money, it’s that I choose to spend or save it differently.
The same friend who most recently offered to buy me a phone came over on Christmas Eve with her two kids. Her older child (age
refused to interact with anyone, and complained so loudly that he was bored and had NOTHING to do that they left early. She explained that he had found out that he got wind of the brand-new playstation 3 portable under the tree and didn’t want to go anywhere before he could take it with him everywhere. Mind you ,we had sledding, were baking/decorating gingerbread men, and had plenty of other activities on offer. He just wasn’t interested. He was BORED. My husband later told me that he felt terrible that the child had had such a bad time at our house (he prides himself on being entertaining to kids) – I told him that as far as I’m concerned, he should come over and be bored with us more often. He might just have some fun.
We also have an electric and a non-electric sewing machine (ours is a handcrank). It had never occurred to me to purchase a non-electric until my 4 year old wanted her own machine. I work with a local reuse-oriented sewing organization (Sew Green) and purchased a hand-crank machine from them. It’s been AMAZING. My husband feels confident sewing on it because it goes slower than the electric, so he can sew now. My daughter is learning a valuable skill in a safe way. And I can use it while the kids are asleep – the electric machine is very noisy in our small house. But the hand-crank is silent.
We heat with a woodstove. It’s often cold in the morning, but I really like the choices it forces me to make. Am I colder than I am lazy? It’s an important question to ask of yourself. If lazy wins out, put on another sweater. If I’m cold enough, I’ll go get the wood. Plus, I’m very noise-sensitive and cannot sleep in houses that have a furnace running.
None of us have ipods. I can’t imagine why anyone would want so much noise in their lives. The only unnecessary thing we’ve gotten that I would not voluntarily give up is the high speed internet. That’s made a huge difference in my life. Well, that and the dishwasher. I love the dishwasher.
These past couple of posts (most especially the one previous to this) have been great, Sharon. Thank you!
I’ve gotta say, though….. I hated, hated, hated the thought of getting an Ipod. My mom and sisters have been for years technological suckers, buying every new thing that came out. (Some of it got discarded when it was discovered it wasn’t as good as was touted, like my sis’s mini-disk player.) Anyway, so I’ve held off. I held off on a cell-phone, till I started driving to town for work, at which point it was decided by my hubby and myself that I’d be safer in case of a break-down of my old ’92 buick, if I had a way to call for help. And I got a prepaid cell phone, even then. Just enough minutes to keep it active, and only used when really needed. (Though, I use it considerably more now for stupid, simple stuff such a “which kind of canned soup did you want me to buy???” calls to the hubby from the grocery store.) The Ipod, I held off on. I hate the thought of getting so stuck in a rut with music that I only listen to a pre-recorded set over and over and over. And I’m not the kind that buys cds unless I’m pretty dang sure I’ll like most of the tunes on it. (Listening to clips in the electronics section at Fred Meyers.) And even those tunes that I don’t like automatically, I usually develope a liking for.
Well, I found what an Ipod IS good for: It’s GREAT for being able to upload an incredible mix of tunes and being able to listen to christmas songs intermingled with classical symphonies and celtic pub music and old tunes by The Police and Peter, Paul and Mary and a bit of Josh Groban thrown in, and let’s not forget some modern hits just for good measure. And even with the 4-gig size of the Nano, I’ve got DAYS worth of music downloaded, so theoretically I could listen for 3 straight days and not hear the same tune twice. (Well, actually I’ve not got QUITE the 4 days worth of music, downloaded, but I’m accumulating quickly.) And not all the music is from cd’s I or my hubby own (though that does account for over half of my downloads), but some special purchases from Itunes (which worries me, because I CAN see the trauma of losing all this music if my computer crashes) and some new tunes found through the library’s collection of cds. The other plus for having an Ipod is that unlike a CD player, which is hard to carry around inconspicuously at work, an ear-bud can be discretely tucked in the ear, for some background music as you go about your work, in a public place. My job doesn’t frequently require me to interact with the public, so while I’m minding my own business and shelving books, listening to Beethoven or Sting or Enya allows me a little mental escapism, without interrupting others with MY singing. (Hey, I’ve got a decent voice, but not quite capable of some of the vocal aerobics that Enya can manage.) And, before I’d get a single song stuck in my head (the last song I heard on the radio before climbing out of my car) and because I could never remember the entire song, the same “clip” would run through my head non-stop all day long, till I could once again turn on the radio when I left work at night. Even conditioning myself to know a couple of favorite songs by heart (Greensleeves, Music of the Night, and Danny Boy) didn’t help as often as I’d like to reprogram that “mental record player skipping on one verse of one song for 8 hours straight.” So yeah, I’m loving my new Ipod. Maybe not the MOST necessary of belongings, but a purchase I’m not sorry I made.
You’re right. There are pros and cons to just about every technology we can come up with. But heavy old rubber-soled shoes are no match for a good pair of crocs. *grin* I’d rather bake bread by hand (that kneading lets me vent my frustrations with my daughter in a SAFE way) any day than with a bread-machine. Home-pickled greenbeans are a hell of a lot tastier than those store-bought and mass-produced. There IS NO MATCH for an impromptu carol-sing around a well-played piano, but when you don’t have the ability, sometimes singing along to a well-mixed blend of christmas tunes on the CD player or the Ipod has to suffice. Judiciously done, technology can blend well into a life fashioned well out of old-fashioned technologies.
Thanks for prompting some thought on this subject!!!! (Now to figure out how to use your thoughts, and the thoughts they’ve prompted in me, to persuade my hubby that this judicious use is actually better than indiscriminate spending on lots of technology we don’t need.)
Not having a cell phone is becoming quite the social faux pas — the spread of the buggers has got to the point where one is who not available for instant urgent (or not) communication from the Celled Ones is considered rude, believe it or not.
Cell phones are not a dramatic leap in the first world — all they do is further the process of turning what were formerly free/cheap quasi-public goods (a communications network, clean water, television, etc.) into private goods that require that you spend money at all times, just to preserve access to something.
I think it will soon be a crime not to have a cell phone on your person because the authorities will use it for locating you and for identity verification. Trying to live without one will be made increasingly onerous to the point where it will be like expecting to be able to buy a ticket for travel with cash and get on an airplane or a train without showing an ID — Good luck with that. We’re going to a full-coverage surveillance state, and the cell phones are the key ingredient. Why make people carry internal passports when you can get them to carry —and pay for—devices that report their whereabouts at all times and, coincidentally, can be used to promote more junk to them.
Finally, a quibble: a “quantum leap” is not a big one, it’s a very, very, very small one indeed.
I don’t have a cell phone and always tell people who tell me I should have one that I don’t want to be on an electronic dog leash. I do have an answering machine on my single land line phone because I cannot afford a butler to tell callers that madame is unavailable.
One of the great things about that scene from Singin’ in the Rain is that there’s no new-fangled innovative “game-changing” computer graphics to be seen anywhere.
Which makes it all the greater.
Hmm. I don’t know. I can’t get especially nostalgic for older technologies – if they are electric powered, they have already crossed a dividing line in my head. So altho I enjoy my CD player, I don’t mourn the scratchier record player.
BUT. What I truly love is music made right here, right now, by both wonderful artists and regular people who mayn’t be able to carry a tune. What’s important is making the music together. I will always value that more than anything a machine can make for me – it cannot make those human connections.
I have no interest in the latest and greatest. I’m still not entirely sure I’d know an iPod if I saw one. Never knew what a Blackberry was either, other than a damn good berry for pie. We’re talking about a laptop at some point, but only because it would take less space and use less power. The price hasn’t come down enough yet to part with hard-earned money, though.
Our TV is secondhand and tiny, complete with broken antenna. It has a built-in VCR player which we use because used VCR movies can be had for almost nothing. No more video store membership. (And no netflix – too many carbon miles from those DVDs zipping back and forth, even if the distribution center isn’t that far away.)
The big difference between the videos and DVDs (played on the computer) is the sound quality. Well, that and the fact that the computer is in the coldest room in the house with minimal seating room available due to the stash of material, canning jar lids, quilts, and dehydrated food against the wall where the loveseat used to go. So, we rarely watch DVDs now.
We sold the electric sewing machine but kept the treadle. We bike to grind our grain. My Christmas present will be a clothes washing plunger and spindry. I hope to ditch the washing machine at some point. (Note: I do not have kids so we don’t have tons of laundry.) I do more chopping by hand that with the food processor, although I will use the food processor if doing a large quantity for canning, kimchi, or sauerkraut. My hubby’s Christmas present was the book, “The Human-Powered Home”.
My point? I like a mix of technologies, but I’m comfortable doing many things manually. I think the younger generation that has grown up with more technology may have a harder time adapting if we have to go low-tech at some point. I also think the generation that went through the Great Depression may also have a difficult time, but for a different reason. Been there, done that, really love not HAVING to do that now. (Every time I bring up line-drying clothes, my MIL complains about the line-dried towels she grew up with – so stiff they could stand on their own. She has zero interest in doing without her dryer.)
What IS blu-ray anyway? I get it’s some kind of DVD thing, but I have no idea beyond that. There is so much new crap all the time I can’t keep up. And geez, am I a Luddite because my cell phone doesn’t have a camera and internet service? I’m perfectly happy with that “old” stuff–the hand-me-down TV and DVD/VCR player combo with broken VCR part, the CD player that I know how to run and don’t need my computer to do so, the 1960s Singer sewing machine from my mom b/c she updated to a computer model machine, etc.
I sound like an old fart and I’m only 38! Heck, we all do on this blog, eh?
I don’t know what a bluray is, and don’t want to know. I do have an ipod, but don’t have pay TV, my phone is neolithic, and I have never sent a text message. I HATE the fact that the word “texted” is part of our language.
I bought a few good quality, repairable appliances (fridge-freezer, stove and fridge) and hope to hang on to all of them for as long as possible. In the meantime though, even though our American cousins spent less than in previous Christmases, here (in Australia) we spent through the roof, creating a new and depressing record. Bah humbug.
I would be much more of a Luddite than I already am, but I work in the trades and farming and I am disabled in a number of ways. Without power implements in many cases I would be starving, and that is not an exaggeration. I finally broke down and got a computer in 2003, I threw out the Sony Color Trinitron in 1975. No TV since then,
the cell phone for biz has no camera, is 4 years old, I bought two then, when the first died, I turned on the second. The car and the truck are relics, I love them better than the shiny ones and when the mesquite scratches the hell out of them they feel like it is a backscratch.
Please don’t go all video YouTube on us poor Rip Van Winkles, Sharon. We NEVER watch the videos.
Your texts are chromatic enough. I love them.
hey sharon, I love a good danny kaye breakdance number, but since you are a late adopter, you may never get around to see what is being done now before TSHTF….check this out for example
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Nkgn6KXvzc
*ahem*
so, done with that book yet?
Chile – I didn’t know what an ipod looked like til I watched Mythbusters last night. They were shooting bullets in it to see if it’d be good bullet proof material – lol! I still don’t know what a Blackberry looks like, though.
Great post
It’ll be interesting to see a lot of these ‘obsolete’ technologies to become commonplace in the future. I wouldn’t be surprised if what was once obsolete would be considered advanced in a post-peak world. After all, how advanced is something technologically if there’s no fossil fuels or electricity to run it?
I hear ya’ll on having too much of the latest technology. My undergraduate work was electrical and computer engineering. At one time I was really into everything modern and electronic, but later saw that it was a race that was never won. Since then, I overload if I have too much noise and confusion in my life. While I don’t, by any means, live the life of an Amish person, I do have to carefully question what new technology I bring into my life and when I do it.
Generally, I update to a newer technology when the old one finally wears out or is just not functioning anymore. My family has a DVD player, something left over from my dad, and we do have a 42″ lcd, flat screen TV, but the latter came about simply because our 1986 TV developed speaker and other audio problems. Some folks are getting along in years in my family, and a bit of sit-down entertainment suits them. When the old TV broke, we replaced it. That said, I myself only watch the TV maybe 5 minutes a week, mainly when the weatherman comes on 15 minutes into the local newscast, and yes, I don’t tune in until then because the rest of the TV news nauseates me. We’ll do Blue-Ray I suppose when either the DVD player dies or there just aren’t ANY DVD titles available anymore, but that could be a LONG time as I can’t even recall the last time I even watched a DVD or video cassette.
I have a cell phone too. Yes, it has a camera, but only because that’s what the company had available after my old cell phone developed technical problems. (The latter was about 5 years old and probably got some rough, outdoor, treatment at my hands.) Since then, I’ve used it to cancel and replace my land line phone service. Now I don’t have all those other house phones and answering machines in the house. I don’t have separate local and long distance carriers anymore either. The cell phone actually uses less power and less hardware than all my land line stuff did. I actually use the one little cell phone very little, so I am neither a slave to it or a large cell bill. I doubt I place or receive more than 10 calls a month.
I don’t have an Ipod or any other music hardware. I seldom, if ever even use a car radio. (Of course, I ride a bike to work or walk and haven’t used my car since August, so the point about the radio is rather mute anyhow.) With all due respect to everyone here, I don’t really understand this society’s need for canned music everywhere to begin with.
I could go on and on, but basically what I’m saying is that I am very choosy about the type and amount of technology in my life. Otherwise I’ll go nuts. I’m pretty much at my technology limit right now and the only way I can make room for something new is to jettison something old after it finally dies.
Front Loader uses less water?
We harvest rainwater from the roof for all our water needs and our twin tub is the most efficient – you use THE SAME WATER, working your way from whites to my working clothes!!
We keep it topped up with rinse water from the spinner….
Stephen B you’re right about the technology battle never being won. In the interests of sustainability we should draw the line in the sand and say THIS IS IT.. and then make our gear to last and be repairable.
Hi,
Agree on not having too much tech for daily living.
fyi, measurements on a tv screen are done by measuring diagonally across the screen.
Never had or wanted a bread machine, don’t use the food processor except for large quantity type stuff, like shredding cheese to make 16 cheese and onion pies for a feast. Love kneading bread and making my own pie crusts. One time a team of us were making pies for an SCA feast and the ladies were somewhat appalled at the thought of making the crusts, but they’re so much better than the store-bought ones and a heckuva lot cheaper too. We compromised – I let them use their dough-stirring machine to make the pastry and then I rolled the crusts out. I don’t know why people make such a big deal out of it; I had to teach myself to make them because my mom didn’t (and still doesn’t) bake pies or bread.
No cell phones, no iPods or any of those other little rectangles of metal and plastic. Each floor has one phone that’s old-style — which was especially good during the ice storm, as the battery-operated and/or complex modern ones all stopped working.
Do have tv, DVD/VCR, and CD player. Replaced the tv a few years ago when the old one caught fire…. no new PCs. Even the work laptop is a few years old now. Did actually pay money for my printer — specialty printer for artwork. The other printer and all the computers were 2nd hand except for the laptop, and most of them were free.
DID buy brand new battery backups this past week for the PCs and their accessories — not a problem this last time, but we do have things on the drives that need to be protected against loss, so that’s actually an overdue precaution.
One vehicle, used. Love walking when we can, but living in the country we do need to use it to get down to the valley for meetings. That may change in the next year or so…
Learned a new thing this week!! Got to use snowshoes for the first time!
I agree with the post and comments. I don’t have a cell phone either; I don’t want an electronic leash or another bill so why? The college I was going to tried to require students to have cell phones so that they could send you ‘emergency messages’. My response was something along the lines of ‘bite me’.
As for Ipods, I love tunes but can’t rationalize that kind of money or the thought of buying something that will only last about 18 months and spend the next 10,000 years in a landfill.
Chile, there are laptops on sale right now for $350. One of my friends just got one.
Hey, Sharon, Congratulations on your high-speed internet. I know it will make your work go much faster, and many of us love your posts and books.
But don’t forget those of us in the boonies who are lucky to have dial-up. Don’t go all pictures and video clips on us. One reason I love your blog is that it loads without difficulty and never hangs up my computer.
Picking technology consciously and conscientiously seems the way to go. We’re all different but we all need to consider our choices and the implications much more carefully.
I would hate to give up the internet, although I would be willing to pay for many of the interesting things offered for free.
Hidden costs of the internet:
http://tinyurl.com/7t8cfp
Little Changes with Unexpected Consequences.
I’m a nurse and a few years ago I changed jobs from one where I worked either from 1.30pm or 7.15 am, or did night shifts. I used to swim before a 1.30 start, or after a night shift, in the town where I work but I don’t go into town just to swim. The new job started at 1.00pm and I didn’t get given any night shifts. After 3 months I suddenly realised I was doing hardly any swimming because the public opening hours of the pool meant I couldn’t swim, get changed, drive to work and find somewhere to park all by 1pm. Even in the ’3rd’ world putting in a well in the middle of a village so that women don’t have to walk a couple of miles to get water means that the other things the women used to do whilst walking such as talking with their friends, using a drop spindle, knitting, goes by the way. If I drive to church (which I don’t) a mile away I don’t get to see the alpaca in the field on the way.
Yes:
cell phone – for business calls, I’m a doula.
wireless interenet – business, homeschooling, news pleasure.
14 inch LED screened tv (HDTV) – mainly use PBS and watch movies.
DVD/VCR combo
electric sewing machine – making what I need, when I know how to make it.
son owns mp3 player, and it gives me many hours of happiness a week(he’s 12, and in puberty).
AC/DC keyboard personal enjoyment, can’t fit a piano in our home.
blackberries in the summer (love blackberry pie and jam) : )
No:
No washer and dryer (wash all the clothes by hand, dry on the line outside)
No dishwasher (wash by hand, put dish drainer in the sink, where the dishes drain).
Don’t use gas heater. Use floor heaters, and working on obtaining a wood stove. Problem is where would I get the wood to burn the stove?
No blackberry phone, no internet on cell phone.
When push comes to shove, and our situation has deteriorated sufficiently, bees wax candles will be a premium, and cell phones will not work. At this time, I don’t plan to buy any more electronic gadgets for myself or the kids. I don’t see the point in it. I’m teaching them life skills that will be useful in both economies; the one Sharon and others are predicting, and the one that is in the here and now.
Sharon, so glad you are closer and closer to your goal. You imspire me. I know people will be doing alot more cooking at home as the economy tightens even more. My kids are pushing hard for me to do a moms favorite cookbook which would have “in a pinch” recipes as well as holiday specials in our family. Any idea on how to get started with that? If it has a place in the current market, I’d love to create the book, which will have antedotes from watching my parents, grandmother, my sister and ex-sister in law (in India) cook. It wil have one pot recipes as well as solar oven recipes and emergency cooking. Got any suggestions for me to get started?
Happy New Year to all of you!
Jyotsna
Well, I just noticed that I spelled inspire incorrectly. Looks like that book deal is off! Drats! : 0
Jyotsna
I am guessing that most of us reading this blog, by the very fact that we ARE reading-and reading this particular blog- and thinking about these things, are not representative of the masses. So yes, while many of us, myself included, have not shopped til we drop and don’t have oodles of “must-have” electronics laying about, we are not necessarily representative of the American people at the least- not sure about others although I guess Canadians would be similar.
So yes, I’d guess that one of the factors impacting shopping these days, besides the loss of the house ATM and the tightening credit market would be the fact that many people already own all sorts of stuff- and those who don’t either don’t want them or can’t afford to buy them. So how many ipods or computers or widescreen TV’s or whatever does any household really need?
When it comes right down to it, most people in this country already have way too much stuff; how many people not only have overflowing basements/attics/garages, but also rent storage bins to house their stuff? So there is little that will lure people to spend money other than incredible discounts that they feel they must take advantage of I guess. So I’d reckon that the impact of this will be huge as many businesses will tank due to the lack of sales. As well, if people will only buy deeply discounted items, businesses won’t make it either.
What I am most worried about however is when people start cutting back on quality items that may be more costly but are local foods, goods etc. Our winter farmers market is doing dreadfully- vendors who did it last year are shocked at the drop in customers and sales. I myself have lots of unsold stored produce with no market for it- and if I have to drastically slash my prices or give it away- I won’t be growing for market next year and another local farm will go under. So I am concerned that as people do need to eat, many people are likely flocking to the chain grocery stores to buy the cheapest produce they can-not grown around here for sure.
As well, what about local artisans as well as local stores? If people don’t buy locally produced goods or support out local stores, searching out bargains only at chain stores or on-line, then what happens? I don’t like what I’m seeing and am dreading where this will take us.
I have only had internet for a little over a year. Before that I used to get up in the early morning, cup of coffee in hand and stroll through my garden. I would watch the birds and sunrise and was able to notice day by day all the little changes in my plants and the soil. Now I just grab the cup and pop online.
It is great to get all the blogs, etc etc but I miss the garden. I notice I am also more stressed this way.
I took on a new boarder for a few months and he absolutely had to have cable. Short of only a couple shows (and those are marginal) worth watching, the rest is nothing but cultural wasteland. Most are what I call murder, rape, kill shows. Icky poo poo.
It is amazing how quickly the technology can takeover your life.
With the coming shit storm on the horizon, I think I will be going back to garden strolling. At least for most of the spring, summer and fall.
A note of warning for whatever it is worth. I had wireless internet and now I had a hard cable line. The wireless was awful because it made me so tired and gave me a headache after only an hour online. I felt “really funky”. A friend said maybe it was the length of time online. Even if that is a good argumentt for reducing hours surfing-the fact is, since I got cable internet, I do not ever feel this way, regardless of hours spent online. The wireless is very bad for your health. Do not get it. Period.
Sharon, I have to be a dissenting voice in the “we can’t go back” to old technology or that it makes life “uninhabitable.”
Thoreau did it and so can we. To say that new technology makes the past uninhabitable, is to buy into the myth that American technology and progress are linked.
I used to be tied to the cellphone for work, but after I became a SAHM we retired it and refused the contract/expense. We have had tracphone forever now and I hardly miss the thing. We are going to go fridge free in the coming year and I’m giving up the dryer in January. We are actively working to be off-grid in the next few years.
We don’t own a lawnmower, had a push one forever until we decided just to dig up the yard and we borrow our neighbor’s for what little we do mow.
Now I’m a sewist and never thought I would go to a treadle, (I have 4 machines:) but I’m actively looking for one now.
A few years ago if you’d proposed these things to me I would have laughed and said never would I go without a fridge. I’m Little House obsessed from way back, but never thought unless I was Amish I could change my place in the over-teched out world we live in.
On the path to “going back” has made me feel as if I’m going forward.
What I need (tho I do not need the debt) – an automated goat milker (because we will have up to 8 freshened goats in the spring – if our bucks did ANYTHING – hand milking one is ok – 8 will be epic – twice a day) – a barn for the animals – a retrofitted shipping container for an inspected dairy and cheese cave – a jersey cow and rental fields (across street) – a certification in cranio-sacral therapy so that I can treat my 2 year old with ASD – oh, and i need to rip out my planned and very obsolete electrical stove (very in need of replacement) and replace with a wood fired cook stove. the only thing that is even remotely possible is the milker because it HAS to be had tho i am not sure where that $ is coming from.
The biggest thing we need? jobs – we are both laid off – but that is something no one can buy for us. Maybe i should consider polyandry with new prospects being pre-qualified as having depression-proof jobs.
We have dialup; nothing but satellite would give us a high-speed connection in our valley. So Please don’t put essential info in YouTube, etc., since it’s just too painful to download.
We don’t have live TV here, either. When my son gave me a DVD player 5 years ago, we had to replace our 1984 TV (the last American-made TV, a Zenith) with a 1992 TV that had the appropriate jacks. We can get videotapes and DVDs free at the library. No Commercials! We just couldn’t go back to commercial TV.
I have exactly zero interest in blu-ray, ipods, etc. When our local classical music station replaced the music with a 24-hour news station, I started bringing my own CDs in the car. It’s better.
We’ve got prepay wireless, which barely works at our house, but is handy for finding DH at the Home Depot, or if the car breaks down.
I only use the (cheap) food processor for shredding veggies for lactofermentation; I much prefer chopping my own. I use the microwave for heating the rice bag (hot pack), but never food or water.
We’re making determined efforts to buy less, and to buy local whenever possible, including food. It doesn’t help the U.S. economy to buy all those cheap Asian goods and imported out-of-season foods.
My mottoes: Buy local; support your local farmer; eat seasonally; grow your own, put up (or shut up).
Congrats on the book!
Lynnet
As soon as you don’t NEED things….. then you are free. I have been blissfully old-fashioned since forever. Now, in some social circles. I am the cutting edge of cool. I really have no sense of unease living in two worlds at once. I do whatever works. As soon as you become mindful of technology as the dream child of convenience then consumption habits change automatically. Let the guilt go. Lean into the new world coming.
Jen-
We’re looking at going fridge free in a few months. Are you going to be keeping a freezer and using cold packs during warm months?
We are going to keep our smallish chest freezer and then use frozen water bottles to chill food in a unplugged dorm-sized fridge tucked into the pantry cabinet. We also have a really heavy metal tool box recycled from an old semi truck. That we are going to use as an animal-proof cold box on the north side of the house.
Lydia-
I know what you mean about the way teg internet and blogs in particular sneak into your life. I have given myself a strick 30min daily limit recently.
Sharon-
Here’s one more vote for keeping your blog youtube free. Love the actual reading I’m forced to do here.
Sharon Please leave your blog the way it is.. You tube videos no no no. Regards.
Hi Sharon – lots of techno-peasants in rural New Mexico too. We are out of cell phone range and I have no use for an ipod or blackberry – those are to carry your entertainment wherever you go, and I don’t go anywhere much. I don’t have tv service but have a dvd/vcr player hooked up to my 13 inch set, and dvd’s are slightly clearer on my 15 inch computer monitor. I didn’t know blu-ray was a new product – thought it was a brand name. Seriously, you sew on a WHAT? Extraordinary heroism! Here at our family motel ( purchased 1994 from my Mom’s best friend; her parents ran it since the 1950′s) we inherited a hand washing-mangle for sheets. Got rid of THAT in a hurry. I got broadband DSL very recently and think youtube is a lot of fun. For instance there is a Schapelle Corby support song/video on YT which is a fine way to spread the word about her predicament, and innocence.
Singin’ in the rain? Why would anyone be outside in the rain? Aren’t we all supposed to stay in our climate controlled cubes?
Actually, I love walking in snow and cold and was delighted to see this Thoreau quote show up on his blog http://blogthoreau.blogspot.com a couple days ago:
“Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”
Never owned a car, still haven’t used a cell phone, my last day of tv is going to be the day before it goes digital, and though I love many things about the internet, I do sometimes miss all the things I used to love before I got the internet.
I have an older MP3 player that is NOT an ipod that mostly gets used to drown out other people. Nothing like some good bluegrass to make the televisions on the bus go away! (yes, the bus system has TVs with microprogramming and commercials. Interestingly, the commercials are largely Make Money schemes and Debt Relief promotions!)
Since I’ve joined the free-lance work-from-home crowd, not much bus riding, and thus not much MP3 use has been happening. I’m starting to pine for some bluegrass… [wry grin]
I did splurge on a new computer though – one of the mini netbooks. I LOVE it! They start around $300 and <2lbs! My old luggable (Sony Vaio, ~7lbs?) was too heavy to haul much, and Windows seems to inevitably get dementia after several years. Now I have an Asus901 with Linux, and it’s hardly distinguishable. Since my free-lance work is writing, I justified the investment, and am very glad I did. If you’re looking to upgrade your computer to something small, light, and power-savvy, check out the netbooks. They do come in Windows versions if you have a software need that Linux cannot (yet) fill.
[...] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » The Pleasures of the Obsolete That’s a problem, when you get down to it; all retailers are really catering to is “the quantum of more”. [...]
We own an ipod, a cell phone and a big tv, yet we live pretty simple lives, I think. Having technology doesn’t make you a simplicity-flunkie, I don’t think. It is all about mindset. When your mind rules your actions to constantly buy, buy buy! and upgrade! then you have a problem.
We don’t own a single cd, tape, or piece of music besides our ipod, which I think is nifty because I can download an mp3 and not create waste with cd cases, shrinkwrap and the like. I use my ipod to download podcasts and keep up with news and listen to NPR and things like that on my own schedule since being a teacher I can’t always switch on the radio when I’d like to hear the latest NPR show.
We own a cell phone and it is our only one—no more landlines here.
As for the tv, I admit to being a tv junkie. There. I said it. I didn’t realize living simply meant one couldn’t own or watch or like to watch tv! I realize I’m probably in the minority here, but I love to watch my nightly news and LOST when it comes on in 3 weeks. We have one big tv in the living room and that is it. We are firm believers in NO TV’s in the bedroom, kitchen, etc. One is enough. And yes, we use it. Right now as I type this, my kids are snuggled up on the couch with their dad watching Star Wars, one of our favorite movies.
We eat almost all our meals at home, we garden, buy used clothes at a thrift shop when we need something, and live relatively simple lives.
But…..I do like my technology, I will admit.
Hurrah for the vote for lesser technologies. I’d like to think some of the much loved items in our household are just “older” rather than “obsolete”. Maybe that’s because we are older ourselves (headed to 60) and refuse to believe that we should be thrown off the bus if we can’t keep up.
Having a stock pile of re-readable books seems as much of a hedge on a better future as a well stocked pantry. We still listen to the occasional record (big wonderful round things very satisfying to hold in the hand). Analogue clocks make much more visual sense than digital even though I’ve embraised the big digital numbers in the bedroom that are readable without glasses. We choose to burn wood in our wood stove for heat when the city isn’t imposing a “spare the air” day. In fact, I can think of very little in our house besides appliances and the computer that I use for work that wasn’t made by us, found, inherited, or collected because we loved it. And yes, Sharon, I remember not liking the transition of black and white TV to color. It seemed to clutter the visual field in a way that was tiring. Don’t get me started on colorized versions of classic films.
None of the above has to do with altering our lifestyle to prepare for future challenges. We’ve just always preferred a certain look and feel of things pre-plastic (not counting my bakelite jewelry of course). My Christmas present this year was a big piece of walnut. It’s destined to become a low table or bench and was the more wonderful and unexpected than any flat screen TV (and much less likely to break).
Time to write out a list of those 2008 blessings while the electricity is still on.
Robin- yes we are going to remove the fridge and store it for whoever buys our house and in it’s place set up a steel rack with two colors to keep leftovers in one and anything else that needs to be cold in the other. We are drastically working on what needs to stay cold now and thinking of a system for next winter. SC is very unreliable with temps and it can be 40 one day and 70 the next. I would love to build a root cellar but we are in the city. We are getting a freezer since we buy local meat in bulk and have to have a freezer for such. Also my kids love popsicles, homemade though:)
Sharon, is Hen and Harvest dead? It doesn’t seem to have been updated in a long time.
I had a tracfone and ended up hating it. Sure it was cheap, but it was the kind of cheap that I felt created a lot of work for me. I had to remember to renew my minutes before they expired and was subjected to tracfone ads and messages when trying to dial numbers. The ads being interjected into my phone use were the final straw. If I’m in the middle of something and need to call someone, I don’t want to wait until the damn ad is over. I try to avoid using a cell phone when driving, but, every once in a while, I would need to make a call, which I would try to do at a red light. Tracfone’s obstructive ads made that impossible. So very annoying if you are lost and need directions.
We canceled our land line and now I’m on cell exclusively–a better cell phone than the tracfone, but still cheaper and more basic than most people. It makes a great baby toy too. The babeola loves to pretend to talk to people, chew the antenna and dial the number 5 over and over.
We do have a big screen TV. Not 60″. Much smaller than that, but still more than 32″. I do love it. It’s paid for–no credit. The picture is beautiful. When we had cable, watching the Discovery channel was lovely, nature in all it’s glory. The picture quality is fantastic.
But we have no plans to buy a blu-ray dvd player. We do have a portable dvd player that was a ten year employee anniversary gift (i.e. free). It comes in handy for long trips. No ipod or plans to get one, but we have a cheapy MP3 player that no one uses (yet the husband had to have it).
I guess, long story short, we have been consumers, but our values are now shifting. This past holiday season, gifts were 90% green items that encourage less resource use (i.e. Sigg water bottles) or purchased from local businesses. The other 10% were gift cards and a few MIC items.
Becoming a parent has made me want less for myself and more for my daughter, part of that is not gorging on consumables.
M
We never had an all-American quota of technology in the first place but we are nevertheless busy scaling back. It is a lot of work scaling back because it seems to me that many technological advances created corresponding losses of skills. In order to live without the technology, you have to resurrect the skills which isn’t always easy. It isn’t just brute strength you have to supply, it is actual knowledge and skills.
We are eight people living on a homestead. We gave up microwave back in the hoary past. Gave up a dryer a couple of years ago. Gave up the washer last fall (have several blog posts on this subject if interested). Never had a cell phone. Never had a dishwasher other than the homegrown kind (one of whom sings opera in a very rich voice while washing up much to my delight). Oh, gave up a lawn mower a number of years ago and substituted it with cows and goats who put newly shorn grass to such good use. I use a Bosch to knead bread because my joints don’t hold up well to so much kneading for so many people (although I wonder if we should be eating so much wheat in the first place?) but don’t use bread machines or any of that. We still have the indoor electric oven but love to use the outdoor, wood-fired earth oven much more and the bread coming out of it is superlative. We are about to build a fire pit and learn about outdoor Dutch oven cookery. I have been wanting to do that for years.
We substituted a Jotul wood stove for the furnace this year. What a revelation that has been. Me with low thyroid and adrenal problems is feeling great warmth and security with the lovely radiant heat billowing forth from this wonderful stove. And I am gaining the courage to switch over to a wood cookstove too one of these years.
We had the frig off for two and a half weeks just now with a freezer still running in the basement. A couple of hours ago, my husband came to me and said that we have to turn it back on as we are losing some food. The low tonight is going to be 46 and our breezeway where we have been keeping perishables is not cool enough. Hasn’t been for a few days now. I am quite heart broken by this and would love to read of more tips and experiences for going frig free.
I have also been thinking about treadle sewing machines for the past week or so and would love to read more about what it is like to use them and where to find them and so on.
Years ago, a very interesting and helpful health practitioner commented that I am allergic to electricity. I suspect that many humans are similarly allergic but we have grown so accustomed to feeling the way we do that we accept this jangling, nervous system irritating way of life as natural.
Health considerations aside, we have discovered as a family that peeling away technological approaches to maintaining daily life reveals astonishing experiences regarding what it can mean to live together more naturally. It has become a fascination to us and a powerful outlet for creativity, intimacy, adventure and a sense of connection to other people all over the world.
We don’t have a tv – just a tuner card in the computer. My one extravagance is the dishwasher. It is the only thing newish round here. I like some new technologies where they are appropriate. For example I love the solar hot water system. We do very little electric heating now and hope to do less by running the hot water through a concrete pad/floor in the bathroom. I think a solar panel should take care of the rest whenever we get to the point of being able to afford it.
Its all in the attitude as several people have already said. Ignore the advertising and you never need know how out of date you are
viv in nz
I am very happy with: NO TV, NO DVD player except this computer if I want to bother–NO cell phone, NO tracphone, NO iPod, NO blackberry, NO wireless internet, NO broadband internet…NO dishwasher! By choice, not poverty… yet!
I’ll probably need a Tracphone soon. Winter walking in woods and seldom traveled dirt lanes are not safe? maybe… Of course, I’ve said this (thought this) for the six years I’ve lived here—!
A full and beautiful existence! Technology? Great when actually needed –but distracting, frustrating, fragmenting, time stealer for a simple life of joy.
Oh, I have several friends, too, most of whom do NOT have TVs, etc., but they have decided a cell phone is a must up here in the woods of Maine.
I’ll be the first to admit that I have too much stuff. But, aside from clothes and CDs, almost all of it is *useful*. I have trouble throwing away or getting rid of stuff I know I can use. I have more canning jars than I will almost certainly ever need -but I’m not getting rid of the excess.
I expect we’ll all be going back to a lower level of tech before much longer -because we won’t have much choice.
Can I just second the warning about wireless up above? Sleeping near a wireless router has played havoc with my health & sleep pattern; the fact that there’s “no known reason” according to my technocrat brother doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. And I once spent an hour on a wireless phone at work, in an emergency; my ear became red & swollen & a week later the hair behind my ear on that side fell out! It’s taken two years to grow back. My doctor is adament it was just coincidence and there cannot possibly be a connection, but I’m becoming a bit wary of the latest technology, although I worked happily in a high-tech field back before having children.
I use a treadle for nearly all my sewing, especially quilting, though I do have a modern electric machine and an overlocker or serger. I just love the whole-body involvement and total control the treadle gives me. It’s also capable of sewing canvas, leather and much weightier fabrics than my modern one, which does lots of pretty stitches but has trouble coping with two layers of denim. I won’t miss that when it falls apart after 3 more years, but my faithful Jones (not to mention the two Singer treadles I also own & use, along with several handcranks) is 99 years old and will sew happily for another 99, given somewhere dry to live, a brush out every now & then and a little oil.
I’d go without TV without a second thought now & hardly watch anything at all, though my other half and kids might miss it rather more. I’m also gradually banishing our kitchen gadgets, mostly by just not replacing them as they fail. The dishwasher went out a couple of years ago; I have a household full of teenagers who need to learn to do these things! I think my food processor died the last time we made paper but I haven’t checked; I’m not worried if it has, because I’d long suspected that all it did was move the work to the other side of the meal. Granted it made the preparations easier, but it also made the washing up a whole lot harder. And it couldn’t be put in the almost-defunct dishwasher anyway, in common with most of the things I actually like to cook with, like wooden spoons & spatulas and cast-iron pans and dishes. I do use a breadmaker for convenience, but far prefer handmade bread and again, I won’t replace this one when it dies.
I’m longing for a wood stove that I can also cook on. Maybe when we move to somewhere with a garden big enough to grow some more of our own food? But then I won’t be within walking distance of a weekly Farmer’s Market… what we’d gain on the one hand we’d lose on the other. And the one gadget I’d really struggle without is this, my computer & internet connection. It’s a wonderful tool for so many things; finding recipes, patterns & craft inspirations, sharing ideas, accessing information & educational opportunities for homeschooling two of my teens. I’ve taken part in swaps & shares across the world and made friends both nearby and on other continents, many of whom I’ve met in real life now too. And how else could I feel connected to other people who question the status quo and the all-pervading consumer culture, living in a small & prosperous little English town? So, by choice, I wouldn’t be completely without technology but I’d be happy with far less, and I’m working on it.
This was an interesting post. I love my internet. We won’t have blu-ray since we don’t have HD TV.
Many of us who enjoy Sharon and trying parts of her life-style probably aren’t the top techno-heads in the country, anyway. It is interesting
how some technology is taken as a given. On Christmas day my MIL was on a rant about my husband’s youngest sister being destitute; I forget what it was that she supposedly doesn’t have, but what she does have is a mortgage-free home (thanks to what her father left to her and her 2 brothers, and these brothers let her live there for only the cost of the taxes), a car, home computer, a phone, and cable TV. We pay her utilities. She has a job.
But there were a couple of technology toys that she had been unable to afford for her daughters for Christmas, and so Nana had concluded she was ‘destitute’. Interesting mindset. Technology entitlement…….a new concept.