I’ve got this weird thing that I’m being drawn to currently: the desire for character being reflected in the things I own and use regularly. I have a lot of things that look new — in top condition. And it’s nice having new things, but on the other hand, these things don’t have use on them. They’re all still fairly pristine.

For example, I have a great keep cup which I’ve been using now for a couple of years. It still looks brand new. This is a good thing I guess, but I just want it to be a little more beat up. I think having something that is beat up represents an element of frugality: not giving in to the temptation of buying the next shiny thing. Instead, I want to get proper use out of what I own, and I want this approach to be reflected in these things. I want that keep cup to have a few bumps and scratches on it. The same with my water bottle: it just looks so new and clean, and it is only a few months old. But I want the scratches and dents!

A big one is my phone. I got an iPhone 15 Pro at the end of 2023. Firstly, I have no idea why I bought the Pro version — I actively try to not use my phone these days. The camera is great, but I also don’t take heaps of photos and videos — I have a really good camera for that. The phone itself is in great condition, even after a couple of years of use. So I don’t really see why I would trade it in for the new one. Doing so would be undeniably wasteful. Instead, I want to keep it until it is all beat up. I want to run it into the ground!

In many ways, the iPhone is almost like a subscription model — for many consumers, it’s a common practice (cultivated by Apple) to upgrade it when a new one comes out, encouraging users to pay again each year or couple of years for the new features. Of course, it’s not exactly like a subscription model, as if I choose not to, I can still use my current one. In that way, it’s like Bitwig, where I pay for the current version, which gives me updates for a couple of years. After that time though, I have to pay for another round of updates for 2 years, or just stick with my current version.

But not buying all of these new things, and instead having a few things that you then build a strong connection and history with is, in my mind, a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to modern consumerism. It’s a way of demonstrating not giving into coercive advertisement. With this iPhone, I have paid a big bunch of cash for the silly Pro version, and I’m going to use it for as long as I can, to get the most value out of that money as I can.

I want to look at my things, see the scratches on them, and know where they’ve been with me and why they are the way they are.