Do your possessions possess you?
8 questions for the skeptical consumer
Welcome to Art Life Balance, a newsletter about art, life, and some other third thing. If you enjoy this newsletter and would like to others to find it, please ♥, share, and subscribe!
My grandpa had a warning about possessions he regularly repeated: Be careful what you buy or your possessions will possess you. When I thought about this saying as a kid, I naturally applied it to things like McMansions and bespoke cars, designer handbags and giant glittering jewels. People spend exorbitant sums of money on extravagant things — for status and clout or just because they can — and then they spend exorbitant amounts of time maintaining, protecting, securing those “assets” until their lives revolve around their possessions instead of the other way around. A chilling warning against living a materialistic lifestyle.
As an adult and owner of a house and a car (though not fancy ones), I realize just how prescient that warning still is. “Must-have” products and services are as ubiquitous as ever, and now I don’t have to ask for an early allowance to spend money on them. But unlike the gaudy status symbols I envisioned as a kid, many of the most compelling items aren’t those that signal wealth and success, but those that promise to make life easier or make me smarter. What’s more, many of them don’t glitter, they glow — with the ambient light of an LED screen.
If only there were a simple way to parse the products and services that vie for our attention so we could more consciously choose which ones we let into our lives and in what ways. If only there were, hypothetically speaking, an 8-question list!
As you’ll see below, I tried my hand at creating such a list. While it’s probably not applicable to all situations, it begins to identify some of the factors we might keep in mind when navigating a sea of solicitations.
To be clear, my intention is not to “decision-tree” this thing: The value judgment you attach to your answers to any of these questions is up to you. If a product or service collects your data, for instance, only you can decide whether that bothers you. Likewise, you may determine that a product’s upsides are enough to offset its downsides. (I feel that way about the iPad I’m using to write this, for instance.)
I conducted this effort in the spirit of “raising awareness,” that fuzzy feeling of a term that nevertheless does actually mean something sometimes. To that end, if there’s something I missed, please let me know in the comments! Like most things I write, these exhortations are also notes to self.
You want it, but do you really?
Is its purpose specific and clear, and does it fulfill that purpose well?
Do you know what you’ll use it for? If it has a general or multipurpose use, does it perform those tasks up to your standards? If it is primarily an aesthetic object, what is it about its material and stylistic qualities that you appreciate?
Are its design, functionality, and costs clear?
What is it made of? How does it work? How is it powered? What does it want or demand from you?
Are its design, functionality, and costs predictable, or are they subject to change in unspecified ways at unspecified times?
If something about its design or functionality is scheduled to change, will you be notified? If something does change, will you notice? If the product or service unexpectedly breaks or shut down, how will it impact you? Do you have a backup plan?
Can you customize your experience?
If its default form or settings don’t work for you, can you make them work for you by tinkering with them?
Is it easy to quit/unsubscribe/opt out?
(Or would exiting the service’s orbit require navigating a maze wrapped inside an obstacle course wrapped inside a pop quiz that feels like it was designed by a psychopathic movie villain? [Can you tell I donated to a political campaign once and still haven’t figured out how to remove myself from all those mailing lists?])
Does its use revolve around your life, or does your life revolve around its use?
If it promises to save you time, does it actually afford you more time than it takes from you? If it promises to help you express your thoughts, does it actually do this more often than it tells you how to think? Does it require active maintenance, and how time-consuming is that maintenance? Does it have addictive or distracting qualities that keep you from doing other things you enjoy?
Does it align with your values and/or your vision of who you want to be?
Does it make you more creative? More thoughtful? More intentional? More [insert your own thing here]? Does it bring joy, meaning, or purpose to your life?
Does it align with your vision of a better world?
If everyone used it, what would that mean for society and culture? Would it be positive? What are its implications on the things you care about most?
Credits/deeper dives
Louis Rossmann: Rossmann is a YouTuber, tech repairman, and right to repair advocate whose videos were living rent-free in my head while I wrote this list. If you subscribe to his channel, get ready to get angry about manipulative design and advertising practices, then to get hopeful because someone out there is painstakingly documenting and exposing them.
: This Substack newsletter is endlessly illuminating, as is its namesake, the book “Tools for Conviviality” by Ivan Illich. In a nutshell, the newsletter examines technology and culture with an eye toward how to live an intentional and fulfilling life. In the words of its “About” section: “No hot takes, only deliberate considerations of the meaning of technology for human experience.”
: In much the same vein as “The Convivial Society,” “Ever Not Quite” focuses on technology and the human experience, taking an expansive view of technology. The essays published there range from comparing and contrasting photography and AI, dissecting Apple’s infuriating “Crush!” ad, and examining the work of past thinkers whose ideas remain relevant today.
My past writing on related topics:
Subverting social media - published in this newsletter
GenAI: Life-hack or self-own? - published in this newsletter
Tech answers to tech problems - published in this newsletter
Do our products own us? - published in Front Porch Republic
In defense of the human brain - published in
Thank you for reading Art Life Balance.
If you liked this post, I’d love to know! Please ♥, share, or leave a comment.
Want to support this newsletter?
Consider becoming a paid subscriber. There are no fancy perks, but you will receive my sincere gratitude!
Love this! Deciding how to spend money can be so challenging. It was so easy especially during my first year out of college to think everything that glitters is gold. I think I even sent you a link to a dog toy recently that I know my dog doesn’t need and will probably break in 2 days but SEEMS so necessary. I’ll try your questions out and let you know how it goes!
Thanks for sharing, Talia! It's deeply humbling to find myself alongside The Convivial Society, one of the publications which has influenced me the most.