Ask HN: Why are we consuming thing we don’t need?

Silly thought experiment. You’re a Stone Age hunter. You use a slingshot. Someone says they can make you one that shoots a little bit faster and weighs a bit less and has a sweet mammoth bone inlay that will impress everyone. You’ll have to pay a couple days of hunt. Would you do it? It’s a thing you carry all the time and it’s a big part of your “equipmental nexus” and thus your life and your real daily experience. Is it ridiculous to think of your phone as similarly crucial? Maybe.

It's a part of our socioeconomic system. Our economy is run on carrots and sticks. The carrots have to look bigger and the sticks have to look bigger.

If we stopped caring so much about grades, the education system wouldn't work as planned. If we didn't care about salary, the workforce system wouldn't work.

Past a certain point, food and housing is not that big an influence on workforce. Hence status symbols.

Another aspect: animals crave both status and territory. As time goes on, we start to own less and less 'territory' (smaller houses, less transportation, less long term jobs, even our movies and music aren't our own). So we make up for it by trying to own more things, or trying to project our status with status symbols.

This is a much deeper question, and answer than appears at the surface.

Consumer tech is designed to be addictive, and it's marketing aimed at unconscious insecurities.

Realizing that, and exerting self control can be tricky, especially for people with plenty of disposable income.

Tips:

1. Acknowledge the addiction - first step to recovery

2. Research best practices to overcome the addiction. Just like any other, quitting cold turkey is probably impractical. Set achievable, meaningful goals and knock them off one by one

3. Get busy - find something that is meaningfully uplifting and immerse yourself in it - the busier you are, the less likely you're drawn to (old) addictions. Translation: replace bad addictions with good ones

My 2 cent manifesto:

Manufactured insecurities mutually-reinforced by peer pressure ("Keeping up with the Jones") is often why. Don't do what you don't want to do; don't be pressured into lemmingification. Everyone else can buy absurdly-overpriced conveniences like tiny bottles of water in disposable plastics. Pack your own lunch, take up freeganing and stay away from "luxuries" like recent MacBook Pro's that are overpriced and designed for unrepairability. Opt-out of the new widget competitive upgrading bandwagon and only acquire just what you need, just when you need it and not before. Also, share services that rent things that bleed you but convey no ownership.

Some things to read:

Dave Ramsey has a podcast and many books, and while he mostly talks about getting out of debt, he’s really talking about controlling your money.

Look up asceticism. I don’t think it’s the answer but it has a lot of helpful things to say, particularly imo Christian asceticism. Stoicism might be similarly helpful: not the answer but says some helpful things.

I wholeheartedly agree with the others who say to limit your exposure to advertising. Over 10 years ago I drastically reduced my TV watching and that alone has helped tremendously.

Spend time with people who have very little, such as people who are homeless. It helped me to gain a different perspective.

If you have spare money to buy new stuff, you have no pressing reason not to do so. What helped me was to find another "higher" purpose for spare money (e.g. pension savings, house down payment, a big vacation, ...), so I can always ask myself: Is this iPhone really worth it or do I get more out of it by dedicating it to the other purpose?

It's a choice, often an emotional one. One message our society sends is that power, expression and escape can be achieved through buying things.

I came to a point in my life pretty early where I realized that I don't need much. Also, I don't really give a shit about proxies for status, and that the people who do care about those proxies rarely are people that I want in my life in any significant fashion.

In a way, I've self-selected a social circle that doesn't pressure me into adopting principles and behaviors surrounding consumption that I don't agree with.

I think it’s simple. There are millions of people who go to work at companies whose job it is to figure out how to sell more of their stuff to you.

Not just marketing and sales. Coders working on analytics platforms used by marketing for example are part of the team. Reflect on what tasks got priority at your work today. And if you are not helping to increase consumption maybe you are helping your customers customers to do this instead.

Companies that can grow get all the rewards. Their shareholders get rich. People want to be rich because that’s the dream they are sold. It’s a cycle.

If you have excess income, consider committing to give X% of your salary/income away to charity.

You might find researching effective charities that you are passionate about to be an interesting endeavor which might satisfy the "shopping" itch if that's part of what motivates you to buy things you don't need.

And if status symbols is your game, going to charity gala events and showing off your donations on social media can take the place of instagramming your new car or gadget.

Because we are constantly conditioned to consume. Advertisements are everywhere. Popular culture always glorifies hyper consumption lifestyle.

Why: endorphins.

How to stop buying useless things: stop buying useless things.

If that's hard, reduce or eliminate your exposure to advertisements. Eliminate broadcast and cable TV, install an adblocker in your browser.

Try reading 'Predictably Irrational' by Dan Ariely. He explains a lot.

Who is this “we”? I consume things I don’t need because I like them; your own decision making process may differ from mine though, so I wouldn’t like to speak for anyone else.

We need very little ; food is cheap, air and water are generally free, shelter is not strictly necessary. I choose to spend money on things I don’t need, such as a warm and comfortable indoor place to sleep, because they bring me more pleasure than the extra dollars in my bank balance might.

“Need” is a pretty high bar to clear, I don’t think that should be your standard for what you buy. I think what you’re asking is something more like “why do people buy things which fail to give them enough benefit to justify their purchase”, which is a good question, but perhaps can only be answered by the individual concerned, through introspection.

Sometimes I worry I’m the opposite — that instead of spending too much money on things that don’t give me benefit I’m being too cheap, and failing to buy things that actually would be worthwhile. On the other hand I’m sure I make errors on both sides.