advertisers have trained us that the correct response to “I love that this object exists” is “I must buy and own this object forever in order to express my love for it”. I’m talking about themed merch, funko pops, LEGO sets, airsoft guns, and other toy-like items that are often aimed at adults

but what I’d like to posit here is that advertisers have trained us to conflate “I want to experience and use this object for some period of time” with “I want to permanently own this object”

because, consider this: for how long will you enjoy this new toy? of course you’ll probably love getting to experience it at first, but that joy will fade over time, right? maybe not for all things, but for most things

for example I love assembling a new LEGO set, and I love playing with the LEGO set afterward. sometimes I’ll disassemble the whole set just to build it again. but after about 2 weeks I’m bored of the whole thing, and get no further benefit from it. our consumerist programming tells us that the correct response to this is to put it in deep storage and own it forever, where it will just take up space and be forgotten

but what if, instead, you swapped LEGO sets with someone else? now you both have a new LEGO set to play with for free, and you both get to enjoy building them and playing with them all over again. or what if you traded a LEGO set for a funko pop that you liked? and then when you were bored of admiring the funko pop you traded it for a book, and then when you were done reading the book you traded it for another LEGO set

just think of how many sales you’ve just denied our corporate overlords by doing this, and yet the joy you feel is the same

pass on your things. spread the joy to others. consume less and share more

@kasdeya I've been struggling a lot with this regarding LEGO. I went big on it for a period, have lego trains and town stuff and had a small train layout that I've wanted to expand. And I love some of the displays, I do like them as artwork and decorations. But also at the same time, it is a significant expense, time investment, takes up space, and it does really clash with my beliefs about degrowth and consumerism. On one hand, it feels like a waste, and tbh I don't like being beholden to a single company. But on the other, I enjoy making the displays and stuff, and maybe it would be cool to try and do a communal one.

Really, thinking about it, I would love to be like the dad/uncle/grandpa that has a train display that kids could come hang out and play with, like I remember going to a friends house who had a model train setup in an extra room and thinking it was so cool. I got into LEGO again as an adult while I was in a relationship that I was thinking about children in, but now that's over and I have no children of my own, and my friends who do have kids live too far away for that to be realistic.

So idk, still trying to figure things out! But I am working on my impulse to buy things, and trying to figure out what to downsize and what to keep, figure out what is important to me.

@kasdeya This is an interesting take on things, I will think about this, thanks

@Shivaekul that totally makes sense, and I’m glad that you’re thinking about it! personally I am totally comfortable with investing time into a hobby like LEGO, but I definitely don’t want to be giving them the amount of money that they ask for their sets (which I’m sure is inflated because they essentially have a monopoly)

but I have to admit that I love making things out of LEGO and I would probably buy some sets if I could afford them lol. though I hope that I would trade them with others once I was done - I think that’s the ideal way to engage with LEGO for me

@aetios I’m happy to have given you something new to think about!

@kasdeya Very interesting, because I fully agree with this in general, but specifically LEGO is one of those things that doesn’t fall under this, because i build once, enjoy for a few weeks, then dissasemble into the big pool of lego i use for custom builds and playing around with. but yeah, definitely agree in general terms.

@kasdeya
This is why we, at Big Corporate, are announcing a new rental service for all of our toys!
For only $129.99 a mo-

And that's why we all need to go talk to our neighbors about forming a community association. Never mind legos, what about sharing extra food? Lives could be saved from those sales lost!

@kasdeya sharing is caring, and now, sharing is beating the corporations

@kasdeya the LEGO company has been trying to hide the truth this whole time: you can just keep reusing the same pieces

like genuinely having a small bin of assorted parts is going to be so much more fun over time than several expensive sets that get built once and then either cemented in glue or they lose parts and can never be "finished"

@kasdeya The time is more an opportunity cost thing, and it's hard (for me) to focus on something like that with everything going on. It's definitely really soothing and fun when I can. But yeah the money is no joke!

I think that's a good plan and way to square things. I wonder if the library has LEGO sets too, I'm always impressed by the different community things they have.

@kasdeya I'm a data hoarder but materially more frugal than most. Mostly cuz I don't engage with them as much, recreationally.

I think being restrictively consumerist and learning to share the things you've stopped caring about are two different things. Nearly all the furniture I currently use are exactly this. Parents wanted to stop paying for a storage unit and dumped half of it on me, which I was happy for. Got a nice big bed out of it. ^_^

@kasdeya exactly me, when I temporarily got an H0 Model Railway set and an Amiga 500.

@kasdeya
i mean, thats kinda just p2p library socialism to drop a keyword

@kasdeya
although honestly having the actual "libraries" is also a big part of what makes the idea so good

@kasdeya
anyways, it definitely is usurfructian property relations

@kaiiak @kasdeya \#\minimalism!

@kasdeya Arguably worse, "I must keep buying so the company knows I still support them because there is no other way to do it"

@kasdeya zhe experience of "buying a zhing and getting bored wizh it after 2 weeks" is universal, and yet like so many ozher instances of corporate blame-shifting, it's portrayed as a personal failure instead of a systemic issue, or in zhis case, fundamental aspect of experience (novelty). "zhe problem isn't consumerism, it's zhat *you* don't make good purchasing decisions. zhe system is fine."

and zhis is why it never even occurs to so many (including myself until reading zhis post) zhat zhere is even a problem at all! we get brainwashed into believing zhis is just an unavoidable part of life, when really it's completely zheir fault, zhey're just really good at obscuring zhat fact so you continue to give zhem money.

@kasdeya I know that things like this exist for books. In my area, at least, there's the "Little Free Library" program where people can take a book at no cost, exchanging it for a different book they've already read and no longer need.

And the public library system of Sacramento, CA has a "Library of Things" that people can check out to use for a short time, and return when they're no longer needed: https://www.saclibrary.org/Books-Media/Specialty-Checkouts/Library-of-Things

@kasdeya It's an interesting thought. I think it's also valid for someone to want to keep their LEGO set. Some people like to make them show pieces. Some people build their own.

I don't think one approach is simply better than another. But if one's enjoyment of a LEGO set is to assemble, disassemble, play and eventually they get bored... sure, swap them. That reminds me of jig-saw puzzles. My mother, when she was strongly into them, would trade puzzles she had completed before to get a new one to complete.

@kasdeya@cryptid.cafe i think at some australian libraries kids can borrow stuff like toys and lego now

@kasdeya And in the specific case of LEGO sets you see that a new set of plans exists and try to figure out how to build it or something similar with the bricks you already have. Which was the original goal of LEGO, and not just being "Funko Pops with extra steps."

@kasdeya
They should make all ages LEGO play centers. With access to a ton of models, LEGO master support to find what you need, or help with the design. They could have catalogues of options. They could even have 3d printers to customize stuff. You make something, then if at the end you want to keep it, you buy it, meanwhile they can charge for a play day as well.

It would reduce that need to buy, but increase the desire to play.

@kasdeya unless it's digital music, in which case they've trained us to rent from them perpetually and never own, with drm digital handcuffs and copyright maximalist bs rather than the compassionate anti-consumerist human view: embrace sharing with each other collectively (that they demonize as piracy)

@kasdeya *very loud thinking noises*

@kasdeya One of my proudest moments as a dad was when my son, having spent hours making a large Lego Millennium Falcon, disassembled it to use the pieces to make other things.
"Yes!" I thought, "He gets it!" (He's now an engineering student).

@brettm @kasdeya When I was growing up there was a toy library. I think it still exists. Every now and then we'd go and get some new toys and games and then we'd go back another time to return/swap them. There must have been a subscription but cheaper than buying lots of things we'd just get bored of.

(Also back in my day legos weren't glorified kitsets. You got various kinds of bricks and you made whatever you wanted out of them, then you broke them down and made something else. Old man shouts at clouds.gif etc)

@kasdeya there's definitely some sets that I delight in seeing, but they were a gift for me or a purchase for that reason.

I like this idea for those that I don't, and I'll keep it in mind for sharing and swapping ^^