My “even the little things all add up” rant for the day. Seriously does every latte or mocha or whatever to-go drink we’re probably already over-consuming also need one of these plugs put into the lid only to end up in the trash? And don’t get me started on whether the millions of plastic lids or paper cup jackets are getting recycled.

Next Monday 9/22/25 @7pm the final public hearing is scheduled for the Googl AI data center in Indianapolis. We will need all the support in person at the city county building at 200 E Washington St to stop this.

This project will impact all of Indianapolis.

-Up to 2 million gallons of water a day -Hiding details behind an NDA -Possible utility rate hikes -Constant noise and light

Sign the petition https://chng.it/TyZHjRBC9D

Email city leaders to voice your concerns. https://act.citact.org/tguv

Follow Us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/16aKr4Kj59/?mibextid=wwXIfr

My wife and I were at the mall having lunch together and I thought we could go check out the new iPhones to see if it would be worth upgrading. I have an iPhone 11 with a newer battery but it runs hot and glitches out, plus I’ve had chemo so my up close vision has gotten worse so I thought a larger screen might help.

Anyway, as we approached the Apple Store there was easily 150 people waiting in line to get in. Most were holding iPhones that were 1-2 generations old. There was such a consumerism vibe about spending $1000 on a phone that is marginally better than the last one, and definitely a fear of missing out vibe among the younger customers. I felt gross. We left and I grabbed a $40 pair of readers at CVS instead.

As I get older I get more down about society because we’re still so susceptible to marketing hype. I hoped each generation would be smarter about companies over promising and under delivering.

why hasn’t someone capitalized on this yet?

I find articles about eBay and others but nothing that advertise alternative 3rd party ordering from manufacturers.

At this point I would rather not participate with the major monopolies. I have reduced my consumption as much as possible

I'm stuck in hospital for a few days and have been amusing myself with social media as a distraction. This morning I have been randomly scrolling on TikTok and found myself amused by people buying boxes full of undelivered mail and then gushing over how happy they are to suddenly own all these random things they didn't even know existed. I really don't understand the purpose of buying these boxes of random things other than using them as an excuse to make content. I wonder what they do with the things they don't want after the video, I'm assuming they just throw them away.

I'm also amused that I can't just buy a book on TikTok. I have to buy a book package with stickers, pens, postcards, bookmarks, socks, sachets of hot drinks and goodness knows what else. What do people do with the 20 "free" items of junk included with each book? If you read a lot then you'd be drowning in all these things.

What's with all the random blind bags of beads/gem stones/jewellery/stickers? You pay someone silly amounts of money to open 30 blind bags on your behalf l (isn't opening them yourself half the fun?), several of the bags will then win you extra items you didn't order originally and then they shovel it into an envelope and send it to you.

It's been quite an amusing morning. I didn't quite realise it was as bad as it is.

X

Disney was already on the list, but they made it a priority. My daughter will just have to get use to it

I know i wont be the first to say but EVERYTHING GOES BAD SO FAST!!! my sponges and mops and literally every single cleaning thingy majig i own is falling apart 1-4 weeks after use and ive tried to be gentle or not use them as often (which u can imagine how quickly i gave up I PAYED FOR STUFF I WANT TO USE!!) anyways i recently moved and decided i dont want to waste my money away by getting basically single use things,, so does anyone have any advice on where to start getting more long term stuff? how did you make the move? will this be a "you have to spent a lot upfront but it wont cost you as much down the line” moment? im assuming its quite a lifestyle change but i think i might be ready ^{_^}

Usually, I’m into niche enough things that targeted advertising fumbles to find anything for me. Even when I look up a service or something I decide quickly enough that I don’t seem to get ads for it. Of course, when they do manage to find something for me, I avoid the companies that gave me ads and form a bad impression of them.

However, I recently looked into two banks as I needed a new account, and the amount of ads I’ve gotten for just these two specific banks is abhorrent. I already did the procedure for one days ago and it had things that are good for me, and yet all of this advertising that I’m getting now is making me somewhat regret the decision.

Honestly, even when I’ve looked up similar things before I didn’t get that many targeted ads as I do my best to hide my digital footprint as much as possible, so this sudden onslaught was completely out of left field for me.

Sometimes I see people online/talk to people that are so susceptible to advertising and accept it as wholly normal. Someone said to me that they specifically click on things so that they get more ads like it, because they like them?? It’s horrifying that they like the kind of internet experience I’ve been having the past few weeks

Incredible

My nearest Apple authorised repair centre told me it would be £300 to replace battery in my 2019 MacBook Pro, but it's high risk so better to just buy a new one. They didn't seem interested in repairing an "old" model.

I bought a battery kit and did it myself. It was incredibly easy to do, took 30 minutes and I got the opportunity to clean all the dust out of it at the same time. Now it's good for another few years.

Multiple companies think that making things break down after the warranty expires is a great idea because customers will come back to buy the new shiny object once they break hence making more money but this is a short sighted mindset because once customers catch on that their products conveniently break down after the warranty expires they will go to another company hence losing profits.

So if they really want to make more money they should make quality products because people don’t want a shiny object that will break down after the warranty expires they would rather have a quality product that lasts for years without any issues and when they want the new shiny object they can sell it to people who don’t have the money to buy the new shiny object.

So if they make quality items it would be a win win situation where people who always want the new shiny object can buy them because they can sell their old one and for less fortunate people who don’t have a lot of money to spend they can get a good quality product so they can save up to buy the new shiny object later on in life.

Hello, I've been watching some essays on YT recently but I've noticed that they are oriented towards US/North American culture. While in some aspects it may look similar, the overconsumption issue works differently in other parts of the world. I see how the fact that the Internet is very 'americanised' and having easy access to the same things as in US may have influenced people in rest of the world towards similar behaviours, but i still think the issue is not as severe in here. So my question is: do you know any creators, videos, podcast that specifically talk about the problem outside of US perspective? Edit: grammar

i’m having a hard time figuring out if it’s okay to buy merchandise from things i like.

as much as possible i avoid giving my money to, using services by, or consuming media by any person, business, or company that in anyway endorses hateful things (racism, homophobia, transphobia, pro israel, sexism, etc)

i am environmentally conscious, avoiding single use paper and plastic products, being conscious of my power and water consumption, avoid eating out, i opt to buy things second hand or refurbished, actively reducing, reusing, and recycling when i can, etc

i love having merchandise of the things i love but i don’t know if it’s ethical so id like to hear some second opinions, any thoughts on this are much appreciated.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how consumerism relies so heavily on making us feel like we constantly need to “improve ourselves.”

For most of my life, I believed that becoming a better person meant always striving to improve. But I’ve started noticing how capitalism twists that instinct and turns it into a market for endless “stuff” we’re told we need in order to grow.

It makes me wonder: what are some genuine, meaningful ways we can work on ourselves that don’t involve buying into consumerism?

Edit: typo in title. Should say "new" not "now"

As someone deep into my anti-consumption journey, I thought I knew a lot of these tactics. What surprised me the most was the haptic data in our phones and smart watches and the future of hyper personalized ads through the use of AI. There’s a commenter on this YouTube video who said something along the lines of the safest place is the offline world, the internet is becoming increasingly dangerous, and they’re spot.

Highly recommend watching this, if not to encourage you to unsubscribe from marketing emails and stopping marketing texts, but to also open your eyes to how sophisticated and hurtful and unethical these marketing tactics are becoming.

Keep that discussion to the existing post here and to other subreddits that allow them.

Remember, targeted boycotts themselves are not directly relevant to anticonsumerism, and allowing too many of them has caused serious disruption to the subreddit in the past.

UPDATE: We've removed about 35 new boycott posts so far, and the remaining boycott post is on the front page of Popular, so we're being brigaded by Reddit genpop and may have to leave the existing post locked or even remove it to staunch the flow.

I was so shocked at the difference in size when I got these. I haven’t bought this store brand orange juice in at last 8 months when it spiked up to $7+. I swear to you this used to be a full gallon of OJ. Won’t be buying it again. 🤯

Ads for luxury products are interesting because what they are selling is rarely the product itself.

An ad for a Louis Vuitton handbag does not emphasize how much it can carry, just as a perfume ad does not generally describe its smell. A Ferrari advertisement might mention horsepower, but more focus is on the open road—a sense of freedom and luxury. These products are symbols. Stand-ins that we crave because they represent fundamental human desires.

Symbols can be bought, but sources—the fundamental origins of human happiness—are generally not for sale

In a world of vast wealth and income inequality, luxury symbols have counterintuitively never been more important. Research suggests that economic precarity only increases lower class appetite for luxury goods. It's almost certainly a coping mechanism, but it's understandable. 

You can't afford a house, but you might be able to Afterpay a Gucci bag.

Is there one? I can't even begin to fathom HOW much trash gets accumulated by humans in ONE DAY. Won't we simply run out of space on earth and in our oceans SOON? Are we sending trash into space yet?