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

anyway I am seriously considering trading some of my old toy-like objects with any Fedi beings that are interested in them, or maybe just giving them away. I don’t have a lot but I would love to experience different objects instead, and honestly I haven’t played with most of them in a long time

@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-

@kaiiak @kasdeya \#\minimalism!

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