Disconnected From 'Cyber Monday' and Other Fake Holidays
Fake holidays come in many shapes and forms (or lengths, scope and so on). Some shops start Christmas sales and decorations as early as October. Tomorrow Amazon will pretend that it's another holiday (even outside the US) to pull money out of people's bank accounts or credit (debt) cards. It's still November here and I already see tinsels. Today at the Sunday Market many Christmas items were on sale, but I was really there just to haul more sacks of food for the birds. No Christmas shopping in November!
Andy Farnell has many thoughts and many good articles about the shallowness or the emptiness to be found in consumerism. He also rants about how technology has become such a blind cult that we recklessly try to forces it on everybody, with or without explicit consent from those impacted. In his latest article he said: "Because almost everybody now works with technology in some way - because we have so aggressively forced it upon people - widespread mental malaise is not limited to over-worked engineers. Young mums seem perpetually enraged at the "stupid app" their kid's school asks them to use. Retirees cannot park their cars or shop on the high-street. And so it goes, everywhere, across age and social class. We cannot possibly pretend we are happy with our technology, and those that wheel out "early cancer diagnosis" and "Internet for everyone" as counter-argument know they are being disingenuous in their deliberate poverty of scope."
On my way back home today I found on the ground an earpiece, part of the "trendy" wireless 'headphones' (meaning, headphones that fall out and cost a fortune to replace/acquire). It's totally useless, i.e. another sign of "cool" consumerism gone awry - useless gimmicks such as headphones which need to be charged and easily get lost.
Next Sunday we travel down south (leisurely purposes) and won't be shopping for anything. Holidays are for family, not for shops. No phones or computers will accompany us, either. Pen, paper, bags etc. That'll do. █