The end of gay, written in the 90's was a book talking roughly about the same thing except that instead of our notion of social organization, it would be our notion of sexuality that would change. The writer surmised that categories as gay/straight and bi and trans would go the way of the dinosaurs and that everyone would do their own thing and fuck who they want and if you fucked a guy or a girl or whoever that it would not mean anything. You would not necessarily do specific things like: fucking men and only men, have a butch haircut, listen to really bad techno. I.e. you would have no sub-culture. You would just be a person and sexuality wouldn't be a definition. A million different genders for a million different people. Fair enough.
So I think that generally these theories have some merit but are flawed in the idea that we will ever stop evolving. I don't think an endpoint is really going to get reached there are ebbs and flows. But it got me to thinking about consumption.
When Tomagatchi came out a couple of years ago, and those goddamn scooters and the glow sticks you put in your mouth, I was appalled. Not because people were buying useless shit, but because they were buying REALLY useless shit. I think the scooter was an example that I was able to live with because hey, you are at least using it to get around a lot. I mean someone like me would claim that a bunch of stuff it useless, that most people wouldn't, but that's cause I figure we really don't need a lot of stuff. I don't think we need computers to survive and that we could do without them as home PC's (I'd opt for library use personally), but they have completely revolutionized how we do things in the world. Communication, information gathering etc. It all got fucked up. And this is OK.
But Tomagatchi? I goofy little gadget that people played around with? Who poured money into this and why? OK, I figure that someone said "we can make shit-loads of money off this thing, bombs away, lets go" but seriously, do they have an easy time looking themselves in the mirror? This is what I do for a living. I sell Tomagatchi. And I think a number of products exist like this. I'm not against things that DO something. I mean I figure that a digital camera, no matter how gadgety the purchase is, at leasts allows a creative outlet to capture moments. Some video games at least create an artistic world that allows people to interact with different environments or something. But NHL 95? I can think of no reason other than pure addiction that forced me to sit in front of a TV for 2 years playing that. And some of the other crap. The Pogoball? Nerf products? Ceramic cows? South park dolls, iconic mousepads, most of the kitch furniture in the Ikea catalogue.
I mean people need furniture, yes, possibly even badly designed, poor-quality, easy to construct furniture. But since when did we start buying completely useless crap. More importantly, since when did we start inventing it.
Because I have seen no water-shed inventions like the computer over the last 15-20 years, I'm wondering why if we are at a period of end-consumption, i.e. that we have nothing less to consume that we need or that would make our lives easier, but the addiction is so strong that we end up buying useless tidbits of stuff just to feel that up once in a while.
"I mean, when I bought that couch, I was like, that's it, that's the last couch I'm ever gunna need to buy."
Or better put, "my room is finally looking cool" = I'm happy for the moment. Rich people in ancient times. Yes they got gifts and stuff, but were generally bored I assume. What do you do when you're rich. You got to pass the time somehow, so you consume. You get precious works of art, machines, jewels. But it's never enough.
I am not rich, but that desire to get my hands on anything is still there. But it's only there when I'm bored. I've got everything I need and this is a problem. Unless I stay occupied I want to buy buy buy. Because if I don't I come down. And realize that the whole plan to deck out my car/ wardrobe/ computer software, really doesn't change much.