Our Rental Future
At the risk of sounding bananapants, I keep a record of every e-book I buy. The reason is that you don’t actually own your e-books in the same way that you own your paper books. You license them. Which means that a book that you “buy” with real money can be removed from your account without the money being returned. So I keep a record of the title and date of purchase.
On a colour-coded multi-tab spreadsheet. But that’s beside the point.
The point is that while I’m not subscription averse in the sense that I have a Washington Post subscription, this article about our rental future filled me with dread. I like things being simple. Without a lot of bells and whistles. To me, something easy is not connected to the internet or automated. I like holding onto things for a long time. This article made me very very tired.
Though, of course, the thing with predictions is they are just that: musings about a possible future. I’m sure my grandparents — who rented their telephone — couldn’t imagine this strange world where people not only owned their telephone but sometimes didn’t even have a landline because they only used their mobile device.
Going back to updating my book spreadsheet.
4 comments
When I buy anything house-wise these days, I don’t want the one with an app. Our thermostat has an app, but it’s much easier for me to get off my ass and try to get the touch screen to operate rather than use the app on my phone. Plus, our wifi is off at least 8 hours/day, and we like it that way. Sigh – I’m not ready for the future.
My high school English teachers and I threatened long ago to create a commune in which we could take care of each other and go off the grid. Reading this makes me long for that kind of arrangementt. Of course, that arrangement doesn’t deliver books to your doorstep, which would be a key missing ingredient we hadn’t considered …
Gah. I will go there kicking and screaming. I too purposely avoid anything smart home. I have Siri turned off. And I have stuck with my cheap spin bike I bought in 2014 and use the $13 per month Peloton app instead of buying their bike—I can afford it but I think it’s ridiculous that I would have to pay another $39 per month forever to use it.
I hear you, Mel. I still prefer to own my favourites (books, movies, music) versus renting (Amazon Unlimited, pay-per-view, Spotify, etc.). I guess that makes me old-fashioned, but so be it! I also agree with the commenters above — technology can be a great thing, but some of the “smart home” stuff seems totally unnecessary. I can see having Siri or Google turning off my lights or setting a timer if I have mobility issues, etc., but otherwise, it seems kind of lazy to me.