Consumer

I am still in two minds over a purchase I just made a few days ago. For quite some time, I have tried to be very conscious about my consumer habits. I am not anti-consumerism, but it is very close to that at times, so I was kind of torn when I started to think about buying another large box item.

A while back I donated my television to my brother and his family. They had an older TV that was serviceable and I had one that I just was not using. I have not subscribed to any sort of cable to dish service in about 5 years and I was primarily getting my entertainment through Netflix and my Xbox, but one day I decided to deactivate my Xbox subscription and with it went my access to Netflix on my television. So there it sat and I offered it to my brother's family and since it was better than what they had they said sure.

My goal was to free up some time to work on other projects and stay away from the mindless entertainment that TV and movies offer. It did not quite work that way. Instead I found myself watching things on my iMac (a purchase I have no guilty feelings about) and still not pursuing those other projects, a topic I am going to have to look into later. So I have been consuming entertainment stuck in an office chair or sitting on cushion on the floor for well over a year. It was not ideal.

So I started looking at televisions again. I had decided that I was not going to request my old television back from my brother, there was no point. My niece likes to watch her movies on it and it works well for them until they decide to retire it and find something better; it is about 7 years old at this point.

And with a television I was going to have to look at content. I am not ashamed to admit that I am an Apple fan, so I looked at the Apple TV 2 and decided that was the path for me. So for anyone keeping count, that makes two items that I was thinking of buying and then of course there would have to be cables to be purchased since everything is modernized well beyond what I have collected (or kept) over the years.

After much deliberation, I went ahead and found a good television at a good price, purchased an Apple TV and bought the necessary cables. It is all sitting in my living room like an alter to all things I have been avoiding for a long time now and I am still coming to grips with this. Aesthetically it is simple and pleasing and so far I have enjoyed it very much. The technology is amazing and I am much more comfortable sitting on my couch rather than an old office chair or some pillows.

But now the deficiencies are starting to make themselves known. I cannot stream my music without the TV being on, or more correctly put I cannot unless I buy a new stereo receiver with digital input. And I cannot watch the DVDs I get from Netflix without buying a DVD player. Well if that is going to be the case, perhaps I should get an all in one system that supports Blu-ray so that I have high definition content to watch on my high definition television. (But I refuse to buy any more physical movies.)

This is the slippery slope I had intended to avoid but got caught on anyway, and I think I knew this would happen. So what am I going to do about it?

For now... I am going to enjoy it. I will probably buy the stereo and enjoy my music and enjoy my movies. Sometimes we need to go a little crazy and do something against our better judgement. I may feel differently about this in some time and I may have to re-access my priorities again and make some changes, but for now I want to be able to just turn off the world and escape for a while.