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The Amazon Dash Button: Is this for real!?
My brain was at first confused by this, sure it was some kind of late April fools joke...
The Amazon Dash Button: Is this for real!?
Okay so yes, this is real. The future of consumerism folks, right here.
Amazon dash buttons are these little branded buttons you can affix to anything in your home. When you press the button (which cost $4.99) it will automatically send an order to your amazon account and you will receive items in the next few days. You can get these buttons for everything from dishwasher detergent, to dorito's. I've no idea how it works but it looks mental.
Just, what!
My brain was at first confused by this, then I thought maybe it was some kind of late April Fool.
Then having looked into it a bit more, we realized, this is an actual thing. People are being invited to buy these buttons, and put them all over their home, so that they never need suffer the pain of running out of all their stuff at once, ever again.
The horror of using the last of something, with what, at least a 10-minute drive (or even more ghastly, a 20-minute walk) to the nearest massive supermarket. Apparently it's so hard being a person in this world where we have everything at close hand, that we need our consumption decisions simplified even further for us...
With the Amazon dash, you no longer need to even THINK about what you are consuming, like don't even form thoughts, just put your best pressing finger forward. You don't have to use your memory, or make a shopping list, or even leave the house, you can just consume with the press of an ugly little button.
Amazon, you have my permission to use this as your key marketing slogan, winky face.
Some people might see this as as a quirky novelty, that they will buy for fun, thinking it mighthelp them out in their busy lives. I still think it is a tad over the top.
The comedy of this situation on the amazon website is worth a look though. For example, one user asked this on the questions section:
"If I put this in my bedroom, will it still order the Tide detergent? Or does it have to be on the washing machine?"
With one witty person replying:
"If you put this in your bedroom it will order "Tide the Musical" on dvd or bluray, depending of course on which type of media player it is near. It has room-aware technology as well as spatial-visualisation abilities which allow it to analyse which objects it's nested by. So yes, it must be placed in the same room as the washing machine."
It's just, kinda ugly, no?
Same goes for the above button, you have to attach the button to an actual Dorito (other brands of chips are available) for the button to recognize the flavour and order accordingly. It also feeds on the crisp to sustain battery levels...
All jokes aside, to think of just one negative implication of this somewhat to-be-expected development in online ordering, is how this further increases the reach of already established brands, quashing competition and discouraging people to experiment with off-brand, cheaper products.
Not only that, but you are essentially being encouraged to fill your home with advertising, disguised as helpful consumer gadgetry. By displaying the branding everywhere in your home, for every guest visiting to see, you will be advocating only these brands.
Have we not go enough advertising in our world already?! Check out this crazy video we made about advertising:
I have never yet cared what brand of anything my friends might use, but surely, narrowing the field of choice down for consumers and the people they can influence, isn't that majorly questionable?
And what about if you get some joker come in your house and go around pressing all the buttons? Amazon is careful to say how you receive an email to confirm your order where you can then delete it. So is it really that convenient anyway?
I can't many people wanting these in their homes though truthfully, but I do just think they are kinda unsightly. I wouldn't print off a photo of my washing up liquid and frame it, put it on the wall, and stand back to admire. I wouldn't do this either.
But also, are people really that far disconnected from their consumption that they will happily swap using their minds to consider purchasing decisions, to get the best deal for them, for just giving into the ease of these brand-associated buttons.
I like to think that the reason minimalism and frugal living is becoming a popular idea for so many is because people are rejecting mindless consumerism, and all the associated debt, stress and waste.
I know that my journey to a minimalist lifestyle means I look at this button with a lot of eye-rolling. It seems like the two movements, of minimalism and materialism, are both gaining momentum, almost as a reaction to one another.
As mindful consumerism builds a loyal, loud and influential following, big companies push harder in the direction of the down-right silly to get their consumerist message across.
Maybe some people will think this is just a convenient little gadget, only one or two steps away from 1-click ordering.
Maybe they will get a few of the buttons, just to experiment with the ease.
Maybe they will end up resembling the couch-potato blob people from Wall-E. Did I take a big leap?
Thanks for reading!
Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!
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Material Desire
I can probably count on 1 hand the amount of 'things' I have bought over the last 10 months on the road!
Material Desire
Since coming travelling me and Hannah have both had to live with less, mainly because of that fact that having less in your bag means its not so heavy on your back, but I had started living this way in a sense before we left home.
Back in the UK I had things, in fact my bedroom was filled with stuff I had collected over the years.. Most of it was sat in draws not doing anything, including a hell of a lot of old clothes!
Deciding to come travelling was kind of like a release from from it all, in the months before we left I managed to give away almost all of my clothes, saving only a few things in case I was to visit home at some point and need more layers :P We sold dvds, gave old games and toys to charity shops, handed on items to friends and family, by the end of it my room was completely bare!
Whilst we have been travelling I have maintained this lack of material desire, I can probably count on 1 hand the amount of 'things' I have bought over the last 10 months on the road! I have the exact same clothes that I packed 10 months ago, in fact I have less than what I packed as I have left things behind along the way in an effort to make my bag lighter..
We have been fortunate to have had paid jobs for 2 months of our travels so far and thus we both were able to use the money to buy something we both wanted, I bought a camera and Hannah bought a small net-book. Living this way really does allow us to have more time to travel and spend less time working for those travel funds :]
My small backpack has been through the wars out here but instead of buying a new one I fixed the straps to make sure it would last a lot longer, I also had a pair of shoes that were fighting a losing battle, I fixed them about 10 times with glue but in the end they were too far gone.. but leaving them behind certainly saved me some space and weight in my bag :D And who needs shoes in Australia anyway!
Not only does living this way save you money but it also makes you free from the clutches of your things.. I feel far less worried about where my stuff is because I have hardly anything!
Thanks for reading!
Taran here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I'm fond of psychedelic rock, photography & videography, forcing Hannah to do crazy things, and I'm also partial to the odd gaming session. Oh and I love to travel :P Get to know us here!
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Why You Should Give A Shit About Minimalism
Up to now much of my writing on minimalism has been subtle and instructional, but I am about to get a bit more deep and personal...
Why You Should Give A Shit About Minimalism
Today I happened upon this video on YouTube,'The trap of materialism'
Its message comes from an ethical standpoint surrounding why materialism is bad on so many levels; bad for all of us and this planet. From the history of capitalism, and its seemingly unstoppable power, to the hippy retaliation of the 1960's, right to the 9/11 terrorist attack.
It is a scary commentary on the world we live-in but it does offer positive solutions that we can all be part of.
Up to now much of my writing on minimalism has been subtle and instructional, but I am about to get a bit more deep and personal...
We write about our travels here on nomaderhowfar.com, because our lives are about travel right now, but we could not have gotten here, without first changing our mindset away from spending our money. To list the most basic benefits of minimalism, available to everyone, I would say that minimalism saves you money, time, stress and gives you back control over your own fulfilment and happiness. Money takes on new meaning because it isn't for satisfying impulse spending urges but its for saving up to reach some bigger goal. It serves a more healthy purpose, and you are no longer giving your valuable time away in the pursuit of a consumerist buzz. Nor are you contributing to the acres of landfill taking over our planet.
Minimalism has seen a rise in popularity among many people in recent years, with numerous books, blog posts and video series based on how to live a simpler life. Alongside this has been the continued promotion of materialism to the younger generation within the blogging and YouTube sphere, through a new type of celebrity, the 'vlogger' and blogger, who share not just their everyday life, but most prominently, what's in their shopping bags. The minimalist counter-movement really resonates with Taran and I. We have both suffered the same disillusionment with the status quo, a dissatisfaction with being ensnared in the materialism trap. 3 years ago, I worked in a job I hated and my only reward seemed to be shopping; I was really quite unhappy with life, but buying things seemed like the only pass-time that might make me feel better.
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And when on occasion I couldn't buy the things which made me feel that i was fitting in, I felt isolated.
But I didn't realize the linkage between the way things are within modern society, and the way I felt.
I simply put my feelings down to hating my job and feeling a bit alone. This was a time where my life was just not that exciting, put simply. I was working all hours in a terrible job, earning crap money, which I then spent on, well, crap. What do I and many of my peers have to thank for this status quo and the resultant negative impact on our mental health, well, that would be capitalism...
I won't paraphrase the entire film. watch it here.
The general gist of the documentary relates to how capitalism developed into something all-encompassing and endlessly powerful; and now has damaging implications for the future of this very planet. Big business has honed its ability to cultivate a culture of desire and envy, via the rise of advertising agency's and their use of our own human psychology against us, in order to get our money.
Some part in both Taran and I, has always struggled with society and its expectations. I might not have been able to label why but I knew on some level that my life would not be as fulfilling and authentically happy if I didn't step out of the 9-to-5 consumerist ring. Taran, since I've known him, has never been materialistic in any way. He has probably not bought a single item of clothing, even when he might have needed to. He really just does not care about fashion or buying new shiny things. He is so in-tune with just embracing what he has, making the best of his things and loving them in a way that the materialistic world doesn't want to you love your things. It wants you to consume more, all the time, and it does not care what the social, environmental and emotional impact is.
And that is why you should give a shit about minimalism. Because minimalism gives a shit about you in a way that materialism intrinsically cannot and never will.
You aren't a kid in school any-more, where being a fashion-conscious consumer was ingrained further into your psyche through bullying and peer pressure. You have the emotional maturity to change things, not worrying about what others think of your 'hippy' ways. You can dismiss the idea of the jones's and the competitiveness of trying to keep up with them. In minimalist thinking, your home is a sanctuary, not a closet, and your hobbies should bring you peace and deep happiness, not superficial short-lived buzzes.
Your whole life course is altered when you embrace minimalism.
If you have less need for stuff, you have less need for the money to buy it. And if you are someone who despises your career or wants to leave behind the 9-to-5, adopting minimalism can help. Some of us are always wondering what our actual passion is, what we should be doing instead of what we are, and we basically stumble on in a sense of constant disenchantment....well I certainly did and I know many people in the same position. And I also know how much minimalist thinking can help. It is so much more than de-cluttering your house or putting a spending ban on yourself. It is a retraining of your thought processes.
For many years you might have become addicted to the short-lived buzz that shopping gives you and so in a way, you are trying to cure an addiction. You are taking on a challenge that sees you give a big middle-finger to much of the rest of society who will frown at you and misunderstand your approach, in a way that might alienate you. But they soon might follow. People simply need to see that there is another way to be happy, and it is sometimes the only way to find it on a deeper level, separated from the stress of money.
Minimalism is not a religion, nor a rigid set of judgemental rules. There is no minimalist heaven, there is just the present, one that you can change, and a future that you can guide.
#minimalism is the key to reversing the damage of #materialism. https://t.co/Niohj7MTBo pic.twitter.com/wdYORxW84p
— Taran & Hannah (@Nomaderhowfar) February 20, 2016
By the way,before you leave, the original popular series, The Minimalist Life Cleanse has been re-purposed and expanded on, and now comes in the book below, available NOW.
Thanks for reading!
Want more reads like this? You can now find Hannah in her own online space, Good Intentions. Minimalism, mindfulness, conscious living and self-love; all the good stuff centred around being kinder to yourself, and kinder to the world.
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Taran & Makoto here, together we form Nomader How Far photography.
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