Monkey: Does Owning Stuff Matter?

Most of you folks know that I run a small Etsy shop, and have for five years now, selling a print occasionally. In the last year or so, however, I seem to have sold a lot less. In a way, this correlates for me with the rise of "collecting" images via things like Pinterest and Etsy's internal Favorites and Treasury boards. In a sense, if you pin it or favorite it, is it almost as good as owning it? I started wondering if anyone else was experiencing something similar.

There was an article in SAY magazine titled, Why Owning Stuff Doesn't Matter:

"What's become increasingly clear is that this generation of children is placing a higher value on the consumption experience rather than the amassing of goods. Their value is placed on the interface – the ability to access, share, discuss and move on. As this generation grows up and longs for more innocent days, physical goods will take on special meaning. The fetishization of good and lasting craftsmanship will only become more prominent."

Technology and craft exist at the end of a pendulum, and invariably swing forward, then back. Certainly tastes are in a constant push forward overall, but all opposing forces reach a peak over time at which point we always begin to desire the "other" thing. Although these days there are plenty of interesting projects using both at the same time. I put this up for discussion at work and came across some interesting responses ranging from "physical goods are dead" to "physical good will become all the more precious."

Here's a well-made made point:

"I agree with the notion that the convenience and versatility of digital "stuff" is going to continue to proliferate, then become almost invisible as a normal part of our daily life. By "invisible" I mean that the concept of whatever we're seeing, reading, interacting with will not be thought of as "digital" but just seeing, reading, doing…However, the tangible aspects of "handmade" things are really important as well. A physical item — that is "always on" and doesn't change — gives us pause to reflect in a way that temporal digital work may not. Don't count out the nostalgic feelings that physical goods can provide. We're already seeing a similar move with apps like Instagram that attempt to create a "sense of nostalgia"… but we also know it's not quite the same thing as an old photo, or piece of artwork, or a cherished gift from a friend or family member. As members of the advertising world, we can find that sweet spot where both coexist — digital work to convey both broad and very specific types of images and information, working in tandem with physical items, to make our messages memorable. – Mark Robinson

And it brought up another point about how we create our identities:

"I think a lot of the question for me hovers around how we create our identities (or whether that even matters any more…), as "stuff" – and more particularly the ownership of it – has for so long helped in that creation." – Tom Allin

And does it matter if it's stuff you actually own or stuff you aspire to own? Which leads me to a quote from Stephen Marche's article Is Facebook Making Us Lonely in the Atlantic: