I don’t much keep up with outdoors gear, but I have a couple friends who hike a lot. For them, it’s all about the weight of what they’re carrying. I don’t know much about the materials or what’s going on in these spaces, but textiles is probably not associated with technology quite as often as it should. I imagine there’s some cross-over, too, with various sorts of plastics.

Re: your other remarks, right on to that. Those are some great criteria by which to make choices, and I wish we as a culture would incorporate more of that into our daily lives.

It’s a throwaway pattern where the tosses are getting closer together. There are two major ways this pattern has been supported recently, first by a convergence of devices (why phones have been taking on more and more functions, for example), and by marketing oriented such that it becomes to be an important step to buy the newest and shiniest device that is ever so slightly different than the one you already own. Computers may be getting faster and faster, though unless you’re doing a massive amount of video editing it’s hard to justify that saving a few seconds opening Microsoft Word really is worth the $1k+ investment.

Branding and marketing is, I would argue, largely about creating desire. Everyone has their own rights to decisions, though those decisions are inherently infused with marketing. I’m not trying to be a moralist who tells people that they are wrong for buying what they want; but I would argue that there is a certain part of the desire that is manufactured, and that more often than not the next best thing is, in my opinion, probably not much better than what’s already out there. I would like to see gadgets have longer a shelf life than they do now; and I find it rather improbable that this will be the case. I don’t know how to change any of it, and it’s probably out of all our hands; though as G.I. Joe says, knowing is half the battle..

I know you personally have a current generation gaming system, a smartphone, a media streamer, and an eReader. Try justifying the purchase of any one of those through need.

The market isn’t some intangible demon creating desires. It seeks to sell things people want at a profit. If you’re really concerned about disentangling gadgets from status, which I don’t think at all is an achievable goal (and I think you recognize that, since you started off with gold, which has been a status symbol forever) then individual consumers need to forsake convenience and entertainment for austerity, and recognize and reward austerity in others.

I’m not willing to do so. Your purchases indicate you aren’t either.