How Much Spending Can Be Virtualized?
I had an interesting experience on Saturday night. My sister and I were in a candy story in San Francisco, where I found some amazing toy robots. In the last month, my son and I have been obsessed with robots. I made him a costume for Halloween and I’ve been taking pictures of all robots I see in my travels.
In any case, there I was in the candy store, taking each one out of the box and comparing their relative merits. Finally, I chose one and looked at the price: a very fair $21. Here’s where it gets interesting though. My sister appeared at my shoulder and said the following words, “Oh, you don’t need to buy it, just take a picture of it.” Times are tight, and her logic was so sound that I obeyed.
As we walked away, I began to try to unpack what had just happened. I saw an object that I liked and after investigation, decided I wanted to buy it. But instead, I took a picture of it, which in a sense, virtualized it and allowed me to satisfy 75% of the buyer’s impulse. I now have something to remind me that I saw the robot and that robots, or classic robots, make up part of the tapestry of my personality. Included in that tapestry are songs (already virtualized), movies (already virtualized) and all manner of cultural and personal relics and encoders of ideas.
What this points to, I don’t know? In times like these, its nice to know that I can seperate things that I want to embrace and remember from what I really need.