Don't buy that new iPhone

hear me out

Diderot, by Louis-Michel van Loo, 1767

There is a connection between the iPhone you’re about to buy and the robe of a dead guy who once lived in France.

This guy, our guy, Dennis as he was called, wrote a letter to his friend complaining about the troubles his new gown was giving him. It was 1765 at the time, so it was possible that the complaint might be that the gown was fake or had defects.

It turns out to be none of such complaints. The complaint was rather weird. The gown was causing him to go broke.

He had bought a gown that was making him go poor. How is that even possible? Heads up: there were no spirits or extraterrestrial beings involved.

Dennis wrote

….

My friends, keep your old friends. My friends, fear the touch of wealth. Let my example teach you a lesson. Poverty has its freedoms; opulence has its obstacles.

….

My old robe was one with the other rags that surrounded me. A straw chair, a wooden table, a rug from Bergamo, a wood plank that held up a few books, a few smoky prints without frames, hung by its corners on that tapestry. Between these prints three or four suspended plasters formed, along with my old robe, the most harmonious indigence.

All is now discordant. No more coordination, no more unity, no more beauty.

……

Such would have been my domicile, if the imperious scarlet hadn’t set everything to march in unison with it.

I saw the Bergamo cede the wall to which it had so long been attached to the damascene hanging.

Two prints not without merit: The Chute de la Manne dans le Desert by Poussin and Esther devant Assuerus of the same painter; the one shamefully chased away by an old man by Rubens was the sad Esther; The falling manna was dissipated by a Tempest by Vernet.

The straw chair was relegated to the antechamber by a leather chair.

Homer, Virgil, Horace,and Cicero relieved the weak fir bending under their mass and have been closed in in an inlaid armoire, an asylum more worthy of them than of me.

A large mirror took over the mantle of my fireplace.

Those two lovely molds that I owed to Falconet’s friendship, and which he repaired himself, were moved away by a crouching Venus. Modern clay broken by antique bronze.

The wooden table was still fighting in the field, sheltered by a mass of pamphlets and papers piled up any which way, and which it appeared would protect it from the injuries that threatened it. One day it met its destiny, and despite my laziness the pamphlets and papers put themselves away in a precious bureau.

…..

So, our guy Dennis says the new gown he bought was somehow out of place for his domicile, there was no coordination, no unity, no beauty. This made him buy new items to match his new gown. He replaced the painting in his abode, changed his furniture and upgraded the looks of his home.

It isn't a big deal if you look at what Dennis has done. However, the same impulse to upgrade his living room made him poor.

In short, the unchecked impulse to upgrade made Dennis poor.

How does this relate to iPhone 14?

You’d probably get the AirPods, too, because why not? Then you change your case and maybe buy the headphone¹. It doesn’t hurt that much, right?

If you do this enough times for enough items, you will look like our guy Dennis, spiralling into consumption.

Dennis² is a French philosopher if you’re wondering. The phenomenon Dennis experienced is called Diderot Effect.

Diderot Effect: The Diderot effect is a social phenomenon related to consumer goods. It is based on two ideas.

The first idea is that goods purchased by consumers will align with their sense of identity, and, as a result, will complement one another.

The second idea states that the introduction of a new possession that deviates from the consumer's current complementary goods can result in a process of spiraling consumption. -Wikipedia

Readings

1. Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown, or A warning to those who have more taste than fortune {This is Dennis Letter, the English version}

2. On The Experience of Being Poor-ish, For People Who Aren't

3. On Being Rich-ish: Lessons I learned becoming suddenly middle-class

1. I get that you want to impress your friends or fit into the group. Maybe you shouldn’t.

2. Full name: Dennis Diderot