I have a pretty bad addiction.
And it's not what you think... or is it?
If you know me at all, it’s pretty evident that I have an unhealthy obsession with technology. Not only do I obsess over news about new tech and watch hours and hours of content on the matter, I also buy way more tech than is needed.
I created a video and wrote recently on the topic of Intentionalism. In that video I talked about how Intentionalism goes beyond that of Minimalism by looking at all factors of your life’s priorities and leading you to make decisions based on the bigger picture of your life, not just what is essential or brings you “joy”.
Technology consumption has been a pain point in my marriage ever since I bought a 27in iMac back in 2017 without telling my wife. It sat in the box in our living room for 3 days while I argued for its justification before ultimately sending it back to Apple.
Yikes.
You’d think I would have learned from that instance of telling my wife before I buy a relatively selfish and expensive piece of tech, but no. I confess to you today that I have since battled with selling old tech to buy new tech (or vice versa in some cases) always working to justify it to fit my needs and/or the needs of the family.
Yes, even the new to me Ricoh GR III was traded for without telling my wife because I thought she would like that I downsized my tech, made money, and got a piece of tech that would benefit the family (Maria loves photos of Lina when we do fun stuff as a family).
Since May, I have tried hard to put my foot down on buying any new tech or really anything that doesn’t benefit my main life priorities.
Again, those are Faith, Family, Social, Work, and Personal — in that order.
It’s extremely easy to justify buying anything. At the end of the day it comes down to looking deep inside and coming to terms with true justification, relative to those priorities listed above, not some bent justification that actually leads back to self.
Apple held their fall keynote yesterday where they announced the new iPhone 14, Apple Watch 8, and AirPods Pro 2.
Of course I watched it. I loved it. If you haven’t watched one of these keynotes it’s pretty mind blowing with what they do in terms of cinematography and quality especially since COVID started and they stopped the live keynotes.
Thankfully, the upgrades this year weren’t that impressive at all. The only thing that truly stuck out to me was the 48 megapixel sensor on the new iPhone 14 Pro models.
Ever since the iPhone 7, I have upgraded my phone every year.
This year, I will not upgrade. (This is pretty insane if you are me. Which I am)
I own the iPhone 13 Pro as my daily driver and love it.
Maria and I talked last night about how this could be a good exercise for me and I agree.
I have always loved how Matt D’Avella rocked an old iPhone for years and my good friend from college, Andrew, is still using the iPhone X (as far as I know).
We could get into the nitty gritty of all this, but I really just want to say two things:
I struggle with technology addiction. For real.
I want to constantly and consistently work to adhere to the Intentionalist principles and think about my order of priorities before I make any decision.
As with all things, this is a process and journey and I would love it if you could walk with me on this path if it’s something that interests you.
Thanks for reading. Good luck out there. See you next week.
I struggle with a similar, unhealthy addiction to tech (primarily Apple) and photography gear. The Apple addiction has been slightly more limited to desire, although often enough I will upgrade based on some personal justification I have to “sell” to my wife. With camera gear it has been quite out of control for many years, buying, trying, returning, trading, and selling off bodies and lenses. It has resulted in a lot of wasted time ruminating over buying decisions, arguments of how we would pay for these impulse decisions, and feelings of guilt on my part. Thankfully, I have reigned this habit in over the past year.