At Unieuro, an Italian consumer electronics retailer, you can pick up a pink iPhone 6s Plus 16GB 4G for €889.
But frankly, that enthuses me less than it would have a few years ago.
According to this article in the Guardian, a British newspaper, our future will be less about material consumption and much more about ‘experientialism’.
The writer suggests that we’ll look for happiness, identity, status and meaning in experiences, rather than in material things to use and throw away soon after.
There’s something called ‘the experience economy’, apparently. And the journalist, James Wallman, claims that:
Where once many of us were impressed by what a person had, now we’re more likely to be interested in what they do.
How true. (Read his article.)
So, what sort of experience could you have for the €889 that you might otherwise shell out at Unieuro?
A two-week Italian course, for example, with accommodation (the basic variety – staying in an Italian home), would come to significantly less than the €889 price tag of the ‘iPhone 6s Plus 16GB 4G’.
Don’t forget to add the cost of your flight, plus coffees, cocktails and good eating, based on approximately what you’d spend if you stayed at home with your new gadget.
And there, you’re living the ‘experience economy’, rather than contributing to the planet’s electronic waste mountain!
But bring along your reliable old smart phone when you come to Bologna. You’ll want to take lots of photos to show the folks back home what you’ve been up to!
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