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Excessively Convenient

2024-03-12 Mama Minimalist

There’s convenience, and then there’s *excessive* convenience. While some modern conveniences are indeed necessary and needed, the excessive ones can be detrimental to ourselves and society as a whole.

Items and services of convenience are often substitutes for supportive culture and connection. On today’s show historian Jennifer Newton and I discuss how culture – and specifically excessively convenient, disposable culture – perpetuates itself; we also muse on what to do if the prevailing culture no longer “fits”.

Here’s a preview:

[5:00] How’d we get here? A brief history of the Convenience Industrial Complex in America

[10:00] Weak ties, strong ties, and 3 ways convenience culture reduces social connections

[23:00] The average American watches 4 hours of TV a day. What are the cultural implications?

[35:00] Passive and active ways to fight back against excessive convenience

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Resources mentioned:

Sustain Initiative Substack

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Saying No To New

New things are everywhere—and they’re causing us to disconnect from what we value most.

In a world that constantly tells us that new is better, our relentless pursuit of material wealth is costing us money, time and happiness. Worse, when we define ourselves by what we own rather than who we are, we reduce our lives to a single, superficial dimension.

On today’s show, New York Times journalist Eric Athas offers advice for stepping away from the cycle of constant buying, saying no to shallowness, and discovering the right kind of “new” in our lives.

Here's a preview:

[8:00] We're wired to become bored the familiar, and other truths to newness

[16:00] Consumption has costs! (In fact, it robs us of our finite attention, dilutes our capacity for genuine enjoyment, and misaligns our pursuit of happiness.)

[26:00] Musings on the ways in which overconsumption leads to superficiality

[37:00] Put down the trinket! Redefining what it means to experience novelty, growth, and freshness without relying on a transaction

Resources mentioned:

Saying No to New: Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness―And How to Take Back Your Life
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My Story

Hello there, I’m Stephanie. I live a crazy, beautiful life as a full-time wife, blogger + mother to two spirited daughters. I’m on a mission to simplify eco-friendly living so as to greater enjoy life’s sweeter moments.

Want to know more? Read my story.