Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:08 JST Max Leibman

   "Device hoarding" is apparently 2025's version of "quiet quitting"—which is to say, a phrase that doesn't mean what it sounds like, and that is being vilified despite describing an objectively good thing.

   • GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:03 JST Miakoda

     in reply to

     @maxleibman I killed the diamond industry. Not my fault a clear shiny rock I can't visually tell apart from a cubic zerconian was completely uninteresting to me, and made further unappealing by it's price tag. 🤷♀️️ Make diamond 2.

   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:04 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     This worldview is also represented in my journalism bête noire from the 2010s: "Millennials are killing ____" stories. The premise of every one of which was that whatever business or product or industry Millennials were accused of murdering was somehow entitled to profitably exist in perpetuity, and that young adults were breaking some sort of social contract by choosing to spend their money on something else.

   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:05 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     What quiet quitting and device hoarding have in common—besides being lies—is the worldview of people who believe in, worry about, and report on them.
     
     The premise of quiet quitting and device hoarding alike is that you owe everything to your corporate masters. That giving less than everything to your job is "quitting," that spending less than every dime in your bank account is sabotaging the economy.

     Rich Felker and GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:06 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     Device hoarding has a similar pedigree, referring not to the practice of collecting and holding devices one doesn't need, but rather simply holding onto a device that still works instead of replacing it as soon as possible.
     
     Breathless headlines are blaming this so-called hoarding (again, literally not hoarding) for weakness in the economy.

     Rich Felker, GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) and Evan Prodromou repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:38:07 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     Quiet quitting, in case you have forgotten, was the practice of employees *gasp* only doing their actual job and not working during their personal time. It wasn't quitting at all, unless quitting means "continuing to do one's job."

     It was blamed for productivity shortfalls by people who believe employees are company property and owe every ounce of time and energy to their employers.

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Friday, 28-Nov-2025 23:45:46 JST Miakoda

     in reply to

     @maxleibman I hoard my devices because they still work, are already configured and customized, have my personal files in them, and because I resent the fact they try to get me to buy new not by making something more awesome but by sending "updates" to make my current things shittier. I went to Linux phone over it.

   • Embed this notice
     Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 00:29:39 JST Miakoda

     in reply to

     @maxleibman For real, if I had infinity money, I still wouldn't be interested in a bland, clear shiny rock.

   • Embed this notice
     Cassander (drsbaitso@infosec.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 00:36:50 JST Cassander

     in reply to

     @maxleibman If "device hoarding" is bad, imagine how immoral "money hoarding" must be! I'm sure there's a Washington Post or NYT editorial about how utterly repugnant it is to hold onto unimaginable piles of wealth when other humans are cold and hungry.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 00:40:09 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     • Cassander
     • George B

     @gbargoud @drsbaitso @maxleibman 👆 This is exactly what I noticed too. Device hoarding would be buying up devices you don't intend to use out of some belief you'll want them in your bunker after society collapses or something. Or just to drive the price up and resell them on eBay or whatever.

     Or if you want to go with another definition of "hoarding" it could be keeping all your old retired devices in a box in your closet/attic/whatever rather than disposing of them. 😳

     But just taking care of one device you actually use is like the opposite of "hoarding".

     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     George B (gbargoud@masto.nyc)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 00:40:10 JST George B

     in reply to

     • Cassander

     @drsbaitso @maxleibman

     By their weird backwards definition of hoarding in "device hoarding", "money hoarding" would be holding on to only the money you need and letting opportunities to get more beyond that go

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 00:45:42 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @maxleibman And like "quiet quitting", it's 🔥 to turn it around and embrace it as a virtue and 🖕 the LinkedIn bros that upsets.

   • Embed this notice
     Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: (lanodan@queer.hacktivis.me)'s status on Saturday, 29-Nov-2025 01:14:27 JST Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker
     @dalias @maxleibman Quiet quitting to me was pretty funny because it felt like "Well, that's just as usual?" and quite few people around me being like "It's just the french way of working".
   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 30-Nov-2025 09:47:53 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     People in this thread are rightly comparing the so-called "device hoarding" to other forms of hoarding, like billionaires with their money. What's fascinating is that the thing people who are "device hoarding" might actually be doing (besides preventing ewaste) is holding onto their money—the same thing the rich do.

     Economists sometimes talk about the composition fallacy—the error of assuming that something that is good for a part will be good for the whole.

     One example is a crowded stadium: if one person stands up, they have a better view. If everyone stands up, on average nobody has a better view.

     That seems sensible enough, but they will then apply the same logic to, say, savings. If one person saves, they might get ahead. If everybody saves, the economy goes into recession.

     "Device hoarding" plays on this, too. The rich holding onto their money rather than spending it to fuel the economy is one thing. But us? The common folk? "Look, if everyone holds onto their own money, the economy tanks! Go do your duty and buy a new phone! Why aren't you buying a new phone, you selfish pig?"

     It's ok for a few people to hold onto their money, but the rest of us are expected to spend our last dime to keep the machine running. And if we don't, we're the "hoarders."

     GreenSkyOverMe (Monika) repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Max Leibman (maxleibman@beige.party)'s status on Sunday, 30-Nov-2025 09:48:23 JST Max Leibman

     in reply to

     You're irresponsible if you don't save for a rainy day, but you're also irresponsible if you don't fuel the economy by spending your rainy day fund on shiny new gadgets.
     
     Make it make sense.

     #DeviceHoarding