Confession: Twitter scares me. It’s a loud crowded cocktail party and I find it difficult to navigate. I’m also baffled at how people find the time to tweet 20 times a day. I do see that it can be a good tool to see what ‘everyone is talking about’ but lately I’d rather spend my time engaged in offline life than know about the latest app that tells you the best hair cut for your face shape.
My Twitter phobia is probably why I am late to the party on viewing some minimalist related TEDx talks on YouTube. Everything trickles down eventually. The other night,Chris and I were browsing iTunes via AppleTV and found a bunch of TEDx talks that I vaguely recalled hearing about. I felt really smart watching them as we played Scrabble (Chris won but it was close. Damn ‘relisting’ on a triple word tile).
I’ve posted about old school borrowing and gettting share-y with neighbours but this TEDx talk from author Rachel Botsman about collaborative consumption made my wheels spin. It’s 19 minutes long and well worth your time.
I’ll boil down what I took from it: renting and borrowing is the new black. Owning is for old fogeys. Botsman discusses that Generation Y grew up borrowing electronically with file sharing on Napster and are now changing how we use and own things. She has some compelling stats on car use and cordless drills (umm, we still have a cordless drill that I have used just one time. I’m getting my brother-in-law to install some shelves with it and then passing it on to him. He will actually use it).
Botsman also lists a huge number of sharing sites that I’m interested to learn more about. Our DVD collection is still quite large and I know that over time we will want to get rid of some of them. Is it possible we could just trade them in with another household for a fresh crop of movies? Hope so.
Rachel Botsman’s book What’s Mine is Yours looks like an interesting read. I’ll be collabortively consuming it from my local library.
You can check out more about collaborative consumption and all the different avenues for it here. The ones that intrigue me the most are peer-to-peer DVD sharing and toy sharing.
I am a mother, wife and writer from Vancouver, Canada, currently living in the 
I’m a little hesitant about Twitter too. I had it for a year and I found it incredibly hard to keep up with everything other people were saying, and with trying to pump out decent context so others would be interested in what I said. It got to a point where I posted once a week and didn’t look at the feed. Then I left. And I didn’t look back.
But THEN, I started my blog and realized I needed a way to promote it and interact with others who write, as well. So I joined Twitter again. And I follow about 40 people. Most of my posts are automatically generated when a blog post is written if people are interested and I don’t look at the feed because it’s just too much. I have other things to do with my time. I’ve only had it for about 10 days, so we’ll see how long it lasts for me this time around.
I’m still confused about how it all works, the @ signs and # signs. I would do some research and crash course myself but… I’m now even rethinking joining. I follow a few radical minimalist bloggers and they all retweet each other. Maybe I can drop to just one and reduce the white noise? Hmmm.
Thanks for commenting!
Actually, you can swap DVDs at swapadvd.com. I don’t buy DVDs, but I often use paperbackswap.com to trade books with other people.
Thanks, Sarah. Will check out swapadvd.com – fingers crossed it’s in Canada. I’m doing my own paperback swapping these days but I like the whole concept of sharing books – great site.
Swapping and sharing are also why I love our library (and am e-reader averse). I kind of think that shopping, even when done in tandem, is a solo deal. But loaning and trading are more person-to-person, and I like that.
Couldn’t agree more. It feels good to get more out of things and to share them.
My library is starting to get e-reader licenses. After borrowing my sister’s Kindle for a trip I see the appeal. Nothing like sitting beach side with dozens of books at your fingertips.
Hi Rachel,
I really like this post about borrowing. I just wrote my own post about the panic I feel by the pressure to purge. I have been a fan of voluntary simplicity for a while now, but I don’t feel like it’s necessary to rid yourself of your possessions to feel good.
For me, the focus is more on thoughtful about the purchases I make and appreciating what I have.
For me, the focus is more on *being* thoughtful about the purchases I make and appreciating what I have.
oops. Worderexia.
I hear you on the panic to purge. I was frantic near the end of our massive home declutter. I just wanted it done. Now we are facing another round as I need to sell some furniture and sort items my son received for Christmas. I’m going to pace myself through this round.
What’s the saying, happiness is being content with what you have? =)
I haven’t set myself up with Twitter yet, but have been considering it, as all the bloggers I follow seem to use it frequently.
I am concerned that if I join I will find myself trying to follow the conversations and that this will take up too much time- the very thing that I am trying to create more of by focussing on minimalism.
I think the idea of “not purchasing” if we could borrow, swap or rent is a great idea that should probably be considered before any purchase- otherwise we accumulate stuff just to sit around and gather dust.
I am definitely guilty of this.
Someone recently described Twitter to me as a stream that you can jump in and out of. I like that analogy. I might keep my account open but pare down who I am following. It’s not tantamount to me personally or professionally to be ‘in the know’ so to speak – don’t mind if I am late hearing about some amazing NYT article, etc.
As you know I am a fan of sharing… I will probably post an edited version of ‘Timeshare Shoes’ on my blog, and link to this post of yours as I really would like to spread the sharing message – and you have summed it up really well!
ps – twitter – it’s an odd one as it’s a one-way conversation
I know but then some of them talk back at each other via Tweets. So confusing. Sigh…
On Twitter: I’m a user and I love it. I’ve met so many wonderful people and been shown to so many awesome writings and had wonderful conversations. It has the potential to connect to the larger world, sure – but also even in our semi-urban little community we connect as well. I love that when the City Hall has a bake sale the kids and I can bike right down to it. As to the time issue, tweeting takes less time than blog posting! (At least in my experience – I do a lot of both).
Thanks, Kelly. Maybe I need to give it another shot? I also follow a lot of minimalist bloggers and they tend to retweet each other a lot and link to the same stuff. Maybe I should reduce that number.
Wow. I love that TED speech so much!! SO awesome!
It’s a peek into the future. That’s what I think. Could you imagine Skype as a child? Now it’s just the norm. I think borrowing/renting/sharing will be the norm down the road.