Most of my generation has not experienced ownership firsthand.
Being part of the subscription economy, we live in a constant loop of paying monthly fees to use things. We rent apartments, lease cars, and subscribe to a multitude of services to entertain us. Consequently, we do not feel obliged to maintain things because they are not ours. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
On the one hand, this may seem like a luxury. Not owning things means they are not mine to take care of. Use until I upgrade. However, this creates a more distant relationship with the things that carry us through life. How many of your friends know how to change a tire?
When you own something, you become aware of its status because the maintenance is on you. A subconscious discipline seeps in, lending to the adage, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
On a grander scale, ownership has long served as a bridge between generations. Through tangible things from record collections to motorcycles, one generation taught the next not only how to maintain but how to value things, preserving both the objects and the rituals surrounding them. Each person became a kind of custodian. Wisdom worked the same way: it had to be passed down, practiced, and earned. But when things don’t belong to you, there is less necessity to acquire knowledge, and less urgency to carry it forward.
Why own physical music when you can stream it? Why own a watch when you have a smartphone? Why own a mode of transportation when there is Uber?
Fair questions, but the consequence is the loss of intimacy with the things we use. Ironically, DIY has become an acronym for the boastful self-actualization of doing the thing, which historically was the only way to do it anyway!
The tradeoff lies in our human propensity towards convenience. Doing shit we don’t want to do is cumbersome, and the learnings from that pain only become compelling once you go through the process. In other words, you cannot purchase the understanding; you must participate.
In the heralded words of Daft Punk, “Work it, make it, Do it, makes us, Harder, better
Faster, stronger.”