this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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Microblog Memes
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There are lots of targeted products and demographics for which this sort of thing is true. My guess is that this is probably very far from the most costly example, though.
My water bottle
I got one as part of a kit for my bike
is determinedly untrendy and plastic, but it looks like these Owala things are $29. If I got one of those instead and did so every three years, that'd be $10/year. Is it necessary or financially optimal? No, probably not, but for perspective, a large pizza is about $30 where I am. The water bottle is probably a healthier unnecessary purchase than the pizza...and I get a pizza a lot more frequently than one every three years.
I mean, the !flashlight@lemmy.world or the !fountainpens@lemmy.world or the !knives@sopuli.xyz or the !EDC@sopuli.xyz people all have their own often-not-really-necessary items that they get and carry around
and most of those tend to be more guy things
that in all honesty are mostly for fun. You could buy a number of these Owala water bottles for what a nice Spyderco knife might run, and you don't need to pay what a Spyderco knife runs to get a sharp bit of metal to have with you.
You're going to call out !knives@sopuli.xyz and not !pocketknife@lemmy.world? Hey, now.
We are committed to getting people to spend money on dumb shit over here.
Thanks. Looks like I'm subscribed to both, and just hit the first when searching. The latter does seem to be more active.
And I'm not trying to single out those people. Looking at that community list, I have probably seven or eight pocketknives myself (including two Spydercos), several flashlights (including a tri-18650-cell, Anduril-firmware flashlight), probably a dozen fountain pens (including one gold nib-equipped one), and a multitool that I carry with me. Those are, if I am to be honest, unnecessary toys
I would be at most very mildly inconvenienced if every one of those disappeared tomorrow. Just saying that before we get too enthusiastically involved in bagging on the middle-class white woman who spends $10/year on a not-really-necessary fad waterbottle...maybe everyone should consider their own unnecessary stuff. If they're truly more disciplined and ascetic, fair enough. But I think on the "toy" scale, the fad waterbottle probably isn't especially bad.