I came across this headline in the business section of the the newspaper

I don't think people must upgrade. As you say keeping up with the Jones plays a big part. It's just that many people feel a need to keep up with their friends, family, people they admire. There is always someone in any group who has the highest income or merely willingness to spend. So when they flash the latest iPhone many of their friends, family, acquaintances who are several versions behind feel some pressure to upgrade.

And there is also a seemingly paradoxical drive to upgrade amongst people who actually don't have much income. I know of people who are earning just barely enough pay their bills yet they always have the latest iPhone. I think some of this sort of thing gives people a vicarious sense of achievement and belonging.

I do have a smartphone but I don't have a subscription to the phone network, I use a pay as you go SIM. Each call I do make is quite expensive but as I make hardly any calls it would be a waste to pay every month. And it makes data so expensive that I will only use it when absolutely necessary which encourages me to be offline until I can find free Wi-Fi.

However I think that there is another thing driving some of the demand for gadgetry and that is that the prices of certain categories of goods have swapped places. It used to be that housing was affordable and good hi-fi, fancy appliances, cameras, were expensive, bulky, required expertise to use, etc. But now we have a generation, or two perhaps, who can't afford to buy a house and are living with their parents until middle age or in a tiny flat. This means that they have more disposable income than the generation before who spent theirs on a house. Combine that with the astonishing drop in prices of good quality audio and video equipment, the equally astonishing reduction in size, and the switch from film to digital means that people have opportunities to buy useful or at least interesting things that they simply didn't before.

The same thing happened with clothing but it is now so long ago that no one remembers. In Victorian times a decent winter coat cost a month's income for a lower-middle class person but by the middle of the last century clothes production had become so industrialised that it was down to less than a week's income.

Now even someone on UK minimum income (12 GBP, 16 USD, 23 AUD) can buy such a thing for less than a tenth of the Victorian 'price'.

I don’t have a smart phone either.
Glamorgan CCC have to send me a physical membership card.
Like other organizations they assumed when they introduced digital membership cards that everyone had one.
I can’t buy tickets from Ticketmaster either but otherwise not owning one causes me no issues.

Glad someone doesn't buy all their gear from Amazon. I follow hi-fi and many of the customers are buying a first time stereo;others are into vintage gear from the 1960s-1080s....I'm not in the lamenting technology group;its a cool fun hobby

Full disclosure: I never buy from J.B Hi fi. And I am in awe of you managing without a smart phone. Itry to keep mine to a minimum. But I am addicted to a couple of features that have become a habit. The camera to take and send pictures of crucial items, (how else do you prove something delivered from China was damaged? And the Blood service app for donation records.
But I try to avoid anyone named Jones on principle and only buy anything once I have established a need..😷

Buy used. Not new. There's some extremely good older equipment at excellent prices.

I bought a Sony 4k 4 speaker surround system for just a few hundred dollars.

New it would cost 6 times as much.

I'm sorry but I think not owning a smart phone is inverse snobbery. True that there are work-arounds in most cases but to me that like donning a hair shirt. I buy a new dual-sim phone every 2 or 3 years for around £100; my calls, texts and mobile internet access cost me under £100 per annum.

I can definitely do without a smart phone. I have one supplied by work and have concluded that it would not be good value to buy one for personal use. But the social pressure is considerable and I can understand people giving in because they get fed up of the incredulity each time they have to explain that not everyone has a smart phone 🤷‍♀

16 Feb 2026
Media release

WA Labor Government supporting secret takeover of Australia
The Labor government was supporting the clandestine takeover of Australia by granting Chinese communist government owned companies extraordinary powers to build and operate strategic assets in WA.

That’s the stark assessment from the Leader of the United Australia Party’s Senate Team for Western Australia, James McDonald, who says allowing Chinese state-owned conglomerate CITIC Limited to build a jet airstrip in the Pilbara and exercise control over the deep water port at Cape Preston should be deeply concerning for all Australians.

“Under a cloak of secrecy with the help of the Labor party, Chinese communist government owned companies have built a private jet airport approximately 80km south of Karratha and the existing Karratha airport,’’ Mr McDonald said.

“Built to the same standards as RAAF facilities in Queensland and the Northern Territory where Australia’s fighter aircraft are based, the new runway is just 30km from the huge port at Cape Preston where over 16 million tonnes of products are exported to China each year.

“It is completely beyond belief that Chinese communist government owned companies can control and occupy and airstrip that is able to take jet aircraft for their exclusive use,’’ he said.

Martin Brewster, retired squadron leader in the Royal Australian Air Force, said Australia could not repel military aircraft if they landed from carriers off shore.

“A superior military air force could, in effect, control all of Western Australia’s resources in the Pilbara and the North West Shelf,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, James McDonald said a former senior Royal Australian Navy source had informed him that the Port of Cape Preston had the facilities necessary to support and sustain large scale naval operations in the Indian Ocean.

“The power generation and water desalination plant together with the bunker fuel capacity provide the necessary logistics to support a large ground force with heavy equipment,’’ he said.

“Chinese State-owned companies have exercised control over all these facilities contrary to the security of Australia.

“If ever there was a breakdown in diplomatic relations with China and hostilities were to commence, the Chinese control of the Port of Cape Preston would mean Western Australia and its resources would be completely vulnerable,’’ he said.

Mr McDonald said serious questions needed to be asked over the WA Government’s close links to China.

“The growing camaraderie between the WA Government and Chinese communist government enterprises seeking to take Australian property is concerning for all Australians.

“It’s shocking that West Australian MP and Upper House Whip Pierre Yang, who was born in China, was found to have been affiliated with Chinese communist party groups dedicated to extending the Chinese communist party’s influence in Australia.

the cord on my phone is too short to carry it with me. i only have a radio in my home. for free internet i go to library