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by paulasmuth 3563 days ago
Speaking for myself: Berlin has a special kind of poor-is-sexy culture and this would not be too unusual. Lived there for 4yrs, most of them without a smartphone (had a 20eur burner phone for communication and to receive monitoring alerts). Had an absolute blast and didn't feel like I was missing a thing.
2 comments
yodsanklai 3563 days ago
I had the opposite experience when I moved to the US (coming from Europe). It struck me how people consumed more of everything. Tech gadgets, food... I think in Europe we are a bit more defiant toward consumerism, esp. in more educated environments (but we're catching up!).

It reminds me of a cool classic sci-fi movie about consumerism. John Carpenter's "They Live". I watched it as a kid but it started to make sense later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Live

"Nada quickly discovers the sunglasses have unique properties: they reduce the colors of the world around him to black and white and allow him to see that media and advertising hide omnipresent subliminal totalitarian commands to obey, consume, reproduce, and conform. They also make clear that many people in positions of wealth and power are actually humanoid aliens with skull-like faces."

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k-mcgrady 3563 days ago
>> "It struck me how people consumed more of everything. Tech gadgets, food... I think in Europe we are a bit more defiant toward consumerism"

Obviously it depends where you are in Europe. In the UK I'd say we're a lot more towards the American end of consumerism but they still take it much further. Food is the biggest jump for me. I still remember my first time in America and I was out for dinner. My friend suggested we split a meal as the portions were large. I still couldn't finish mine (and I eat quite a lot) and she brought home a doggie bag with enough food for two other people. And this was quite a nice restaurant too where I'd have expected smaller portions.

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k-mcgrady 3563 days ago
Interesting. I've only spent a few days in Berlin (about a year ago) and I definitely got that anti-consumerism vibe. I quite enjoyed it and people seemed pretty happy just hanging out and having a drink and some conversation in grimy bars that probably wouldn't survive in London. I'm generalising probably as it's a big city but in the area I was in I definitely got that impression.
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