It's Upgrade time | Or is it?

The other day I received an email from O2 entitled: It's Upgrade time, Jessica. Which then proceeded to tell me about O2 refresh: 

'A new phone now.

A new phone whenever you want.'

Don't get me wrong, it's a great idea, no longer will people have to be locked into a contract with a phone they no longer like because it's no longer the latest model. But, what is wrong, is our attitude. Why should a perfectly good phone be deemed 'useless' just because it can't use 4G (or whatever the latest techy thing is) or because it's 6 months old so it now deemed 'old.' 

I don't understand this waste culture. My phone works fine, and want to know the reason I bought it in the first place, my old one (bought of a friend several years ago) had stopped working. I didn't ask for the latest model, as I didn't really care, but I did have one requirement: that my new phone stored the texts as a conversation, rather than individual messages.  

But now my two year contract has run out and society says I have two options. Get a new phone (and contract) or buy into this idea of O2 refresh, and get a new phone whenever I want. But the thing is my old phone works fine, it's a bit scratched and damaged, but it works. So what happens to it now. Does it just sit in my draw, a waste of some of the world's resources. Because while my one old phone in a draw doesn't make much differences, if everyone does it, well that's a lot of old phones sitting around all of which contain metals of some desciption. And why should we be wasting the world's limited resources like this?

So instead of following the crowd and going for an upgrade, I'm opting to stay with my phone, and just get a sim only contract. Because at the end of the day, I don't care. I don't own a phone to surf the net, check facebook and tweet, but to text and ring people. Radical I know. But I don't need an upgrade to do that. And if people care more about the model of my phone then me, I really don't see the point in texting them. Because my phone doesn't define me, it's just useful. So come a few weeks time, I'm going onto a Sim Only contract so I can do by bit to save the world's resources (and as an added bonus, save myself some pennies.) 

Living life as a Chameleon

Jackson: at the beginning

How often do you change who you are to fit the people you are with? It's so much easier, isn't it, to change your personality, just for a little while, to be cool, be liked, to be admired. And yet, we're not being true to ourselves. 

I'd like you to meet Jackson, and he's great at this. He moves into a new background and just changes to suit it, so much so if you look away, you can't recognise him, he's no longer what you expect him to be. 

Yes, you guessed it, Jackson was a chameleon we (briefly) had as a 'pet' in Uganda...until  we wandered off back into the bush. But, the point of this example remains the same, how often are we untrue to ourselves, our core beliefs just so we can fit in?

Jackson: just over 1 hour later (and a good few minutes of searching)

I know I'm prone to it. I tell myself that it's okay when someone jokes about my beliefs (I mean, they're only joking - right?) That I'm not hurt when someone insults my rather uncool interests, because, knitting doesn't really define me....

But, if I lie to others about the little things, get used to hiding the things I deem 'uncool' what is to stop the little things getting bigger and bigger and it leading to me hiding major parts of myself. How is that 'living'?

So, I ask you, do you agree with this quote, and if you do you need to change your life? 

 "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

Andre Gide