I buy new ones because I want to make sure they are perfectly sealed and waterproof, so I can wash them under running water when they get dirty.
I believe that my first cell phone was sometime in the mid-90s, even though I cannot remember exactly.. yet it seems that once I started using cell phones, I had never not had one (Oh and I am pretty sure that my first mobile communication device was a beeper in 1996 - but I am not 100% sure that I did not have a mobile communication device prior to that)... anyhow, the point that I am wanting to make is that I cannot remember ever feeling any kind of need to wash any of my devices under running water when they get dirty.. but I know sometimes, I want to listen to them and to take them in the shower.. so there is some needs for some level of water proof and water resistance.. and surely, there are concerns about dropping in the toilet and things like that, which has never happened to me, either.
In the 2009-2012-ish timeframe, I used to go through all kinds of bluetooth headphones because of their lack of waterproofness, especially sweat from the ears going into the buds.. I used to buy those around the back of the neck ones.. and geez I remember paying $60 per pair in 2010-ish.. and then maybe they ended up coming down to $30 per pair in 2015 or 2016.. and then even it seems that I had trouble with the over the head earmuff type ones too for many years. I went through a lot of those too... I bet I had gone through more than 40 headphones between about 2009 to 2017.. I think that the waterproof (sweatproof) technology got better for the blue tooth headsets after that.
I see cell phones as an object of daily utility, not as a status thing (lol).
For sure. Audio.. gosh I used to go through a lot of mobile cassette players... prior to digital transformation.
There is no reason for me to change them every year.
I'm usually not more frequent than every couple of years, but there tends to be a hand-me-down component that I have historically done..
I have always tended to buy top of the line and part of my thing was storage.. and I had developed systems to try to keep as much music as possible.. so when the memory increased, then I would get a new phone just for the storage.. 1 TB.. around 70k songs.. why not?
I am pretty sure that the top of the line storage in 2014/5 was around 64GB.. and then in 2016-ish was 128GB .. so seemingly vast improvements with each of those doublings.. 256GB, then 512GB and then now 1TB.. I might do 2TB.. but it seems that 1TB getting almost all of my music.. which was something that I like to have.. but then it is not really that I need any of it any one given time... I tend to listen to podcasts on the phone more than music anyhow.. but music tends to play through my computer on a nearly ongoing basis since around 2010-ish.... and I do not tend to stream.. just play already stored songs.. which causes me not to keep up to date with trends as well.. .. but still there is quite a bit of synching of computer songs with phone songs.. which is great.. which is one of the utilities... and a lot of other utilities, too.. can you imagine how many pictures that we have with a pretty advanced camera in our pockets.. and easy peasy to store those too. as compared to just 5 years ago.. and who took pictures with their phones prior to 2007? Not very common, even though technically possible to see those grainy photos for the phones that even had a camera.. why would you need a camera on a phone? hahahahaha I am not even saying that cameras everywhere bring us freedom exactly.. we (the normies) are kind of getting beat up by some of these technologies, too.
Actually, I like it when they get a little bit older and lose value, so I can handle them more naturally without any fear that they get scratched or brake.
Subscription in the country I'm in are dirt cheap when going for Sim only (without phone). 6GB monthly data, free calls, free messages at 6$/month.
quite a bit of world-wide mobility.. something that the powers that be seem to hate.. and are surely engaging in ongoing draconian measures to try to disempower normies in regards to their mobilities.. it is o.k. for the elite to be mobile, but not for the riff raff.
