Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Trash Or Treasure? Families And Their Beloved Possessions

The point is that objects are one way humans can see their personal history, family history, national history and the history of the human race. That's why Print can be so important.

Read the full column at Science News.

Amber M. Epp (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Linda L. Price (University of Arizona, Tucson) conducted a two-year case study that tracked the origins, movements, and placement of one family's objects. "It is not necessarily the history of an object that rescues it from being discarded, but also its place in a network of other objects, practices, and spaces that determine whether and when it's replaceable," the authors write.

"Our study suggests that families should consider the downstream consequences when introducing new products or services into their homes," the authors write. "It's important for families to be conscious about which activities or objects are important to preserve, especially during times of change."

9 comments:

  1. Many are now selling and discarding personal belongings dude to the effect of the economic crash.

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  2. You got that right. The interesting thing to me is how does anyone make the decision to keep this and throw away that.

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  3. It is not a matter of choice anymore. Just which one has more value and will sell for more money. In many peoples lives sentimental value is something that has been washed away due to the economic downturn.

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  4. But isn't deciding what has "more value' a matter of choice. Since you it's sometimes hard to predict how much money you'll get.

    Plus I think there are lots of times that something is worth more than the money you can get ofr it.

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  5. This was the situation before the crash.

    Choice for most is not an option anymore. Money is needed and without a job people clearly cannot earn sufficient amounts of money to live leading to the selling of sentimental expensive objects.

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  6. I disagree. Even the most stressed family still has choices to make about what goes first, what goes last. The house goes last. The family hierlooms. Consider the people on Antique Road Show. They find out that a family heirloom is worth $15,000. When do they take the money? When do they figure out a way to live on less?

    I don't mean to say those questions have answers in general. Just that no matter how bad things get, there are always decisions to be made.

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  7. Also true, but what i am trying to convey is the worst case scenario. As a household starts to lose a large amount of money at a time the choice rapidly becomes limited. If worse does come to worse the element of choice is pratically gone.

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  8. Good point. All I'm trying to point at is that there is a long road from good to worse case scenario and there are lots and lots of decisions on the way.

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