Media Criticism, Philosophy, Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

Everything That Can Be Customized

6 Comments

…must be.

This is where I differ with Lileks (and Virginia Postrel). I have no desire to customize anything. To me it’s pointless work. Perhaps because I have absolutely no artistic talent (at least visually) or even that much aesthetic sensibility. My computer screen has the same background that was installed with the OS. I did put an effect on my phone when I first got it, because I was playing around with it to see how it all worked, but I’ve never downloaded, let alone paid for, a ring tone. Or a fancy case. I really just don’t care.

6 thoughts on “Everything That Can Be Customized”

  1. In clothing, there’s room to go beyond the current ‘standard sizes’ to custom ‘made to fit’. It wouldn’t necessarily require personal artistic skill – it can be like finding pants where you’re looking for a specific waist and inseam combination.

      1. I enjoy finding pictures to put on the desktop and ringtones for different people. It isn’t something I do too often, maybe seasonally for the desktop picture. The limiting factors tend to be utilitarian for me. I use too much memory on the phone with ringtones and prefer to save it for pictures and games, live wallpapers on the tablet can suck up ram and power so a simple picture is the best choice, and desktop backgrounds can clash with all the icon junk I leave on the desktop so I pick one that doesn’t obscure the icons. My phone has a protector but it has a function and isn’t cool but given the option of protection and cool, it would be an easy decision. Sometimes simplicity is cool.

        All of these things, and the custom credit card mentioned in the link, are trivial in terms of effort and perhaps in terms of value, which may be why you don’t feel the need to do any of it. It is human nature to want to stand out even if that means not standing out.

  3. I did assign one custom ringtone, for calls from my wife…found a free download of the Presidential hotline phone sound from the “Our Man Flint” spy movie with James Coburn; I think the same ring tone was used in the Austin Powers movies when Ms. Kensington called.

    At any rate, it does bring a few smiles.

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