Gratitude Day 13: Re: G.A.S.
Sun 13 September 2026
Hyde, who is a fedifriend I have had the pleasure of collaborating with in the past, wrote today about G.A.S., also known as "Gear Aquisition Syndrome."
In keeping with the theme of gratitude, and keeping the tone positive, I won't spend too much time on why I'm happy to be freed from G.A.S., but I will write about one experience which definitely taught me a lesson about gear addiction.
I've already written out my entire history with mobile technology, but to recap it succinctly, I was a total gearhead from the mid 90s to the mid-2010s. I actually bought eight phones from December 2000 to October 2010. There were two things that broke me of that addiction: the infamous 2015 MacBook (which I had the good fortune to not buy), and the iPhone 5c.
I know some folks loved the 5c. I loved it when I first got it: nice big screen (lol), beautiful green case, nice camera, what's not to like? I remember my aunt telling me, "You're a student now, why do you want to splurge a new smartphone already?" My response was a churlish, "My iPhone 4 is SO SLOW, I need a new phone!!"
Boy, was I gonna learn a hard lesson.
My 5c lasted me literally 53 days. On December 14, 2013, as I was walking to my car from the grocery store, I started skipping/jogging with my grocery cart, and my iPhone 5c jumped out of my jacket pocket and smacked face-first right onto the blacktop of the parking lot. Even though my phone was encased in a not-cheap belkin TPU case, the screen was completely shattered.
Not cracked, not kinda-shattered-but-would-still-work-with-a-screen-protector, it was DONE.
Oy vey.
Well, that sucks, but I'll just march on to the Apple store and buy a screen replacement. Not super cheap, but it'll be reasonable, right? Nope! The 5c was so new that there were (somehow) no spare parts available, so if you needed a screen, you were basically buying a second phone. I don't remember how much the screen replacement would have been, exactly, but it was a lot.
So, I had to go back to my trusty old iPhone 4 for several months until screen replacements became available the next year.
Ok, not fun, but no big deal, right? I got the screen replaced, and it was happy sailing after that, right? Well, no.
I did get the screen replaced, but about a year later, the logic board failed. I'm not sure what the culprit was, but I suspected a dodgy AC adapter and/or cable. I went to the Apple Store again, and inquired about a repair. The cost was, again, exhorbitant. I didn't have AppleCare+, because who in their right mind splurges on an extended warranty? Not this guy!
So, I made my case to the manager of the Apple Store's service department (back when there were actually two Apple stores close to me, and the Apple Store was still known for excellent service). I basically told him that I got my entire family onto apple devices (which was true... and I'm so sorry), and he finally agreed to give me a discount, which I think was 50%. Of course, that's a 50% discount on a far-too-expensive logic board replacement, but there it was.
I got my iPhone 5c back, and it works to this day although... the screen was slightly off. It was like there was a very minor halo effect. I was done messing with it at that point, and didn't even bother complaining about it. Ironically, the phone that gave me the most trouble was the one I have thus far used for the longest stretch of time: nearly four years.
That was the last new iPhone I ever had, and my second-to-last iPhone, ever.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not singling out Apple or iPhones, here. Both iOS and Android are horrible platforms. Both Apple and Google are horrible companies.
I'm just grateful that the gear aquisition spell was broken. 😁
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