What do you think Phone Cases are for? People love phone cases because it gives their devices a bit uniqueness. AirPods also have cases. Other than that for Obvious Reasons Phones all look similar. The shape of your phone is not self expression. However i would hazard a guess if you look into the phone on the home screen you will not find two alike.

My hypothesis is that phones are inherently personal and personalisable: it’s our photo on the lock screen and our text messages in the app.

Whereas most people don’t even consider attempting to personalise their couch or their car, so the desire for personalisation is satisfied by having a wide variety of options and colours prior to purchase. And also by having styles rapidly evolve so that many “trendy” and “anti-trendy” options are available at the time of purchase.

You don't stare at your AirPods, they don't create the room vibe, whereas, arguably, the furniture does, along with the lighting.

That's because you do have the most common stuff: that's a choice. You could have a less common smartphone (iPhone SE? Fairephone?), audiophile headphones (Denon? Kef?), ... that would be more personal and better choice.

Because iPhone/AirPods are a wealth and fashion signifier. IKEA is a flat-pack THX-1138.

Fight Club summarised it beautifully two decades ago:

“- Like so many others, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.

Narrator: Uh, yes. I’d like to order the Erica Pekkary dust ruffles.

Operator: Please hold.

- If I saw something clever like a little coffee table in the shape of a yin-yang, I had to have it. The Klipske personal office unit, the Hovetrekke home exer-bike, or the Johannshamn sofa with the Strinne green stripe pattern. Even the Rizlampa wire lamps of environmentally friendly unbleached paper. I’d flip through catalogs and wonder: What kind of dining set defines me as a person? I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections. Proof that they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of…

Operator: Please hold.

Narrator: Wherever. I was holding.

- We used to read pornography. Now it was the Horchow collection.”

People often place their home in a different category than computer accessories.

And even in your example people spend a lot of time picking out cases or decorations for those items.

Back in the 1990s, it seemed literally like every other person had that Ikea bentwood rocking chair. So I relate to your point. Ikeas poor-sellers remain obscure though.

A couch is something I've shared with my loved ones, old and new, watching TV, chatting together, crying together, having real memories over time. A dinner table, same factor: life is punctuated by the scratches and tears that accrue.

Besides that, it's not about having a monogamous relationship with a material object.

It's about mono-culture, as a whole, being somewhat detestable. If you travel through your life, change cities, change countries, change cultures, learn new languages, you might have an easier time understanding this.

Variety is the spice of life. Seeing the same bland furniture across the globe, not so much.

rooms are way different that phones tho

it's called personal style

This is in a thread about them having to be beautiful and modern. "Modernity" seems to boil down to actually being a bit afraid that your AirPods could have a near-monogamous relationship with you, and that this would mean that you're falling behind.

Monotony and monoculture is not beautiful in some people's opinions. It seems that part of the definition of beauty is exception.

iPhones and speakers (headsets, earsets) are accessories, furniture is more permanent (unless it’s near-disposable). You don’t typically update furniture every two to three years (with exception for people who like to show off their wealth and remodel every four years).

To be truly fashionable, one must be /ahead/ of fashion

Shelf life? I have items from Ikea that I have had for over 40 years, like Ivar shelving and Poang chairs. And they'll be handed down to my kids....

I wanted to move on from ikea furniture, but for TV furniture (tv, consoles, games, etc) there was just nothing out there besides either custom made furniture or ikea sets. I'm very happy with the latter, in the end.

Define “good”.

I couldn’t justify the cost of the furniture I really want. So off to IKEA I go!

And if you have a bit of skill at choosing and assembling IKEA furniture, then you can customise things on the cheap so at least it can look the way you want.

We're talking about the masses. Non-cookiecutter stuff costs more. Not everyone can afford to pay 5x or 10x what an IKEA product would cost.

While helping friends move, as one does, I often challenge them to disassemble and reassemble their IKEA gear and still have it tight on the other side, so to speak, of the particle board ..

Some do it with grace, some of us with a bit of duct tape. Others, not at all.

Some of it is very good, although you have to dig to find it. They use real wood in many pieces; it's not all disposable.

I don't think that the good stuff is popular, though, and it certainly isn't highlighted. When a durable (often secretly classic) design slips in, it doesn't last more than a few years. The price is usually too high and it's usually too heavy (for their audience, not for me.)

I've still got some really elementally designed and sturdy mounted shelves from them that I've carried from place to place, and installed and removed many times, for the past 30 years. They were probably discontinued 28 years ago; I couldn't find them in back catalogs and AI couldn't even help. I would have started to doubt that I got them from IKEA except that I have one set of components that is still in the packaging. It's simple steel and simple wood, and the wood (IKEA pretending like a plain flat wooden board is a product) is easily replaceable.

I have to be honest, I don't really value furniture that is heavy for the sake of it. I like hippy-futons, simple wooden tables with drawers and removable legs, transformer chairs*, etc. Being able to be disassembled and easily moved or stored is something I value, and being able to be flattened against a wall so the room can be temporarily reconfigured (a requirement for colonial US furniture) is ideal (double drop-leaf tables are wonderful.) Wood and steel are durable, and simple designs with standard hardware are easily reparable.

[*] https://www.core77.com/posts/58815/Different-Design-Approach...

I've had a lot of my Ikea furniture for over a decade. That includes a dining room table, several bookshelves, office table with glass top, coffee table, and several other things I've forgotten about, and we have some dressers that are years old as well. And several of these pieces have been involved in a move or two.

Applying care and some wood glue during construction will yield a very solid product for years to come. And you have to have a little bit of taste and discretion when buying, as Ikea indeed has a wide range of quality among their items. Any item that has real wood will definitely last.

ikea has solid wood furniture that'll last 10+ years no problem

I've got a bunch of BILLY bookcases that have survived several moves and are conveniently easy to mod with basic power tools.

Sadly, I don't know if it's worth trying to keep them at this point, because they replaced the previously decently durable wood veneer surfaces with glued on wood-pattern paper wraps (https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/ikea-furniture-inflation...). It's lead to me having a mix of old ones that still look like the day I put them together and new ones where all the corners are already visibly raveling from the wear of a single move.

I see my style of thinking and writing everywhere in the world now. What happened?

On a more serious note, and to tie the fun AI comment into the actual discussion: I suppose the types of medium through which people try to express themselves are just very diverse. One person makes a statement through their dinner table, another through their iPhone wallpaper, etc..

I assure you, I am quite human.

I don't think it's just a question of uniqueness. There's still distinct cultures across the planet, which affects architecture, furniture, kitchen equipment (and many other things).

Some people might reasonably expect when traveling thousands of km to find different kitchen styles/utensils/recipes. Not everyone wants to be assimilated in a global tasteless culture. (see also, memes about how late-stage capitalism made everything bland and colorless, from cars to electronics)