I came home yesterday from the golf practice range to find this huge box with the dreaded logo delivered to our doorstep.

My husband bought a new golf range bag for his clubs and used Amazon to buy it mainly for its convenience and the reduced cost (alas, he fell into their trap)!

He anticipated my reaction to this and I remarked that this is going to be our downfall. The next step is we become excited with the quick service, get sucked into their subscription schemes and end up using it more often without exploring alternatives such as buying from a retailer to keep someone employed, buying second hand or borrowing to reduce waste.

He then admitted he accidentally clicked on something that subscribed him to Amazon Prime as a trial (and I groaned) and we had one month to trial it out then we could stop.

That’s how they get their customers!

“Isn’t there ANYTHING you want to buy now that we are on Amazon Prime?” he pleaded.

I thought deeply. “Nah, don’t need anything. I have enough things as it is. I don’t need more stuff. If there’s anything I want it would just be to have just one weekend away. If not a weekend, a day trip. We haven’t been anywhere for nearly two years.”

Yeah they don’t do weekends or day trips.

“I was thinking more like TV series, movies, books, CDs, or even clothes,” he said.

So I sat down in a huff and trawled through Amazon Prime on the television. Nothing impressed me on the screen. Same trash, different platform.

“It’s all crap,” I said. “I really don’t want to see or need any of these.”

It’s fair to say that I felt disheartened on the one hand that he used Amazon but a little bit of happiness that I now can use his golf range practice bag for myself.

Last night his Fitbit battery failed. It was discharging quickly and it’s only a couple of years old.

“I may need to buy a new Fitbit,” he says.

“Why? It’ll just be cheaper to get a new battery or just go get it serviced,” I said in a moment where I obviously was thinking like it was 1994.

“They don’t use lithium batteries anymore Helen,” he responds.

Argh! CRAP! I rolled my eyes. Of course! So they made us buy the new and upgraded version with all the accessories. Another expense…more electronic waste.

Out comes the phone and the Amazon Prime app and guess what? The new upgraded Fitbit watch will be arriving today at our doorstep.

This is how we are now sucked into their system!

On the plus side, I’m glad I held out for this long but I knew it couldn’t last. It was impossible.

Life and technology is moving ahead at a rapid pace and as “luddites” like me reduce because to younger app-driven, generations this is normal.

It’s physically impossible NOT to become enveloped into the system because others will think you mad for holding out. They may not value the impact that such platforms do to society or the environment so you get branded as “crazy”, “old fashioned”, “clueless” or “not with it” however, I’m just glad I held off for a bit but now it looks like I’m well and truly into its Matrix.

I feel a bit…dirty. So now I have to simply shut up about it. I’m in. They’ve got me. I’ve lost. We’ve lost.