Field Notes
Jul. 17th, 2019 08:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burendasan4So over a year ago, I wrote a followers-only entry on my "notebook addiction" in which I mentioned getting a year-long subscription to Field Notes. This is a bit of an update on that, which I am ok with making public. It's a slightly more elaborate version of something I would post to /r/fieldnotes or /r/notebooks.
So last year I was *really* into Field Notes. Before then, I had heard about them but they hadn't really caught my interest. Then I bought an LL Bean limited edition 3-pack at that same store. I really liked the flexibility of the covers and the portability of the small size. I even used one as my travel notebook when R and I went to Germany. I tried to find where I could buy more but when I searched on eBay, the prices were so high that decided to pass on them.
I don't quite remember what led me to get hooked at the beginning of 2018. I think it was when I would frequent the /r/notebooks subreddit. Around March, there was a post about the Field Notes newest quarterly edition. It was gorgeous. When you lined the 3 notebooks in the pack from top to bottom, it would form an outline of either the US East Coast or West coast in colorful foil. I learned that you could buy them by the 3-pack from the Field Notes website or you could get a subscription in which you would automatically be sent the latest Field Notes edition every three months. Well, the next thing I knew, I had paid $125 for the year-long subscription. I joined the /r/fieldnotes subreddit. From there, I learned about the Field Nuts Facebook group, that I also ended up joining. In other words...I really got into the Field Notes hype. I would religiously check the Field Nuts group and join in on the speculation about the latest quarterly editions. I even gave individual Field Notes notebooks (or "singles" in the FN parlance) as wedding favors when R and I got married in August. I bought past editions for a heck of a lot more money than should be spent on pocket notebooks. I traded with other people in the Facebook group. It seemed like I was enjoying this newfound hobby and felt like I was making a connection with the people of the Facebook group.
And then...for 2019, I made the resolution to stop buying Field Notes. I did not renew my subscription, I got off the Field Notes mailing list, and at the beginning of January, I left the Field Nuts Facebook group. I basically cut off any exposure I would have had on the Internet to information about Field Notes. In contrast to how much a part of my life Field Notes (and its community) was last year, this year it's almost as if these notebooks never existed, with the exception of writing on one *maybe* two of the FN notebooks I already have. More recently, I accidentally ran into images of the latest editions about two times, but I quickly scrolled past the images before I could get a good look. Other than that, I have no idea what the latest editions have been, which is a contrast to last year when I would be surrounded by images of the latest editions. Heck, right before my brother-in-law's wedding ceremony in June 2018, I even checked my email and was overcome with emotion when I got an email announcing the Summer 2018 edition.
It seems strange that Field Notes was a guilty pleasure yet I willed myself to go cold turkey. So...what happened? While part of me enjoyed participating in the hype, I think there was a part of me that was repulsed by it, which lead me to stop collecting them. Not to mention, and this was my biggest reasoning at the time, that I hardly actually *used* the notebooks! It began to dawn on me that they were not my ideal notebook, as cute as they were. I can honestly say that the number of Field Notes notebooks I acquired are more than what I will use in a lifetime (I actually hope to sell most of them but I need to get around to doing that).
But I guess what haunts me as I think about last year is the Field Notes community in the Facebook group. People would post pictures of their collections and...it was astounding how many notebooks some of these people owned...boxes and boxes full! People would joke that it was an addiction and say..."at least it's not drugs." But in all seriousness, I think for some of these people, it pretty much was. One woman, who first started posting on /r/fieldnotes, joined the Facebook group on my suggestion. She was fairly new to Field Notes but as the weeks and months went by, she started racking up notebooks. She would post about the rare past editions that she would acquire (something I tried to stay away from due to how expensive they were). Her collection got large very fast. I just got the feeling that she was buying them just to buy them. In fact, it seemed that most of the people in the group were buying Field Notes solely for the sake of acquisition...and I realized that I was doing the same. There were *some* people who actually used them for interesting and useful purposes. One guy was using them to write daily notes to his daughter that he hoped to give to her when she got older. But even then, it was more about the brand hype. The guy could have easily written those notes on generic notebooks. People treated the two founders of the company like they were celebrities and would go to certain events just to get selfies with them...why? They're just notebooks (even if they are awesomely designed). People enabled each other to buy impulsively, either directly or simply by this unspoken effort to "fit in." On top of the subscription, I would impulsively buy more notebooks, especially whenever the company had one of their random "Wednesday" notebook giveaways with every purchase made on a Wednesday. All this, of course, was to "brag" about what was bought in order to fit in and feel a sense of belonging.
Yes, the focus of the group was just innocuous notebooks (and other stationery items that could be the topic of another post), but it exemplified the overall drive in our society to buy and consume, as well as to make people into celebrities and put them on a pedestal. And while I still struggle with how much I consume, I'm so glad I got out of the group because it has brought me a small amount of peace in my mind.
So last year I was *really* into Field Notes. Before then, I had heard about them but they hadn't really caught my interest. Then I bought an LL Bean limited edition 3-pack at that same store. I really liked the flexibility of the covers and the portability of the small size. I even used one as my travel notebook when R and I went to Germany. I tried to find where I could buy more but when I searched on eBay, the prices were so high that decided to pass on them.
I don't quite remember what led me to get hooked at the beginning of 2018. I think it was when I would frequent the /r/notebooks subreddit. Around March, there was a post about the Field Notes newest quarterly edition. It was gorgeous. When you lined the 3 notebooks in the pack from top to bottom, it would form an outline of either the US East Coast or West coast in colorful foil. I learned that you could buy them by the 3-pack from the Field Notes website or you could get a subscription in which you would automatically be sent the latest Field Notes edition every three months. Well, the next thing I knew, I had paid $125 for the year-long subscription. I joined the /r/fieldnotes subreddit. From there, I learned about the Field Nuts Facebook group, that I also ended up joining. In other words...I really got into the Field Notes hype. I would religiously check the Field Nuts group and join in on the speculation about the latest quarterly editions. I even gave individual Field Notes notebooks (or "singles" in the FN parlance) as wedding favors when R and I got married in August. I bought past editions for a heck of a lot more money than should be spent on pocket notebooks. I traded with other people in the Facebook group. It seemed like I was enjoying this newfound hobby and felt like I was making a connection with the people of the Facebook group.
And then...for 2019, I made the resolution to stop buying Field Notes. I did not renew my subscription, I got off the Field Notes mailing list, and at the beginning of January, I left the Field Nuts Facebook group. I basically cut off any exposure I would have had on the Internet to information about Field Notes. In contrast to how much a part of my life Field Notes (and its community) was last year, this year it's almost as if these notebooks never existed, with the exception of writing on one *maybe* two of the FN notebooks I already have. More recently, I accidentally ran into images of the latest editions about two times, but I quickly scrolled past the images before I could get a good look. Other than that, I have no idea what the latest editions have been, which is a contrast to last year when I would be surrounded by images of the latest editions. Heck, right before my brother-in-law's wedding ceremony in June 2018, I even checked my email and was overcome with emotion when I got an email announcing the Summer 2018 edition.
It seems strange that Field Notes was a guilty pleasure yet I willed myself to go cold turkey. So...what happened? While part of me enjoyed participating in the hype, I think there was a part of me that was repulsed by it, which lead me to stop collecting them. Not to mention, and this was my biggest reasoning at the time, that I hardly actually *used* the notebooks! It began to dawn on me that they were not my ideal notebook, as cute as they were. I can honestly say that the number of Field Notes notebooks I acquired are more than what I will use in a lifetime (I actually hope to sell most of them but I need to get around to doing that).
But I guess what haunts me as I think about last year is the Field Notes community in the Facebook group. People would post pictures of their collections and...it was astounding how many notebooks some of these people owned...boxes and boxes full! People would joke that it was an addiction and say..."at least it's not drugs." But in all seriousness, I think for some of these people, it pretty much was. One woman, who first started posting on /r/fieldnotes, joined the Facebook group on my suggestion. She was fairly new to Field Notes but as the weeks and months went by, she started racking up notebooks. She would post about the rare past editions that she would acquire (something I tried to stay away from due to how expensive they were). Her collection got large very fast. I just got the feeling that she was buying them just to buy them. In fact, it seemed that most of the people in the group were buying Field Notes solely for the sake of acquisition...and I realized that I was doing the same. There were *some* people who actually used them for interesting and useful purposes. One guy was using them to write daily notes to his daughter that he hoped to give to her when she got older. But even then, it was more about the brand hype. The guy could have easily written those notes on generic notebooks. People treated the two founders of the company like they were celebrities and would go to certain events just to get selfies with them...why? They're just notebooks (even if they are awesomely designed). People enabled each other to buy impulsively, either directly or simply by this unspoken effort to "fit in." On top of the subscription, I would impulsively buy more notebooks, especially whenever the company had one of their random "Wednesday" notebook giveaways with every purchase made on a Wednesday. All this, of course, was to "brag" about what was bought in order to fit in and feel a sense of belonging.
Yes, the focus of the group was just innocuous notebooks (and other stationery items that could be the topic of another post), but it exemplified the overall drive in our society to buy and consume, as well as to make people into celebrities and put them on a pedestal. And while I still struggle with how much I consume, I'm so glad I got out of the group because it has brought me a small amount of peace in my mind.
