🛐 Spiritual Materialism

Why Living Online Makes Us Crave Physical Objects — Plus, Strategy and GameStop Keep Loading Up on BTC, But Do Investors Even Care?

Author

Katie Perry
June 17, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture three times a week. Subscribe and tell me what you want to hear about next! - KP

The Big Story: The New Spirituality of Stuff

Materialism gets a bad rap.

Defined as the tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values, materialism has long been associated with consumerism, excess, and superficiality. 

Ryan Gosling for Gucci (2024)

But now, in a world increasingly shaped by screens and simulations, materialism is being reimagined as a way to feel rooted in real experiences and emotional connection.

At a close friend’s baby shower last weekend, I experienced this firsthand. We unwrapped tiny soccer jerseys, Kith kits, the smallest Nike dunks you have ever seen, in the smallest orange box maybe ever. I squealed at the discovery of each piece of baby streetwear. This kid is going to be cool.

Swaggy!

But then my friend showed me a box of handmade blankets and toys her mother had sewn. She had even sourced fabric to match a custom mood board. The level of detail and effort reminded me: not all materialism is the same.

There’s the dopamine rush of trendy goods, and then there’s the kind of stuff that’s personal and handcrafted. And as more of life gets uploaded, people seem to be holding tighter to physical things that feel permanent.

This isn’t just a personal observation. A recent BoA study found that 94% of Gen Z and millennials are interested in collectibles, especially sneakers, sports cards, and antiques. GameStop is leaning into this. CEO Ryan Cohen said trading cards and collectibles will play a major role in the company’s attempted rebound.

And people aren’t just collecting things to flex or diversify their assets. They’re doing it to connect. A handwritten letter holds emotion you can see — pressed pen strokes, messy margins. It hits differently than a Google webfont. (I wrote about this a couple of weeks ago: What We Lost to Keyboards.)

My neighbor, Lisa — an 85-year-old Italian woman and former power exec at Christie’s and Sotheby’s — told me she once appraised tens of millions of dollars worth of Saudi royal family jewels. But her favorite piece of jewelry? That’s a handmade necklace of red stones and rough emeralds that she assembled from a bead shop in Midtown that has since been replaced by a luxury apartment building. “It looks like a dragon,” she told me. She’s always loved dragons.

The resurgence of interest in antiques among younger generations reinforces this shift. In the UK, the British Antique Dealers’ Association says membership among people under 40 is climbing. These buyers aren’t chasing clout — they want sustainable, idiosyncratic objects with provenance.

Lisa tells me that every modern apartment should have at least one antique piece of furniture as a centerpiece.

Even digital platforms are facilitating our connection to material objects. Etsy has become a hub for handmade goods and vintage finds. $ETSY ( ▼ 3.75% ) Depop, a Gen Z–oriented resale app owned by Etsy, hit $789 million in gross merchandise sales in 2024, up 31.6% year-over-year. eBay, which somehow still exists, now generates more than 10% of its total merchandise volume from collectibles. Its trading card segment just posted its ninth consecutive quarter of growth. $EBAY ( ▲ 0.45% )  

I don’t want it. I need it.

Printed books tell a similar story. Despite all the hype around e-readers and audiobooks, print still dominates: About two-thirds of book sales are physical. People still want to hold the story in their hands.

Even George Harrison, the “Quiet Beatle” (the BEST Beatle!) and a practicing Hindu, understood this. He famously rejected materialism, but man, did he love his garden. In Martin Scorsese’s Living in the Material World, Harrison is shown spending hours tending to it. “Sometimes I feel like I’m on the wrong planet,” he said. “But the minute I go into my garden, it all makes sense.”

George Harrison in his garden

That same instinct is emerging now. An Axiom Gardening Outlook Study found that most Gen Z respondents reported spending more time gardening in 2024 compared to the year before. A sizeable 15% said they doubled their time. Emerging hobby, or value shift? The latter seems likely.

Materialism isn’t about hoarding or flexing. At least, not anymore. It’s about choosing things that mean something. Stuff with intention. Stuff that grounds us.

Perhaps materialism in its negative sense has less to do with the presence of things and more to do with the absence of meaning.

Daily Rip Live: Bitcoin-on-the-Balance Sheet Play Loses Its Luster, Fed Meeting Imminent, and What it Feels Like to Miss a DM from Roaring Kitty

Watch us every weekday morning (M-Th) at 9 AM ET on X, YouTube, or in the Stocktwits app!

Every weekday, my co-host Shay Boloor and I cover the biggest market news and events LIVE on Stocktwits’ morning show, The Daily Rip Live.

On Monday’s show, we were joined by a special guest host — Tom Bruni, who is Editor-in-Chief and VP of Community at Stocktwits. Here’s what we covered:

⇢ 3:10 | Markets are holding steady despite Mideast tensions — although a “get out of Tehran” message on Truth Social is shaking things up in the pre-market.

⇢ 3:45 | Fed decision imminent: 97% chance rates will stay unchanged per bond market, but Tom says there’s a 50%+ chance that we could see movement in September.

⇢ 7:05 | Turning to Crude oil futures, Iran is 3-4% of global oil production and fears of prolonged conflict are reversing a previously established trend.

⇢ 30:00 | Why Bitcoin proxies require belief in the underlying asset in addition to confidence in leadership's ability to leverage it. $MSTR ( ▼ 0.16% )  

⇢ 35:00 | What is the narrative GameStop is signaling to investors? $GME ( ▲ 5.33% )  

⇢ 36:33 | Tom once missed a DM from Roaring Kitty. (I have an irrational fear about missing DMs from John Mayer.)

⇢ 40:30 | 67% of the Stocktwits community thinks BTC will hit $150K sometime in 2025. $BTC.X ( ▼ 1.04% )  

⇢ 46:03 | Robinhood sentiment turns 'neutral' and all eyes are on their 6/30 ‘To Catch a Token’ event. $HOOD ( ▲ 5.72% )  

⇢ 52:00 | Solar and utilities trends to keep an eye on 👀

⇢ 55:40 | Costco Wholesale, Lennar, and CarMax report this week, providing signals on consumer resilience. $COST ( ▼ 0.59% )  $LEN ( ▲ 0.81% )  $KMX ( ▲ 1.45% )  

Hope you’ll tune into our Tuesday show at 9 AM EST!

Now Here’s a Chart

In the “degenerate economy,” everything reflects a trading opportunity. Even the horrors of war. Polymarket shared this chart last night via X.

Source: Polymarket via X

Reading List

🎧 Now playing: “Ancients” - RIO KOSTA

Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.