As consumers we tend to consume a lot of useless crap.

Cool stuff.  We all want it and a lot of it we think we need, but we really don't.  Think about every major step forward in technology that we think we can't live without and then remember that society existed for thousands of years without any of that crap.  It boggles the mind to think that, before the automobile, people rode in horse-drawn carriages and the like.  Before someone thought of a way to build such a vehicle as the carriage (or chariot or cart or whatever); people rode horses.  Before people learned to domesticate livestock, they walked.

Granted, a lot of today's technology has moved up in stature from a convenience to a need simply because of the way society has embraced these inventions.  You pretty much need a car in most cities these days, for example.  You need electric lights.  You need a telephone.  You don't need a cell phone that you can carry everywhere (and use to take photos and videos to post on You Tube) and which plays Fantasia's When I See You whenever your boyfriend sends you a text message.  You may want it - you may even think you need it, but you don't.  And if I hear that song again I'm going to take your phone and toss it into the ocean, Mom.

Needless to say, there's a lot of really cool stuff out there that we love to have, but we don't need a bit of it.  In the long run much of it may go the way of the Rubik's Cube (now there was a useless bit of plastic if ever one existed) and your kid brother's POG collection, while some of it will be around forever.  Just remember that all ten of the items on this list are really cool things.  And you could live to be a thousand years old and you'll never really need a single one of them.

iPhone

Okay, I will be the first to admit that, as phones go, the iPhone is so cool you could store a side of beef in it.  Coming in 4GB and 8GB versions (at $499 and $599 respectively - that's PS3 money) and with more features than any one device should have, this is perhaps the hottest (and coolest) item released so far this year.  It's a phone, it's an iPod, and it's a full-blown portable connection to the web.  It is something that a good number of nerds waited on line for and it's sure to be a big seller this holiday season. 

It's also a pretty useless item.  Why do you need an iPhone?  You probably already have a cell.  You probably already have an iPod or at least a run of the mill MP3 player (also items no one really needs, but I digress).  If you really need to connect to the internet anytime anyplace you probably have a laptop or at least a Blackberry.  The iPhone is cooler than all these goodies put together, but it's really nothing more than a status symbol.  Do you really need that much gadget?  Or are you merely compensating for something?