“So, when are you going to get a TV?”

I’ve lost count of the number of times friends and family have asked me this question. Looking around my apartment, I’ll admit, I’ve been slow in accumulating stuff. I moved to Columbus with a bed and a cheap wooden dresser that I’d used in college. It took me more than a year to acquire “real furniture” (some easy chairs, bookshelves and a kitchen table), but I still don’t have a television, a nice bedroom set or pictures on the walls.

I recently read an article in New York magazine that claimed 20-somethings were less materialistic than previous generations. This doesn’t surprise me. While my lack of nice furniture and high-end electronics stems partly from my lack of money, if I won the lottery, refurbishing my apartment or even buying a house would not be my first priority.

First, I’d pay off all of my student loan debt. Some money would also go into savings. Then, I’d do some traveling -- Europe, maybe Asia and some places in North America I’ve never seen, like New York City or California.

I’d rather spend money on travel or another cool life experience because I could remember it for the rest of my life, no matter how rich or poor I was in the future. And I don’t really need more things.

Part of this disinterest in stuff comes from being in my 20s and not feeling settled. I’m still looking for a place that feels like home. Until I find it, why buy things that I’m just going to have to cart from place to place?

Part of it’s fear, too -- especially when it comes to owning property or a really nice car. In this unstable economy, buying a house or a fancy car seems like an awful lot of financial responsibility and debt. After hearing stories about people who have lost their homes because they couldn’t make mortgage payments, you really start to wonder if owning a home of your own is even worth the stress.

But while 20-somethings may not be a generation defined by our big houses or fancy cars, I think we’re still materialistic in other ways. The stuff we want is just smaller, more portable and less permanent. There’s no need for cable television when you can stream everything to your laptop computer. Why have a huge collection of CDs, when you can download everything to an Ipod?

There so much information and entertainment available on the web that owning a physical copy of a CD, movie or book doesn’t really seem as important as just having access.

This need for access comes with it’s own downsides. As a friend recently pointed out, we can’t function unless we’ve got Internet access in our pockets. We’ve become addicted to modern conveniences like cell phones and free WiFi. That’s its own form of materialism.