one-up-personship

[jasonlulu_2000]

Sorry, I don’t have a downer on technology. In fact, I probably
have pretty much all the latest gizmos. I just (a) don’t overly rely
too much on any of it and (b) see them all as useful tools rather
than having any intrinsic meaning in themselves, in a status
symbol or one-up-personship kind of way.
Doing something useful with your life counts. Going shopping
because you’re bored doesn’t. Yes, by all means go shopping,
but see what you do as counting or not counting, being real or
not being real, having real value or not, being of some benefit or
not.

What do the two underlined sentences mean?

Thanks!

Jason

 

[Raymott]

Sorry, I don’t have a downer on technology. In fact, I probably
have pretty much all the latest gizmos. I just (a) don’t overly rely
too much on any of it and (b) see them all as useful tools rather
than having any intrinsic meaning in themselves, in a status
symbol or one-up-personship kind of way.
Doing something useful with your life counts. Going shopping
because you’re bored doesn’t. Yes, by all means go shopping,
but see what you do as counting or not counting, being real or
not being real, having real value or not, being of some benefit or
not.

What do the two underlined sentences mean?

Thanks!

Jason

One-up-personship seems to be a strange feminist neologism for "one-upmanship":
One-upmanship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"to count" here means to be worthy of doing, to be useful, to make a difference. A restatement of the term is given in your text, immediately following the phrase you've underlined.

 

[jasonlulu_2000]

Thanks! I know what counts means, but I don't understand the underlined sentence. Can you paraphrase it? Why does the author see it as important or not important?

 

[Raymott]

Thanks! I know what counts means, but I don't understand the underlined sentence. Can you paraphrase it? Why does the author see it as important or not important?

No, I can't do any better than the paraphrase the author has already given, and which I've mentioned; and my own definitions.
Maybe "to see what you do as important or not important".
It's important or not because that's part of the definition. If something is important it counts; if it's not important it doesn't count.
The author is suggesting that people should be aware of which actions they are doing are important and which are not.

 

[emsr2d2]

One-up-personship seems to be a strange feminist neologism for "one-upmanship":
One-upmanship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"to count" here means to be worthy of doing, to be useful, to make a difference. A restatement of the term is given in your text, immediately following the phrase you've underlined.

I don't think it's entirely fair to call it a "feminist" neologism. These uses of "person" instead of "man" in many words were aimed at equality, not feminism.

 

[Raymott]

I don't think it's entirely fair to call it a "feminist" neologism. These uses of "person" instead of "man" in many words were aimed at equality, not feminism.

Maybe it's doesn't sound fair. I only included it afterwards to give some idea of the motivation. One of the motivations of feminism was to achieve equality, as you say. Are you claiming that the substitution of 'person' for 'man' was not a feminist initiative?
(Feminism can mean a lot of things; I don't think it's out of place here).

 

[Tdol]

If you use an iPhone as a tool, it has value. If you buy one because you think it's cool to own one, then it has no value. So, if you go shopping because you need something, it has value. If you go shopping to fill the emptiness in your life, then it has no value.