Unlike HGTV shows, there’s a do-it-yourself imagination to the real estate apps, well suited for those who are bored by the narrative resolutions and one-note aesthetics of, say,Browsing homes is an app-assisted form of daydreaming. It’s grounded in place. You set the scene where your future self will thrive, and maybe the story of how you do that is wrapped up in the self-sufficient promise of fixing up a house by yourself, drawing on your own taste and know-how.
“It used to be watching HGTV, but I find that even now that’s just stressful because [the subjects] are always talking about their limitations. With Zillow, you set your own limitations,” Christopher said. “I think if I’m having a tough day at my day job, Zillow is probably the number-one place I go, and it’s great because if you’re online shopping for houses, it’s not like you can just buy houses like you can buy anything else, [like] every single black top.
Why is this real estate dreaming for homes that are just out of reach more enjoyable than social media, also available on our phones and also making revenue off our attention? Why are we leaving behind something supposedly social for something solitary, like my recent hour-long search for the perfect three-bedroom on a lake, with which I finally actualize my dream of becoming a Lake Person?
A common tip for living with addiction, among many other more integral doctor-informed tips, is to replace the destructive behavior with a behavior that’s not immediately destructive. And if you look, you’ll find the strategy employed all around to alleviate our reliance on social media. In her bookmentions how she uses iNaturalist—an app created by the California Academy of Sciences to identify flora and fauna encountered in real life—to give names to her natural surroundings.
If I’m going to have a little magic box in my pocket that foments dread at all hours, one that keeps my life in the unsatisfied zone of aspiration at every level, this seems like a mitigated expression of it. I know exactly what kind of delightful nightmare the Zillow app holds for me. It’s just houses I’ll never own. It’s always just that.