Jay Morrissey

Growing up in Western culture, I will be the first to admit that the act of purchasing something new is exciting. From the moment a human being decides they need something, the level of excitement builds until the purchase. After the purchase, the excitement remains for a day or two, then the item simply becomes as unexciting as every other object cluttering our home. Although this may appear to be a trivial affair, it has a devastating effect on our lives, relationships and our environment.

Why do we buy what we don’t need?

As a species we are very intelligent creatures. We learn from our experiences. If something hurts, or does not yield the desired outcome, we learn not to repeat the action again. Why then are we destined to repeat our purchasing behaviour, when we know that the pleasure we derive from it is so limited? I believe this is due to a number reasons:

1. We crave the “high” from shopping
2. We convince ourselves that we deserve the purchase
3. We feel that the item will bring positive attention from our friends
4. What we have is old, and we need the new

A closer examination of these points should give you an idea of who we have become as citizens in developed countries. We are overly sensitive to our “wants”. Read over these dot points again, is this what you want to be? If you respond yes to this question, then you are in need of perspective.

Although this seems normal in our culture, these behavioural traits are not in our genetic coding. In fact, this consumerism behaviour has been with us as recently as televisions entered our homes. Our basic needs were suddenly not enough. Advertising has convinced us that being just like everyone else is a bad thing. We are often shown images of a single happy person holding a product in a crowd of grey unhappy drones. The affect this has on your subconscious is far more devastating than what your conscious mind recognises. Basically, advertising has been telling us to hate ourselves with what we have, and that the only way we can truly be happy is to have something new.

If you are not convinced, watch the home shopping network. You will see last years fitness equipment shown in black and white, used by unattractive people who are hurting their backs, then the advertising network shows you the new fitness equipment in quite the opposite way. Yet, if you watched the network last year - the machines that are now breaking your back were displayed as the “key to great abs in 5 minutes a day”.

I can’t blame advertising on its own. We are simply spoilt. There is no longer the need to survive. Our major predators are long gone. In developed countries, you rarely worry about being killed walking down the street. Our problems are becoming increasingly trivial, and we are looking for problems to solve that are not there. This is the purpose of advertising, to sell solutions to problems we don’t have. If we are always on the lookout for problems in our lives, we are open to an advertiser telling us what we need to buy in order to make us happy.

So what’s the big deal?

Let me put it this way. If like many people, you are stuck in a job you don’t like, commuting in busy traffic to work in an environment that sucks the life out of you until its home time. That’s a big deal!

In my experience, people have a larger house, drive a better car, have more clothes and a newer cell phone than they need. As a result, they often work very hard to make payments. The truth is, not everyone in the world thinks and works this way. By not purchasing things that bring little value to your life, you can afford to work fewer hours or even two or three days a week. You can retire earlier, or better yet - donate that money to people who actually “need” it.

The main criticism to this form of thought is: “well, I need to treat myself” or “you only live once, so why not have some luxury”. There is nothing luxurious about working hard all day to spend that money on luxury. This is time you have away from your friends, your family or even your pets. You are investing your time to produce money, and then wasting that money on unnecessary items. I have a close friend who was well on his way to being a highly paid accountant - he left his job - took occasional part time work in retail stores and coffee shops and has the biggest luxury of them all: time!

With time, you don’t need the latest gizmo, the biggest TV or a luxury sedan. To wake up without an alarm, and sit with a friend in a park on a beautiful sunny Wednesday is a luxury worth striving for. While I worked full time as a consultant, I earned a lot of money and had friends who lived in amazing apartments, drove gorgeous cars, and had tailored suits. None made me more jealous than the ex-accountant who would sit in a quiet coffee shop and read all day. He decided early in his life that he can either work to impress everyone else and collect an assortment of items - or he could spend less and live more. You can make money later, but you’ll never get your time back.

Who am I buying for?

Here’s a simple question: “Who am I buying for?”. Although it is tempting to reply to this question with “myself”, it is often not the case.

Firstly, you are not buying for yourself, you are buying for the company that profits from the sale. They are the direct beneficiary of the sale, not you. They need the money - you don’t necessarily need the product. So as a battle of necessity, you lose here.

Secondly, you are buying for others. As my previous role as an office worker, I was often in a good position to see other high earners flaunt their latest buys. In fact, I myself had made such embarrassing demonstrations at some time. More than gadgets, electronics and clothing, my fellow employees would often move to high profile suburbs or talk about their vehicle upgrades. I once took a very nice apartment in an affluent area with a very nice view. While signing the lease, I couldn’t help but think what my friends and work colleagues would say when they would visit. I hate to admit this, but it was a big factor in my decision at the time.

My friends really liked the apartment, they saw it a few times and said good things about it. Ultimately though, they would go back to their daily lives, but I’m stuck with the rental payments. What is the price we pay to impress others? More importantly, do others really care? Beyond an instant, I rarely think about what my friends drive. Or how big their houses are. I think we place a big importance on impressing others, when others really couldn’t care less.

Fall of community? Isn’t that a bit dramatic?

Well yes. It is a dramatic statement, but it is justified. Think about what used to make you happy when you were young. Was it the video game console, or was it the friends you shared it with? Was it the BMX bike, or was it the friends you rode around with?

Though I dislike generalising, I do believe that all happiness is derived from relationships. Whether this is the love of a spouse, the companionship of a friend, the adoration of your pets or having lunch with your siblings. Increasingly, physical community is becoming a thing of the past, replaced with online community, massive online multiplayer gaming and (back to my point) happiness through consumption.

We now strive to upgrade everything in our lives. Our house, our cars, our phones, our furniture, the list goes on. Rather than deriving happiness from our family and friends, we work harder, see them more infrequently and rely on advertising to tell us what can make us happy. Our sense of community is breaking down. We no longer borrow the drill from the handyman on our block, instead every single house has their own drill - used only once a year. In more affluent areas, why swim with other people when every house can have their own pool. Sharing is becoming a thing of the past. Advertising and consumerism has told us we need to collect, upgrade and throw out the old.

This may be good for the economy, but its bad for the environment, its bad for your community, and its bad for you! That gas guzzling sports car may do wonders for your self-perception (and believe me: no one else really cares), but you are working hard to simply support a brand, while at the same time increasing our dependence on non-renewable fuels.

We have become so conditioned for the new, that we now discard perfectly working cell phones so that we have the latest one in our pockets. If something is not working, why repair it when you can replace it! The effects of our consumerist lives are becoming increasingly clear, with only a handful of developed countries resulting in more pollution than the others combined. You may live on Street A, and I may live on Street B, but we all have the same home.

Be humane. Don’t waste your money. Use it to help others. If not, help yourself to work less and spend more time with friends and family. Treat advertising carefully, and reduce your children’s exposure to it. Most importantly, learn to share again - the way we used to. Your environment thanks you in advance.

Similar Articles

• About
• The Art of Conversation: Stranger? No danger.
• The Art of Verbal Intimidation : Learn it and fight back!
• You believe WHAT?
• Conflict: Your guide to resolving any heated argument
• Conflict: How to approach issues with Employers and Managers
• Voluntary Overtime: Goodwill? Good grief.