Materialism – Why our happiness shouldn’t depend upon objects.
In the modern world, many of us get caught up obsessing about material possessions; have you ever reasoned as to why?
Have you ever dreamt of owning an expensive car? How about the latest piece of technology? Chances are that at some point you’ve desired to own somethings that you don’t really need and have placed yourself under unnecessary pressure to have. But where do we draw the line? How do we tell apart what’s essential and what’s borderline trivial? Well, for many, this is very difficult and people will go to any lengths to get their hands on what they desire.
What surprises me the most, however, is that an ever increasing majority of people live a life where they have become completely dependent on things rather than experiences as a source of happiness.
Material possessions can't provide you with long-term happiness.
More often than not, people think that objects can make you happy. This isn’t true. Objects can only make you temporarily happy and shouldn’t be a long-term source of hapiness. This is because of hedonic adaptation, the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.
This means that if you satisfy your material needs, you will only be temporarily happy before returning to a normal level of happiness. Now, you must start to see the problem. If people rely solely on objects as a source of happiness, they will get caught in a cycle forcing them to keep buying new possessions. I think we can all see that this is a problem both emotionally and financially. This will also set a new ‘base level’ of happiness which if not fulfilled, may cause people to become anxious.
One of the saddest things about this, however, is that people end up in debt for these things because they want to fit in with society’s superficial standards. Many young people also find themselves stressing about what they do and don’t have because they are under pressure from their peers.
Instead, people should try to find happiness in the now rather than thinking that buying a certain item is going to make them happy. Thinking and appreciating that now is the best time allows you to find positivity in each and every moment.
In summary, happiness cannot be bought or acquired by attaining material possessions like money, expensive clothing, fancy houses or even cars. Stressing about objects only causes us more depression because we will always reach for something else to buy afterwards. I do not think it is wrong to want nice things, we all do, the only thing we need to control is that they don’t put a burden on minds or daily life. What’s the point? Better enjoy life, not live an unnecessarily stressful one. The only way we can truly find meaning in life is by focusing on moments rather than things.
