Happiness seeker entry part 1 [as part of a new personal project I am beginning to devour during the process of self-discovery, adulthood and looking ahead at where my efforts should lie]
Why I would rather spend more money on train fare than go
shopping for stuff… This was the first tangent of my tale that I aimed to
write about before I realised that my new set of long nails (acquired but
yesterday), made typing on my laptop keys increasingly laborious and time
consuming. Oh how I took normal efficient
dexterity for granted, until I get a ‘short term aesthetic upgrade’ of fake
(but elegant) nails. I usually don’t enjoy them after a while because I find
them annoying, as stated above; they only have an aesthetic purpose and in my
eyes that’s not value for money or happiness and after a while they just make
you look artificial as they wear and grow out….ew. I am a human not a Barbie, I
want to feel real after a while.
So my response to this newly discovered hindrance and
incompatibility of two things I have purchased in my life (laptop= long term
investment, with endless utility for my sustained lifestyle) and my nails (a temporary
high of vanity), I thought to myself ‘Have laptops invented a scribe function
yet, with voice-writing transcription capabilities? Surely Apple have…?’ but
perhaps on my mac model they hadn’t and I began to fret and feel inconvenienced
in the coming weeks of dissertation writing, due to this scenario I had created
for myself. I noted this frustration was about speed and taking for granted the
norm of use I was accustomed to, which has now been demoted and thus my
impatience tolerance lowered.
Anyway the message of my rant was to address the fact that
it seems in a consumerist society of a developed world, always releasing new
‘stuff,’ that consuming things leads to consuming more things, or perhaps wanting to consume more things/ have
more or better things. It's like we naturally want to solve a problem of ‘stuff
by acquiring other ‘stuff’…weird…I became angry at myself. I gain on-going
pleasure from my laptop whereby we work together efficiently. I gain some
happiness from having sophisticated nails for a change as a treat, in
comparison to my usual short and bitten look. However together they generated a
further idea to invent or consume something else- a scribing technology. This
somewhat illustrates (with a pinch of salt) how a mind born of this lifestyle,
socio economic background and societal genre, that the human thought process is
to acquire more, regardless of whether it came from a non-greedy,
innocent mind, as I would self-diagnose- I still thought of getting more. Now this is great from a business
or innovation perspective I admit, because ideas mean money or ‘getting ahead’,
but from a green, tentative consumer position I hate to acknowledge it. Bad Alix.
So this led me to question- does the releasing or
availability of more stuff in the society you live in, persuade your rate to
consume and thus keep increasing it after acquiring? Whereby you keep wanting
stuff, and eventually more and more frequently, because you take the ‘new’ for
granted after a while, or perhaps you see fault in what you do have, therefore
feel the need to rectify it with another thing? I think therefore from an
individualist perspective about society, you have to acknowledge your own consumption
habits and moods and wish lists and tolerances and expectations frequently, to
keep yourself in check and head grounded. Too much of something is never a good
thing and the more you have ‘things,’ for example buying new trainers more and
more frequently, the less satisfaction, discovery, sense of earning and
uniqueness of having something ‘new’ you
reap from it. By monitoring and holding back, if you will, I believe
consumption becomes more worthwhile and you can self sustain your base level of
happiness and moral attitude- you naturally and subconsciously adapt eventually
after training yourself, to think a certain way and alter your consumption
habits. To me being surrounded by too much new stuff, things that do the same
job, look the same, wanting what others have, wishing you had something and
when you don’t feel downhearted, is a sign of weakness or deep-rooted
unhappiness that is relieved from the process of acquiring and short term
enjoyment of, material possessions. It momentarily fills the void until you
become unhappy with your life again. Therefore stop and think about what the
real issue is, I say! This should not be taken in a patronising, judging manner,
but an attempt at constructive criticism, to illuminate and help. It may not be true for every consumer who behaves in such a manner, but can be a starting avenue to relate to.
I also think owning and purchasing too much stuff blinds you
of larger reality, the world as a network and the negativity behind the veil of
consumption. You begin to miss the moments in the present, with your mind
increasingly tailored to ‘wanting’ or purchasing and you could be at risk of
taking for granted what you need and
what you have around you and the stories or hard work attached to them. By this
I mean not only your own or your family’s hard earnings and their relentless
shopping efforts, time taken out of a day, thought and planning processes, but
also the greater network of consumption. This could be in the form of government
allowances, subsidies, benefits, lorry drivers, and people working in Taiwan
for example, although I admit the latter is the easiest, most common argument bandwagon to jump on.
It is still relevant however, and helps to ground all of us in consumer
societies. Objects and material possessions remind us that it is not a purely
subjective phenomenon and moment of pleasure, but that objectively, other
people have facilitated that ‘thing’ reaching our hands. The key, I believe, is
to slow down, be more humble with our present surroundings and level of
ownership and seek happiness from other outlets in life, not just material possessions.
(see the factors below…) Basically do not rely on 'things' to much.
I then began to address my first issue within this passage-
the train fare versus shopping debacle. After listening to a ‘Stuff You Should
Know’ podcast on Apple’s iTunes, entitled ‘do objects or experiences make us happier?’ I realised how I could better categorise myself in a consumer
society. They concluded that primary elements of happiness stem from a) social
interaction b) active engagement and c) exercise. These elements are more
heavily apparent in experiences that help you, in time, generate memories long
term. (And realistically we all know great memories will outdo that shopping purchase
of a new watch). Looking from a ‘happiness’ psychological or anthropological examination
of what composes a human being, these factors thus have to be represented in
the things we purchase. The podcast elicited the term ‘purchase’ as an
important concept, and that it means things do not come free- free experiences
are a different realm of research entirely. Objects or you could say material possesions, offer in general a shorter term reaping of happiness- they mentioned 6-12 weeks.
For example when you go to a shop and buy yourself a nice dress and you feel
like a complete honey in it for a few wears and then something else catches
your eye…we’ve all been there as young girls, or perhaps mature ladies growing
up, and thus the cycle goes on with the latest fashion releases.
Therefore in relation to the above 3 factors, it is clear
that there is minimal-to-no social interaction within the buying and wearing of
a dress, active engagement is also minimal because instead of doing something
with it, it can only be worn and only then for certain occasions, and exercise
is also minimal, because you are not using your brain for long, or exercising/learning
a skill by having it. What can be elicited as a more rewarding purchase in
terms of the 3 longer-term happiness factors, is a musical instrument, a video
game station or a personal computer. It seems level of utility plays a large
role, as well as the level it can be shared with other people, such as
performing around a campfire with your guitar, or asking your friend over to
play FIFA.
In relation to experiences, research has concluded that they
bring greater overall and long-term happiness that create memories, more so and
richer than, objects do. Doing things, learning, expressing dexterity, thinking,
moving, seeing and using more of your human senses at once, is part of an
experience. It logs more information in the brain. But remember this is
relation to the purchasing of an experience, for example buying a holiday or
going to a museum. Saying this though and in relation to my former comment:
‘And realistically we all know great memories will outdo that shopping purchase
of a new watch’ objects and material things are essential for experiences to
happen. Without clothes or a suitcase, how much could one really enjoy a
holiday? Without the carefully staged interior architecture housing the art and
artist materials that facilitate creation, how can one really enjoy a museum
experience? Even the simplest lifestyles in Westernising, contemporary society
are based on objects and material things. Clothes, as an example of a basic
form of living each day in society, are a means of hiding our awareness of our own bodies
that has grown tremendously and more flamboyantly, since the primitive days.
The level/amount/strategy/involvement of objects within
experience, carry a huge weight within human happiness I believe. It is safe to
say though being a consumer isn’t bad, it is part of being a human and part of
the conditions of society that as individuals we can’t control, so that has to
be accepted. Secondly, the type of consumption you embrace tells a lot about a
person and with changing habits or acknowledging yourself more, you can also
impact on or train your level of happiness. That is to say if you acknowledge a problem with it, or have a goal to make personal alterations, such as new year's resolutions.
I can address the incessantly asked question ‘can money buy
you happiness?’ now which I think is multi-factorial and generates an answer
that is very ambiguous. It is deeply dependant on socio economic background,
the individual, what a person wants from life and how educated/aware a person
is of the world, consumption matters and various extreme contrasts of living.
From my position I think perhaps yes it can, but not in terms of purchasing tangible stuff- a one time high that dilutes over time- but experiences. Money is a
medium in which to attain and discover who you are by means of trying things-
the more you can try and do the more you learn about yourself. And then when discover
it, you know how much money you need to sustain that ideal happiness level.
This level though I believe, alters with time-age-as every life stage shifts
the needs, wants, awareness of the world and thinking processes of a person.
What situation you live by now my not make you happy when you become a mother
say, or when you are 70. I think it is paramount not to answer this question,
but to know that any answer is indefinite and shifting, and cannot be
generalised for everyone. Human beings are too different and complex. We are a species-being with our own consciences, backgrounds
and histories that shape what we are everyday too differently, to give a complete
answer to the above.
Therefore here I would also like to state how I view humans
in contemporary life in my position. We are a uniting of two halves; one is our
humane, self, instinctive core, which
our species was born of, and the other half: is that we are practitioners, money-driven,
business people, a service or commodity to society, based not only on needs, but
wants. Many people jump to the argument that those in charity, or ‘work to help’,
shouldn’t get a wage (or not as much) or ask for money as it is selfish/contradictory in their line of work, because it’s from the
goodness of love and giving that they operate. However the people who
facilitate charity are in society- they need to live too, to eat, sleep and shelter, like everyone
else. They, more than any other organisation type, are ‘giving’ from the core
humane characteristic we all have in us in terms of compassion, care,
conscience and love, but in differing amounts. Other people or organisations in
society have different priorities or goals, and varying levels of humane compassion
within their ethic. What has to be addressed is that we are in a market society
where everyone has to earn money to live, so no matter how much we critique
those helping others, those in aid, and claiming a wage or money from it, or
perhaps critique ourselves for not being selfless enough, we are in this
system, so we have an obligation of ‘living and doing’ which requires money in
contemporary life, as well as the deep-rooted human instinct of personal
preservation over others. Nepotism, is everywhere so no one should really be
surprised or angered by a certain group or organisation. It just occurs to
different extents to which we won't all agree, because each person is individual with their own life outlook and expectations.
I recommend reading the first chapter of Daniel Miller's 'Consumption and its Consequences' (2012) for a firm grounding in, and entertaining conflict from different perspectives, on these issues.
