Minimalism

Our homes are filled with so many items as if we all had a hoarding business. But this is what the 21st century is all about. This is what society instills in us that the more ‘things’ you own, the better your social image becomes, the happier you will be. But it’s important to take a minute and ‘appreciate’ the efforts the big corporations are making in making us buy more stuff.

Let’s dig into digital marketing. It is jaw-dropping that nearly 70% of digital ad spending is done through Google, Amazon and Facebook. These are the culprits for creating artificial monopolies, but who can hold them accountable, I beg the question.

Did you know that the total yearly ad spending in the US has risen nearly 48 times from the 1950s till 2020. It was $5 billion in the 1950s but now it is roughly $240 billion. Let that sink in.

Marketing strategies have been evolving since their advent but the current era is the epitome of marketing business. Apps for instance, are meticulously designed, they track our movements, knowing exactly our daily commute route, the billboards we see, the stores we pass by etc. Which allows them to tailor ads for different people. As a result, more profits come into their pockets. Also, companies time and again sell us products through ‘Deficit advertising’. Which essentially is to implant a sense of incompleteness in the user unless he gets the product or service or whatever he is being sold.

But the question is, can materialistic stuff buy us happiness?

The answer is a big ‘No’ and it never will. If you live the American dream which we all are yearning for, then it will be easier to answer this question. If materialism had that power then why are the number ever increasing for depression and anxiety patients, which contains a high percentage of affluent people.

Normally, whenever we visit a place, we tend to buy souvenirs hoping one day when we pull this out of a dusty cardboard box, we would cherish the moments we spent there. This can apply to many things such as keeping things of your loved ones that are no more in this world.

But ask yourselves, were the things of any benefit, did you really go to that particular thing, when the memories of your deceased loved ones struck you. No, because things don’t have that power.

The current situation

There is another issue to highlight as well. Do you know that many people go into debt to buy things that they don’t want perhaps, just to maintain their social image. In short, it is keeping up with joneses. An average American household has 4 credit debit cards with debt roughly $ 16000. In the past, it was comparing you with your neighbors ,people in your vicinity or people in your family. But social media turned the tables, and now it’s you versus the rest of the world. Rendering the situation worse than ever before.

So, how does minimalism help, if any at all. This concept provokes you to ask the question that the thing you are just about to buy or considering to buy, how will it add value to your life.

Minimalism is disposing of the stuff you don’t want and finding the things that really help you function better, which could be in any aspect of your life. This means people would end up thinking less about materialistic stuff, forcing them to find alternatives to happiness such as community building.

All in all, minimalism will make your life decluttered, making you think about what really matters.