Eight things that shouldn't impress us anymore {comment on becomingminimalist.com}

Anna
30. Dez. 2015
3 Min. Lesezeit

I already posted a short text about this on instagram a couple of days ago:

One of my favorite blogs, becomingminimalist.com, published their most popular posts of 2015. One of them was titled „7 things that shouldn't impress us anymore“.

Actually, there were 8 things listed:

1. The brand name of your clothing.

2. The number of carats in your jewelry.

3. The price of your car.

4. The square footage of your house.

5. The dollars in your bank account.

6. The model of your cell phone.

7. The age of your retirement.

8. The photos on your social media account.

I agree with 6 of them.

Most of the assets listed are one thing:

Status symbols.

A big part of the reason we buy them, own them, want them is a signalling function: Hey look, I can buy this. Hey look, I can have this. Hey look, I am worth something!

It is very human to want to be loved, validated and recognized. It is very normal to want to live a comfortable life. It is easy to get caught up in the pitfalls of jealousy.

There only are a couple of problems with that:

1 – Habit

You know the feeling.

You get a new, shiny toy, may it be a car, a watch, a ring, a phone. You are so excited the first couple of days. You play around with it, install every app possible, go for test drives, show it off. Unfortunately, man is a creature of habit. Novelty wears off. Usually after two months, what was once new has become normal. It is not a source of happiness anymore, you just expect it to be there.

2 – Appearance and reality

It's no secret that these days you can get loans for TVs, lease cars, pay off electronics over the course of many months. The guy driving that nice BMW. Is that even his? Is that a company car, maybe? Will he have to pay it off for another 10 years? Did he borrow money from his parents to be able to afford it? You do not know what goes into creating the picture. Essene O'Neill created a lot of buzz about creating a „perfect“ life on social media lately. She has taken all context off her homepage, but you can read up on it here.

Just because somone owns it, doesn't mean they can afford it.

Just because someone doesn't own it, doesn't mean they can't.

3 – Hidden cost

The rule of thumb is: the more expensive and worthy something is, the more care and maintenance it will need. Imagine having a huge house with, say, 10 rooms, all the place you could ever want. Sounds nice, right? Does cleaning it every week sound just as nice?

Many people don't think about the hidden costs that come with their purchases. I will write a more extensive post about this at some point.

As mentioned above, 6 aspects of the post I agree with.

These are: